A Brief History of Forestry.

A first class attempt to secure more conservative forest use and to regulate the cut was made by Henry IV in instituting a commission, and, as a result of its report, issuing his general order of Rouen, in 1597, a highly interesting document giving insight into conditions and opinions of the foresters of that period. It also remained without any result whatsoever.

Repeated replacement of the higher officials had no more effect than the issuance of ordinances.

Not until Colbert’s vigorous reform in 1669 came a change in conditions.

Meanwhile, some forestry notions had been developed: a sequence of felling areas in the coppice, and hence an area division, an idea of rotation and of the exploitable age (10 to 20 years, although sometimes down to 3 and 4 years), the leaving of overwood, which became obligatory in the royal domain, and a kind of regulation of its age (40 years – too short according to one writer of the time to furnish valuable trees), and some proper considerations of its selection.

In the timber forest, the fellings proceeded by area in regular order from year to year, leaving a prescribed number of marked seed trees, at least 6 to 8 per acre, on such areas as were outside the rights of user and removed from the likelihood of depredations; the felling age being at least 100 years, under the notion that the oak, the most favored species, “grows for one hundred years, keeps vigorous but stands still for another hundred, and declines in a third hundred.” Sowing of acorns on prepared ground was also ordered in the 16th century, and perhaps occasionally done. Young growths were sometimes protected by ditches or fences against cattle, although objections were raised against the former as impeding the chase. A diameter limit sometimes reserved all oak and beech two feet in circumference at six inches from the ground, the height of the stump. Even improvement cuttings (called recépages) are on record in Normandie, mainly for the purpose of cutting out softwoods and freeing the young valuable reproduction, repeated in decennial returns. Later, thinnings assumed the character of selection fellings and, indeed, received the name of jardinage. They were continued until the time for final cut and regeneration had arrived. In the coniferous mountain forests, selection cutting, pure and simple, was the rule.

It appears, then, that quite sane notions of silviculture existed, albeit they may not have been very generally and very strictly carried out. Especially during the 16th century, the maladministration of the royal domain brought with it a decadence of the practice in the woods; the area of the coppice increased by clear cutting at the expense of the timber forest, and, by Colbert’s time, all forestry knowledge had wellnigh become forgotten.

The forest ordinance of 1669 attempted to reform not only the administrative abuses but to improve the method of exploitation hitherto practised; at least it put in writing, codified as it were, the best usage of the time. A commission of 21 was instituted to make working plans and prescribe the practice.

The prescriptions had reference both to management and silvicultural practice. A felling budget (état d’assiette) was prescribed annually by the grand maître for each garderie (district), and felling areas were also, sometimes, but not always, definitely located. Besides, extraordinary fellings might be ordered.

The garderies were divided into triages (now called cantons), management classes or site classes under different rotations, and the fellings proceeded in each triage in sequence.

In each felling area, as had supposedly been the practice, at least 8 seed trees per acre, and generally 16, besides those under the diameter limit, were to be left – the method à tire et aire.

Intermediary fellings – thinnings – were avoided and frowned down upon, probably because of the abuses to which they had given rise. Meanwhile their need grew more and more, especially in those places where the felling method did not produce satisfactory regeneration, and softwoods impeded the development of the better kinds. To improve the chances for valuable regeneration and to keep the softwoods down, the foresters proposed the reduction of rotations from 100 to 50 and even 40 years, and, as with each felling the number of reserve trees had to be left, the forest assumed a form resembling the coppice under standards.

In the coniferous woods of the mountains (fir), which in Colbert’s time appear almost like a new discovery to his reformers, the selection forest with a diameter limit (e.g., 6 inch at the small end of the 21-foot log) was the method most generally in vogue, and is still to a large extent the method in use, but somewhat better regulated and modified, sometimes with improvement fellings added. In some parts, especially in Lorraine, for a time, artificial regeneration and a strip system were tried, and even a group selection with a regeneration period of probably 25 to 30 years and an exploitable age of 100 years, was practised in the 18th century.

Buffon, in 1739, proposed a treatment for the pineries to secure natural regeneration by cutting one-third to one-half, leaving 40 to 50 seed trees per acre, while Duhamel (1780) considers selection method best for larch and pine as well as fir, although pine might, like oak, be readily reproduced by sowing.

While system and orderly progress of fellings in selection forest had gradually been established, during the revolution this was largely disregarded and unconservative fellings became the order.

Guiot’s Manuel forestier, published in 1770, gives a good idea of the status of forestry at that time. It appears that for timber forest, mostly royal woods, rotations varying from 60 to 200 years, for coppice from 10 to 20 years, were in use on the royal domain; that fellings were regulated according to species, soil quality and the most advantageous yield. To facilitate regeneration, a superficial culture of the soil is also advocated.

