DEPRESSED CONDITION OF WORKS. 109 



roads which divided and portioned them out in lots and 

 squares for each zavod. By his calculation they would be 

 60 years in clearing off all the timber on the estate ; and 

 by that time he reckoned that the young forests would be 

 sufiSciently grown to allow and pay for felling again, sup- 

 posing the zavods not to exceed the manufacture of their 

 usual quantity of iron (350,000 poods a year), including 

 all kinds of sheet plate, flat, square, round, &c. 



'This superintendent of woods and forests put up 

 signboards and finger posts on the roads to each lot and 

 square, allowing each zavod to cut down only according to 

 number, rule, and plan. It was a great improvement 

 upon the old happy-go-lucky style of working ; and if they 

 and all the other zavods had always worked on that prin- 

 ciple there would have been fuel amply sufficient for all 

 time to come.' 



I may interrupt the statement of my friend to state 

 that such was probably the best arrangement which could 

 have been made at the time and in the circumstances. 

 It was in accordance with the celebrated French 

 Forest Ordinance of 1669 — the system of exploitation 

 known in France as La Methode d, Tire et Aire. But this, 

 unhappily, has its defects as well as its advantages. These 

 will in due time appear. Suf5Gce it here to remark, that 

 by the time referred to in the statements supplied to me 

 the forests in the immediate vicinity of many, if not of 

 all the zavods, had been entirely consumed. 



My correspondent goes on to say : — 



'When the mountain would not come to Mahomet, 

 Mahomet could go to the mountain. But these forests 

 and zavods will be a long time before they approximately 

 approach each other again, so we conclude that all 

 profitable smelting operation is now out of the question, 

 and that they are getting to the fag end of their manufac- 

 ture of charcoal iron. Such difficulties are they labouring 

 under that a blunt Lancashire friend of mine compared it 

 to ploughing with dogs. 



'Had Englishmen had possession of those splendid 



