28o FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



STATE FORESTS. 



The forests now belonging to the state owe their origin to one or the other of the follow- 

 ing sources : They either formed part of the ancient royal domain, as it was constituted at the 

 time of the ordinance of 1669, or of the sovereign domains united to France since that year ; or 

 else they were ecclesiastical property confiscated at the time of the Revolution in 1 790, or they 

 have been more recently acquired by purchase, legacy, or gift. About oiie-half of them are 

 ancient royal domains. 



The state forests were formerly of much greater extent than they are at present. In 1791 

 they covered an area of 18,166 square miles, which was reduced to 3,792 square miles in 

 1876, the reduction being almost solely due to sales effected for the benefit of the exchequer; 

 but the loss of territory after the war of 1870 was the cause of a diminution of 374 square 

 miles. The records show that, between 1814 and 1870, 1,362 square miles of state forests 

 were sold for nearly twelve and one-quarter million pounds sterling, or about ;if 14 per acre ! 

 but since 1870 no such sales have taken place, and since 1876 the area has been somewhat 

 increased by purchases and otherwise. It now includes 33 square miles of forest owned jointly 

 with private persons, and 450 acres are temporarily held by the families of some of Napoleon 

 I.'s generals, whose right will in the course' of time either lapse or be commuted. The 

 remainder of the area is owned absolutely by the state, but the enjoyment of the produce does 

 not belong exclusively to the treasury, for, as will be explained hereafter, certain groups of 

 rightholders participate in it. , 



In the next section, the principal points of the laws relating to the communal forests, and 

 of their management by the state forest department, will be brought to notice ; while in the 

 subsequent sections of this chapter the work of the department in connection with the state 

 and the communal forests will be briefly treated of in such a manner as to bring out and com- 

 pare the residts obtained in the two classes of forests. 



FORESTS BELONGING TO COMMUNES, SECTIONS, AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 



The territory of France is divided into 39,989 communes or village communities, of which 

 about one-third are forest proprietors. Certain groups or sections of the inhabitants have, how- 

 ever, rights, and own property, apart from the commune in which they reside, and these are ' 

 also owners of considerable areas of woodland. Those forests belonging to communes or 

 sections, which are susceptible of being worked on a regular system, are managed directly by 

 the state forest department for the benefit of their owners, the principal features of this man- 

 agement being as follows, viz.: The laws relating to state forests are, generally speaking, but 

 with certain exceptions, applicable to them ; they cannot be alienated or cleared without the 

 express and special sanction of the government in each case ; they cannot be divided up among 

 the members of the community ; the annual sales of produce are effected by the state forest 

 officers, and the money realized is paid directly by the purchasers into the communal treasury ; 

 before the sale take place the quantity of timber and firewood required by the inhabitants for 

 their own use is made over to them usually standing in the forest, and it is subsequently worked 

 out by >i responsible contractor ; three-quarters only of the total annual yield is available for 

 distribution or sale, the remaining quarter being left to accumulate, and thus form a reserve fund 

 or stock of timber from which exceptional necessities either in the way of wood or money can 

 be met; the distribution of firewood is made according to the number of heads of families 

 having a real and fixed domicile in the commune ; the entry of goats into the forest is abso- 

 lutely prohibited, while the grazing of sheep is only permitted temporarily, and under excep- 

 tional circumstances, with the special sanction of the government in each case; no grazing of 

 any kind can be carried on in the forests, except in places declared out of danger by the for- 

 est officers, who have the power to limit the extent to which it can be practiced with reference 

 to the quantity of grass available; the forest gua.rds are chosen by the communal authorities, 

 subject to the approval of the forest officer, who delivers to them their warrants ; the state 

 defrays all expenses of management, including the officers' salaries, the marking' of trees, 



