FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 313 



ties. (4) Independently of the individual penalties incurred by the actual offenders or their 

 accomplices, the tribes can be fined collectively, -when forest fires are caused by them. (5) When 

 such fires appear to have been lighted intentionally, they can be considered as resulting from 

 acts of insurrection, and the lands of the offending tribe can be confiscated. (6) After a forest, 

 or part of one, has been burnt, right-holders cannot graze their cattle in it for at least six years. 



A new lavf was passed in December, 1885, the principal provisions of which are the follow- 

 ing, viz.: (l) All classes of proprietors can free their forests from rights of all kinds by pay- 

 ment of compensation, either in the form of land or money; and when estimating the value of 

 such rights, the resources of the right-holders, on their own property, can be taken into account. 

 (2) Patches of cultivation, or other private lands, inclosed within the state or communal forests 

 can be expropriated. (3) The proprietors of cork forests, which have not been entirely cleared 

 of shrubs, can be forced to maintain fire-lines round them. (4) With certain exceptions, no 

 private proprietor can cut down or bark his trees without sanction. (S) With some excep- 

 tions, all practices which are injurious to the forests are treated under the laws relating to 

 clearances — that is to say, they can be forbidden on certain specified grounds. (6) The two 

 last named provisions of the law apply not only to areas covered with trees, but also in some 

 cases to those which grow only scrub. (7) Any land which in the public interest ought to be 

 afforested can be expropriated. (8) During the period (November i to July i) in which the 

 lighting of fires within or near forests is not expressly forbidden by the law of 1874, standing 

 shrubs and grass cannot be burnt anywhere without previous sanction being obtained. 



The number of forest officers of the superior grades employed in Algeria is 67. The forests 

 of each department form a conservatorship; but these and the subordinate charges are very 

 much larger than similar charges in France. Their average size is as follows, viz. : Conserva- 

 torship, 2,635 square miles; division, 527 square miles; subdivision, 176 square miles; guard's 

 beat, 38 square miles — that is to say, a guard's beat is two-thirds of the size of a French division, 

 the other charges being in proportion. 



These areas are too large, but the forests cannot afford a stronger staff at present. Until 

 very lately the Algerian forest department was entirely local ; but it was found that this arrange- 

 ment tended to interfere with its efficiency by impairing the status of the officers, and it is now 

 incorporated with the general forest service of France. 



