276 RECENT AFFORESTATION WORK IN FRANCE. [i)ec. 1895. 



poles, and agricultural purposes, is comniensurate with the 

 demand, there remains a necessity for the importation of larger 

 timber. In France, therefore, the consumption of timber largely 

 exceeds the production. This is perfectly pafbent to, and recog- 

 nised by, the authorities, who foresee, in such a state of matters, 

 a time when the future sources of the supply of timber will be 

 a burning question for themselves as well as for other nations. 

 For while the demand for timber by the world at large — a 

 demand which is not lessened by the employment of iron and of 

 steel — is greater than the yield, the application of the term 

 " inexhaustible " to the present sources of supply is obviously 

 inadmissible. 



The State forests comprise, as has already been stated, one- 

 tenth of the forests of the country. This is equal to 1,089,096 

 hectares ; 892,827 being forests properly so-called, and 196,269 

 being lands as yet unproductive. But this proportion is not a 

 stationary one. For the Department, in addition to the careful 

 working of its own forests, is further charged with a two-fold 

 and onerous duty, of extreme practical utility, in the interest of 

 the public good. And to the discharge of this duty its present 

 energies are largely devoted. It comprises new and large 

 measures of afforestation : — 



{a.) To arrest the continual encroachment of the dunes or 

 sandhills. 



(h) To provide remedies against the floods and torrents 

 periodically caused by the former excessive fellings of 

 trees on the mountain slopes. 



It thus acquires every year new lands, but these lands not 

 only bring in no revenue whatsoever during the first years of 

 their acquisition, but are further the cause of large expenditure 

 for superintendence, and the necessary outlay for planting. If, 

 however, they yield no revenues, they save many millions of 

 francs every year, by protecting the roads, villages, cultivated 

 fields, and vineyards from destruction by shifting sands, ava- 

 lanches, land-slips, and mountain torrents. The Forest Depart- 

 ment acts thus as the unpaid representative of the common 

 interests, and it is not possible to measure the value of its work 

 to the nation by the figures which a purely financial statement 

 of revenue and expenditure would disclose. 



The Decennial Reports for the 10 years ending 1882, showed 

 that in these and the 10 years immediately preceding, the area 

 of the uncultivated lands in France had been reduced by 698,272 

 hectares, of which. 327,653 hectares (818,632 acres), were re- 

 claimed from the sandy wastes of the adjoining departments 

 of the Landes and Gironde. It is unnecessary to repeat what 

 has been said elsewhere,'^' as to the enormous capital value which 

 has thence accrued. But it is needful to observe here, that these 

 important reclamations were only rendered possible by the 

 aiCtion of the Forest Department, which has, in the last few 



* Transactions of the Sin voyovs' Institiitiono Paper, 210 ; No. 346. 