The prescription of Colbert’s ordinance to leave a certain number of seed trees, no matter for what species or conditions of soil or climate had as early as 1520 been pointed out as faulty by one of the grand masters, Tristan de Rostaing, who had recommended a method of successive fellings. This prescription, applied pretty nearly uniformly as a matter of law, removed from the officials all spirit of initiative and desire or requirement of improving upon it. No knowledge beyond that of the law was required of them, hence no development of silvicultural methods resulted during the 17th and 18th century. The seed trees left on the felling areas grew into undesirable and branchy “wolves,” injuring the aftergrowth, or else were thrown by the wind or died, and many of the areas became undesirable brush. Not until the first quarter of the 19th century was a change in this method proposed through men who imported new ideas from Germany.

When the inefficiency of the méthode à tire et aire was recognized, the only remedy appeared to lie in a clearing system with artificial reforestation (recommended by Réaumur and Duhamel); and, indeed, the ordinance of 1669 recognized the probable necessity of filling up fail places in that manner. Yet the success of the plantings in waste lands does not seem to have brought about much extension of this method to the felling areas. As late as 1862, Clavé, complaining of the conditions of silviculture in France, and of the ignorance regarding it, refers to the clearing system as méthode allemande, the German method. The shelterwood system, la méthode du réensemencement, which was introduced in theory from Germany by Lorentz in 1827, was hardly applied until the middle of the century. Indeed, the promulgation of this superior method cost Lorentz his position in 1839, and other officers suffered similarly for this “German propaganda.” (see p. 242)7

At the present time large areas of coppice and of coppice with standards characterize the holdings of the municipal and private owners, and the selection forest still plays a considerable part even in the State forests; the method of shelterwood in compartments, being still more under discussion than found in practice.

The main credit for advance in silvicultural direction which belongs to the French foresters in particular is the development of new and fertile ideas regarding the operations of thinnings; here the differentiation of the crop into the final harvest (le haut) and the nurse crop (le bas) (see page 105) and the differentiation of the operations, par le haut and par le bas, seems to have been for the first time described by Boppe in 1887. Indeed, the theory of thinnings, at least, seems to have been well understood by Buffon, who advanced his theories in a memoir to the Academy of France, in 1774, and gives a very clear exposition of the value of thinnings and improvement cuttings.

Nevertheless, thinning practice, while often accentuated in the literature, is too often omitted in practice, or exercised only in long intervals, while otherwise silvicultural practice is excellent, especially in the coppice. Most valuable lessons may be had especially from the experience in converting coppice into timber forest.

At the International Congress of Silviculture, convening in connection with the Universal Exposition in 1900, supposedly the best home talent was represented, but it cannot be said that anything new, or striking, or promotive of the art or science transpired. The desirability of establishing experiment stations outside the one in existence at Nancy (established in 1882), and the desirability of constructing yield tables still required arguments at this meeting.

In the direction of forest organization, it is stated by Clavé that in 1860 only 900,000 acres of the State domain were under a regulated management, namely 380,000 acres in timber forest and 520,000 in coppice with standards, leaving about 1,500,000 acres at that time still merely exploited. The same writer states that of the corporation or communal forests hardly any are under management for sustained yield, and private forest management is not mentioned in this connection. Even to-day less than one-third of the total area is under systematic control. In 1908 still, about 14 % of the State forests were without working plans, and 15 % in selection forest.

The method of forest organization employed, outside of the crude determinations of a felling budget in the selection forest, is an imitation of Cotta’s combined area and volume allotment, with hardly any attempt of securing normality, introduced in 1825. Characteristic, and differing from the German model, is the practice of actually collocating in each district (canton) the periodic felling areas (affectations) on the ground so as to secure a schematic felling series or periodic block (séries). This is done often at great sacrifice. Lately, various, more pliable modifications have come into vogue (méthode de l’affectation unique) and freer methods (méthode du quartier de régénération), somewhat similar to Judeich’s stand management, are proposed. Altogether working plans, such as are elaborated in Germany, are rare, and yield tables are still looked upon by Huffel as doubtfully useful.

The management of the State forests is extremely conservative, large accumulations of old stock, the holding over of one quarter for reserve, and high rotations – only apparently based on maximum volume production, since the statistical data are scanty – are characteristic. The opposite conditions appear in the private forests.

6. Education and Literature

In the earlier times the service established was as we have seen, often, nay mostly in incompetent hands; the offices of forestmasters were purchasable, were given to courtiers as benefices, and became hereditary. In all these, higher professional knowledge was unnecessary. The ignorance of the subordinates was as great as that of their German counterparts, but lasted longer. Hardly any book literature on the subject of forestry developed before the 19th century, and educational institutions had to wait until long past the beginning of that century.

