FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



289 



this means of transport affords will doubtless shortly be better understood than at present, and 

 a development of the system is to be anticipated — at any rate, in the forests of the plains. The 

 floating of large timber is almost unknown; but firewood for the supply of Paris is still floated 

 from the hills of Morvau down to the railways. 



FINANCIAL RESULTS OF WORKING. 



The profit derivable from a forest is dependent on a number of causes, among which may 

 be mentioned the species of which the crop is composed, tlie depth and nature of the soil, the 

 climate, the system of culture, the proximity of great centers of consumption of produce, and 

 the existence of good lines of export. 



Taking the average of the last three years for which the accounts have been audited, it is 

 found that the receipts, expenditures, and surplus of the state forests were as follows, viz.: 



Revenue ;^i. 297,748 = ros. 6d. per acre. 



Expenditure 571.347 = 4S. 7d. per acre. 



Surplus • 726,401 = "53. iid. per acre. 



But if the money spent on the afforestation of mountain slopes and dunes, and on the pur- 

 chase of additional areas, be excluded, the expenditure on the existing forests is reduced to 

 to about ;^48o,ooo, and the surplus is raised to 6s. 8d. per acre. The actual profit is indeed 

 slightly more than this ; for the figures include both expenditure by the state on the manage- 

 ment of the communal forests, and the contributions paid by the communes on this account. 

 The receipts are supposed to cover the payments, but they rarely do so, and some allowance 

 may be made for this fact when calculating the net profit derived from the state forests, which, 

 during the years referred to, probably fell little short of 7s. an acre. Recent infonnation relat- 

 ing to the receipts, expenditures, and surplus resulting from the working of the communal 

 forests is not available. 



The latest year for which full details regarding the gross revenue per acre of the state and 

 communal forests are obtainable is 1876, when the figures were as follows, viz.: 



The revenue from the state forests was then, in 1876, considerably higher than that above 

 given as the average of the last three yeare; and this was due to two causes, of which the 

 first is the exceptionally large number of windfalls which occurred in that year, and the second 

 the comparatively high rates which timber then realized. All but a small fraction of the rev- 

 enue on the principal produce was obtained by the sale of wood and tanning bark, cork being 

 produced only in the forests near the Mediterranean and in Corsica, and resin almost exclu- 

 sively on the shores of the southwest. The figures relating to the state forests show the results 

 of actual sales ; but this is not so in the case of communal forests, as a large proportion of the 

 produce from them is made over to the inhabitants for their own use, and its value is estimated 

 at a low rate, in order to keep down the amount of their contribution for the services of the 

 state forest department, which is levied in proportion to the sum of their gross revenue and 

 Ihe value of the wood delivered to them. In addition to this, it should be said that the reve- 

 nue on minor produce shows cash receipts only, no credit being taken for the payments made 

 chiefly in the communes by means of days' work done in the forests. These circumstances 

 account to some extent for the smaller revenue obtained from the communal forests ; Ixit the 

 true explanation of this result is to be found in the important influence exercised by the sys- 

 tem of culture adopted. In 1876 it was observed that the highest rate of gross revenue was 

 E. F. 20 



