294 FORESTRY IN PRANCE. 



harm in committing minor depredations on property which they doubtless regard as their own. 

 During the year 1876, the number of offenses was 26,377, there being 3 per 1,000 acres in the 

 state forests and 7 per 1,000 acres in those belonging to the communes. More than half of 

 the offenses were connected with the theft of wood or injury to trees, and nearly a quarter 

 related to pasture and cattle trespass, 31,231 j^ersons being involved in the charges. As might 

 be expected, wood-stealing is more prevalent in winter than in summer, while the reverse is 

 the case with regard to breaches of the grazing laws. Of the total number of charges made 

 in 1876, 7 per cent, were abandoned, either owing to the trivial nature of the offenses or owing 

 to want of sufficient evidence; 70 per cent, were dealt with under the compensation law, and 

 the remaining 23 per cent, were taken into court, convictions being obtained in 99 per cent, 

 of these cases. 



In addition to clauses dealing directly with wood thefts, illicit grazing, and other fraudu- 

 lent practices, the forest law provides that no person having cutting instruments in his hand 

 can leave the ordinary roads which pass through the forest, and that no fire can be either lit 

 or carried within, or at a less distance than 200 yards from, any forest boundary. A regular 

 tariff exists which fixes the penalties for damaging trees of various ages and species. The law 

 also prohibits the erection, without permission, of brick-works or lime kilns, carpenters' Slops, 

 timber-yards, or saw-mills within certain distances of the forest. At the time that the law was 

 passed, it was much more necessary than it is at present to check the erection of such build- 

 ings, and applications for permission to construct them are now usually accorded on suitable 

 conditions. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY WILD ANIMALS AND INSECTS, STORMS AND FIRES. 



Wild animals and insects. — The principal wild animals which cause injury to forests, 

 either by devouring the seed or the young seedlings, or by peeling the bark off the young plants, 

 are deer, pigs, hafts, and rabbits. The insects which attack the leaves, the bark, and even 

 the wood of trees, belong chiefly to the families Coleoplcra, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera. 

 But the damage done is not excessive, and it is, in fact, far less than that produced by the 

 same causes in many other countries. It is of course exceedingly difficult to put a money 

 value upon injuries of this sort, which include not only the actual death of a certain numljer 

 of o)d and young trees, but also a reduction in the growth of others. An estimate was, how- 

 ever, made regarding the damage done in 1876, and it is said to have amounted to about 4s. 

 per 100 acres, taken on the entire area of the state and communal forests. The coniferous 

 trees generally suffer more than the broad-leaved species, as tliey are more exposed to the attacks 

 of insects, which do not infrequently kill them outright, whereas the latter species more often 

 suffer merely a diminution in their rate of increase. 



Storms. — The damage done by storms of wind is a much more serious matter. Injuries 

 are caused to the forest by them, which it is not always possible either to prevent or even to 

 modify. In the first place, the windfalls interfere with the arrangements laid down in the 

 working plan, and the considerations which guide the execution of felling are thus thrown 

 out; they remove too large a proportion of tlie seed-bearing frees and consequently it is some- 

 times necessary to substitute a difficult and artificial process for the natural regeneration, which 

 would otherwise have been effected ; while, in addition to this, they break or otherwise dam- 

 age, neighboring trees by their fall. In the second place, the value of the windfalls them- 

 selves is, speaking generally, small, as they are frequently broken or otlierwise injured, while 

 most of them have probably not attained the age or dimensions at which it was intended that 

 they should be felled. They are also specially liable to attacks by insects, which often appear 

 in large numbers in forests where many trees have been blown down, particularly in case of 

 the coniferous species. Even uninjured windfalls fetch a lower price than trees felled in the 

 regular manner, because they are usually found scattered here and there, instead of being con- 

 centrated in one part of the forest. 



The year 1876, which is the last for which figures can be obtained, was a disastrous one, 

 the amount of windfall being exceptionally large, probably double of that which occurs dur- 