The first, and up to the present, only forest school, came into existence after a considerable campaign, directed by Baudrillart, Chief of Division, Administration Générale des Forêts, and professor of political economy. His campaign in the Annales Forestières, the first volume of which appeared in 1808, and in other writings as in his Dictionnaire des eaux et forêts (1825), led to the establishment of the forest school at Nancy in 1825.

The first director of this school, Bernard Lorentz, having become acquainted with and befriended by G. L. Hartig, and his assistant, afterward his son-in-law and successor, Adolphe Parade, having studied under Cotta (1817-1818) in Tharandt, this school introduced the science of forestry as it had then been developed in Germany; but later generations under Nanquette, Bagneris, Broillard, Boppe and Puton, imbued with patriotism, attempted in a manner to strike out on original lines.

As a consequence of the “unpatriotic” German tendencies of its first directors the continuance of the school at Nancy was several times threatened, there being friction between the administration of the school and the service, which in 1844 came to a climax, agents in the service being employed without preparation in the school, a condition which lasted until 1856.

Even to date an active service of 15 years is considered equivalent to the education in the school for advancement in the service.

In 1839, Lorentz was disgracefully displaced, in spite of his great merits, because he advocated too warmly the application of the superior system of regeneration under shelterwood to replace the coppice and selection forest, an incident almost precisely repeated in the State of New York in abandoning its State College at Cornell University; and in other respects the two cases appear parallel.8 Parade, the successor of Lorentz being imbued with the same heretical doctrines was constantly in trouble, and in 1847, a most savage attack in the legislature was launched which threatened the collapse of the school. This condition lasted until Parade’s death, in 1864, when Nanquette assumed guidance of the school and steered in more peaceful waters by avoiding all ideas at reforms and innovations, but otherwise improving the character of the school and introducing the third year study. But he, too, was much criticized and in difficulties until 1880; nor was Puton, his successor, free from troubles, until in 1889 a new regime and new regulations were enacted.

The school is organized on military lines. The students, who intend to enter the State service are chosen from the graduates of the Institute national agronomique of Paris, only a limited number being admitted. It has 12 professors, two for forestry, two each for natural science, mathematics, and one each for law, soil physics and agriculture, for military science and for German. A three year course, which includes journeys through the forest regions of France, leads to government employment; indeed, the first paid position as garde général stagiaire is attained after two years study and before leaving school.

For several years, (1867 to 1884) English students preparing for the Indian service received their instruction here, and 380 foreigners have received their education in this school since its foundation.

For the education of the lower grades, an imperial rescript ordered the establishment of several schools, which were, however, never organized. In 1863, were proposed, and in 1868, opened, four schools, where efficient forest guards were to secure some knowledge that would assist them to advancement; three of these schools persisted until 1883. In 1873, an additional school for silviculture for the education of underforesters was organized at Barres-Vilmorin, where annually a limited number of students are permitted to enter. This institution has persisted to date.

The French forestry literature has never been prolific, and to this day occupies still a limited amount of shelf room. The first book on record is a translation of the well known volume of the Italian, Peter de Crescentiis, translated at the instance of Charles V in 1373. In the 16th century we have reference to an encyclopædic volume, probably similar to the German Hausväter, by Oliver de Serres, Théatre d’Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs, in which a chapter is devoted to the forests. During the 18th century, just as in Germany the cameralists, we have in France a number of high class writings, not by foresters, but by savants or students of natural history, the names of Réaumur, Duhamel, Buffon and Micheaux appearing with memoirs transmitted to the Academy of France, the highest literary and scientific body of men, on subjects relating to forestry. Réaumur, in his Réflexions sur l’état des forêts, in 1721, recommended the conversion of coppice forests into timber forests by a system of thinnings, but it is evident that his words were not heard beyond the Academy. Duhamel (in 1755, 1764, 1780) repeats the recommendation of Réaumur in his three memoirs, Semis et Plantations, Exploitation des Bois and Traité de la Physique des Arbres, in which he exhibits considerable learning, while Buffon, the great naturalist, in 1739 and after, presented several memoirs on forestry subjects full of excellent advice. Varennes de Fenille, another one of the Academicians, but also one of the conservators is on record with two memoirs (1790, 1791) on the management of coppice and timber forests in which also the theory of thinnings was well developed. But among the foresters of the service there seems not to have been sufficient education to appreciate these writings, or, with the exception of Guiot with his Manuel forestier (1770), to bring forth any contributions to the literature and art, until the 19th century. In 1803, we find the first encyclopædic volume in Traité de l’Aménagement des Forêts, which was followed, in 1805, by a very incorrect translation of Hartig’s Lehrbuch, both by Baudrillart, professor of political economy, who also published in 12 volumes his Traité Général des Eaux et Forêts. Perthuis, in 1796, and Dralet, a forester, in 1807, also brought out treatises on forest management, which include all branches of the subject.

