FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 293 



available; hut it is not always possible to enforce these restrictions rigidly; and the forests, in 

 certain regions, have much to contend with from the extent to which grazing is practiced. Tlie 

 receipts by the conimunal treasuries on this account have been estimated at 4s. 6d. per head 

 of large cattle, 3s. I id. per pig, and is. per sheep; but this only represents an average revenue 

 of lod. per acre of the area grazed over, whereas wood yields, on an average, about 8s. 4d. per 

 acre; and it seems probable that this consideration may gradually lead, in the agricultural dis- 

 tricts at any rate, to the abandonment of the practice of pasturing cattle on forest lands. There 

 is no doubt that when the grazing, even of large cattle, is permitted, it is carried on at the 

 expense of the crop of wood; and that where it is practiced to any considerable extent the 

 forest, properly so called, tends to disappear; and this is notably the case where, for the time 

 being, local circumstances, such as the absence of export roads, renders wood a less profitable 

 crop than grass. Here the forests gradually become almost unproductive, and finally succumb 

 from excessive grazing. 



About four-fifths of the total area of the communal forests are still used as grazing grounds, 

 nearly one-half of the latter being open each year; and the average area provided for each 

 class of animals is about three acres per head of large cattle, two acres per pig, and three- 

 fifths of an acre per sheep. Separate grazing grounds are allotted for each class, and these 

 figures represent the average of all qualities of pasture land ; they could not therefore, even 

 supposing that the grazing were not excessive, be taken as a guide to the area which should 

 be provided per head in any particular locality, even in France, and still less .so in other 

 countries. 



Until the year 1 859 persons who were charged with offenses against the forest law had 

 always to be tried by the courts ; but in that year a law was passed which enabled the forest 

 department to take compensation from offenders instead of bringing them before the tribunals, 

 and this method of dealing with them is now largely practiced. The department has always 

 the power to charge the delinquents before the courts ; while they, on the other hand, have 

 always the right to refuse payment of the compensation demanded, and thus to bring about 

 their formal trial. Officers of lower rank than that of conservator are not, however, author- 

 ized to deal with cases in this manner, and the power of the conservator is limited to the ac- 

 ceptance, by way of compensation, of sums not exceeding £/[o ; if it is desired to exact a 

 larger amount the sanction of government must be obtained. 



This system has many advantages. For while it is necessary in the pubUc interest that 

 infi-actions of the forest rules should be checked, a large proportion of them are usually of a 

 petty nature, and in many cases the persons who commit them hardly deserve the severer 

 penalties that must be inflicted on their being found guilty by the courts. The system of 

 taking compensation, on the other hand, permits the adoption of a scale of punishment more 

 suited to this class of offenders, while it at the same time enables the means of the delinquents, 

 and the attendant circumstances of each case, to be taken into account. The punishment can 

 also be made to follow promptly the committal of the offense, without the necessity for dragging 

 the accused and the witnesses from their occupations to attend before a tribunal, the time of 

 which is thus not occupied in the trial of these petty cases. The present system is easy and 

 simple for the forest department; and that it acts very leniently on the population living near 

 the forests will be seen, when it is stated that the amount of compensation exacted during the 

 last year for which the record has been prepared, amounted to only one-fifth of the sum which 

 the courts must have awarded had the offenders been proved guilty before them. Occasionally 

 the compensation is allowed to be paid in the form of a number of days' work done in the 



forest. 



With the advancing prosperity of the country, forest offenses become less frequent, and the 

 number committed annually is very much smaller now than it used to be a few years ago. It 

 is wortliy of remark that they are more than twice as numerous in the communal as, in the state 

 forests, probably because individual inhabitants of the communes think that there is not much 



