304 Spain. 
the value of the forest products they sold or were en- 
titled to. But funds were not forthcoming, and, by 
1895, under this law only 21,000 acres had been refor- 
ested (three-fourths by sowing). 
The financial results of the management of the public 
forests, although the forest department probably did the 
best it could under the circumstances, have, indeed, not 
been reassuring. In 1861, a deficit of $26,000 was re- 
corded; in 1870 $600,000 worth of material was sold, 
1.3 million dollars worth given away, and $700,000 
worth destroyed. Altogether, by fire and theft, it was 
estimated that 15 per cent. of the consumption was lost. 
In 1885 this loss was estimated at 25 per cent., when 
the net income had attained to 15 cents per acre, or, on 
the 17.5 million acres to less than three million dollars. 
When it is considered that the governors of provinces 
and their appointees, besides the village authorities, had 
also a hand in the administration, it is no wonder that 
the forest department was pretty nearly helpless. While 
under the law of 1863 the department was specially or- 
dered to regulate the management of communal forests 
and to gauge the cut to the increment, the political ele- 
ments in the administration, which appointed the forest 
guards, made the regulations mostly nugatory. 
At last, in 1900, a new era seems to have arrived, a 
thorough reorganization was made, which lends hope for 
a better future. The technical administration was 
divorced from the political influence and placed under 
the newly created Minister of Agriculture. The ma- 
chinery of the Cuerpo de Montes was remodeled. This 
consists now of one Chief Inspector-General, four Di- 
vision Chiefs, ten Inspectors-General for field inspec- 