According to Huffel, the foresters of this period (Louis XV and XVI) were of superior character, and forestry in France the first in the world; the writings of French authors were being translated into German and studied by foreign foresters. He has to admit, however, that the majority of these authors were not really members of the forest service.

In 1836 appeared Parade’s Cours Elémentaire de Culture des Bois, an excellent book, recording the teachings of Hartig and Cotta. This seems to have been all-sufficient until 1873, at least. Such things as yield tables are still a mere wish, when Tassy wrote his Etudes, etc., in 1858, while de Salomon a little later reproduced Cotta’s yield tables, and to this day this needful tool of the forester is still almost absent, at least in the literature of France. Nanquette, Broillard, Bagneris, Puton, Reuss, Boppe, all directors or professors at the forest school, enriched the French literature by volumes on silviculture and forest management, and Henry on soil physics. He also translated from the German Wollny’s Décomposition des matières organiques. It is claimed by Guyot, that a truly “French science” (!) of forestry dates from Broillard’s Cours d’aménagement in 1878. Demontzey’s Reboisement des montagnes, 1882, is a classic volume. Of more modern book literature may be mentioned three voluminous publications, namely Traité des arbres by Mouillefert (1892-1898) in 3 volumes, and Traité d’exploitation commerciale des bois by Matthey in two volumes, and Guyot’s Cours de droit forestier in two volumes. A very complete work on valuation of damage under the misleading title Incendies en forêt was published by Jacquot in 1903.

But the latest and perhaps most ambitious work in the French language and especially of intense interest from the historical point of view, tracing not only the development of forest policies but of silvicultural and managerial practices in France, is G. Huffel’s Economie Forestière in three volumes published 1904-1907.

There should not be forgotten as among the non-professional promoters of forest questions, Chevandier, a chemist and manufacturer, who, in 1844, made investigations regarding the influence of irrigation on wood growth and on the influence of fertilizers, and in connection with Wertheim, laid the foundation for timber physics.

One bi-weekly magazine, Revue des Eaux et Forêts, in existence for 50 years, the successor to the Annales forestières, begun in 1808, satisfies the needs of current literature, besides the journals of various forestry associations, among which the Bulletin de la Société de Franche Comté et Belfort has for a long time taken a prominent rank.

A very active propagandist literary and association work has within the last decades been inaugurated, and forestry associations of local character abound. Among these the “Touring Club,” a sporting association with some 16,000 members in 364 branches is active by writing out prizes and promoting waste land planting. Through its agency some 4000 acres had been planted by 1910, some 900 nurseries furnishing plant material.

An active Section of Silviculture in the Société des Agriculteurs some time ago absorbed the forestry association and is also doing practical work in the direction most needed, improvement of forestry practice among private woodland owners.

7. Colonial Policies

The French possess extensive colonies in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania, covering not less than four million square miles with over 90 million people, to some of which at least they have extended some features of their forest policy, notably in Algeria, Tunis, Indo-China and Madagascar.

Algeria, which was conquered in 1828, is about four-fifths of the size of France, but only 5.5 per cent. is forested. Besides the desert, there are two forest regions, the northern slope, the so-called Tell, abutting on the Mediterranean, which, with 20 per cent. forested, contains the most valuable forests of Cork Oak, various other oaks, and Aleppo Pine; and the high plateau to the south, a region of steppes with about 6 % forested, mostly with brushwood. The adjoining Tunis also contains some 2 million acres of forest, a part of which clothed with the valuable Cork Oak.

Although the population does not exceed 5 million, import of wood from Sweden and elsewhere to nearly one million dollars in amount is necessary. The first advance of civilization led to wide-spread destruction of the originally larger forest area; fire and pasture being specially destructive.

Before the French occupation, the 8 million acres of forest were all, as usual in the mussulman’s empires, the property of the sultan, but were used like communal property by the people. By 1871, the larger portion, some 6 million acres remained in possession of the state, much encumbered by rights of user.

At the same time, considerable areas (some 700,000 acres) had been ceded to communities outright, and others (1.25 million acres) had been sold to private parties. At first, these latter lands were let for exploitation of the cork oak on 40 year leases, later extended to 90 years with indemnities for damage by fire – an incentive to allow these to run, until in 1870, the fire damage having become onerous, all areas burned after 1863 were gratuitously ceded to the contractors, more than one-third the areas involved, and the other two-thirds were then sold at a ridiculously low price and under the easiest conditions of payment, in the same shameful manner in which the timberlands of the United States were given away.