FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 28 1 



notifying of sales, office charges, and the pj-osecution of offenses ; the state is reimbursed by 

 the payment from the communal treasury of a sum equal to S per cent, on the sales of princi- 

 pal produce, including the value of the wood made over to the inhabitants ; but this payment' 

 which fonns a first charge on the forest revenue, can never exceed the rate of i franc per 

 hectare (about 4d. an acre) of the total area thus managed ; the communes pay the guards' 

 salaries, the taxes, and all charges for the maintenance and improvement of the forest, includ- 

 ing planting, sowing, and road-making, as well as those for extraordinary works, such as de- 

 marcation, survey, and the preparation of working plans. In all this the forest officers are 

 bound, by law, to act on the principle that they are managing the property for the benefit of 

 its owners, who must be consulted through their repesentatives, the mayor and municipal 

 council, in all matters affecting their interests, and whose wishes must be acceded to when they 

 are not opposed by the legislation, or contrary to the recognized principles of scientific forest 

 management. 



The principal pubhc institutions are hospitals, charitable associations, churches, cathedral 

 chapters, colleges, and schools ; and the forests belonging to them are subject to administration 

 by the state forest department on precisely the same terms as are those of the commune and 

 sections. 



Of the area of 7>S98 square miles shown as being thus managed on behalf of these bodies 

 at the commencement of 1885, about 100 square miles belong to pubhc institutions, and about 

 7,500 square miles to communes, including sections. Of the remainder of their forests, about 

 410 square miles owned by the latter, and about 27 square miles by the former, are managed 

 respectively by the communes themselves under the municipal laws, and by the administrative 

 councils of the institutions. ' 



Changes in this respect frequently take place ; for every year a certain number of applica- 

 tions to free forests from the restrictions which state control involves are granted, while in 

 other cases the owners demand or consent to their imposition. The records show that sanction 

 has, since the year 1855, been accorded to the clearing of 35 square miles and to the aliena- 

 tion of 40 square miles of the forests belonging to these bodies, but it is probable that the 

 permission has not, in all cases, been acted on. 



For the sake of convenience the forests belonging to communes, sections, and public in- 

 stitutions, will in future be spoken of collectively as " coimnunal " forests. 



DEMARCATION AND SURVEY. 



Up to the end of 1876 the work of demarcation had made good progress in the state 

 forests, only 13 per cent, of which then remained to be completed, while 30 per cent, of the 

 communal forests had still to be 4ealt with. The demarcation is indicated by dressed-stone 

 pillars, with intermediate ditches or dry-stone walls, according to the custom and resources of 

 each locality. The ground is usually re-surveyed after the demarcation has been completed, 

 and at the end of 1876 about three-fourths of the state forests and one-half of the communal 

 forests had been thus re-surveyed and mapped, the prevailing scale being ij^^jj (i2|"= i 

 mile) and i^^^y^ (^J" = ' mile). Pending the completion of this work, the old maps are 

 used for such of the forests as have not yet been re-surveyed. In the communal forests the 

 work of demarcation and survey is less advanced than it is in the state forests, because the 

 charges for such work have to be defrayed from the communal treasury, and the needful funds 

 are not always forthcoming. 



SYSTEMS OF CULTURE. 



The climate of France is singularly favorable to the natural regeneration of forests, which 

 is, generally speaking, relied on — planting and sowing being only resorted to in the compara- 

 tively rare instances in which success cannot otherwise be achieved, such cases including, of 

 course, the stocking of extensive blanks. 



There are two main systems of culture — one known as " high-forest," and the other as 

 "coppice." 



