The greatest interest for the forester attaches to the methods of conversion of coppice into timber forest, to the extensive areas reforested during the last century, which probably exceed 3 million acres, and to the reboisement work in the mountains.
1. Development of Forest Property.
As in Austria, private ownership of forest property is largely preponderant, while state property is small.
In ancient Gaul, the Romans found the forest outside of holy groves as communal property. After the conquest, all the unseated lands, especially the extensive mountain forests, were declared either State or imperial property—more than half the whole territory—and were managed as res publica by the administrators of public affairs. And while later, with the advent of the German hordes, property conditions shaped themselves somewhat according to their ways, the influence of the Roman law and institutions were never quite eradicated.
The country, outside of the public property, was by the Romans divided into communities, called fundus, each placed under a Gallic seigneur (eques), a former chief, now proprietor, his tribesmen and the remnants of the earlier sessile population becoming serfs. One-third of the fundus was handed to the serfs as their property and divided among them—the first private property—; another third was retained by the seigneur and utilized by means of the service of the serfs (corvées), but usually also burdened by rights of user on their part; and the last third became common property of the community at large. There remained, however, here and there, also, some of the original free communes or Mark (vicus), so that five different property classes were in existence.
The 5th century saw the Teutonic tribes, Suevi, Alani, Vandals and Burgundians, overwhelm the Romans, who had for 500 years kept the Gallo-Celtic population under their rule; and these were followed by Visigoths and Franks, who in turn took possession of the country. The conquerors did not drive out the Gallo-Romans, but merely quartered themselves on them under the euphemistic title of “guests,” assuming to themselves two-thirds of each estate, and leaving the remainder to their “hosts.” On these lands, undoubtedly, similar economic and social institutions were developed as in Germany. Communal ownership under these was at first developed to such an extent that the Salic laws declared all trees which were not reserved by special sign as subject to the use of all and any of the Markers. But later, as in Germany, the socialistic Mark was followed by the feudal system with its ban forests and the creation of great landed proprietors or lords.
When Clovis, the king of the Franks, in the first decade of the 6th century defeated the Visigoths and took possession of the country (see [p. 29]), he found communal forests of the villagers (vicus), property of seigneurs (equites), royal forests and State forests, remnants of Roman origin. The latter properties and much of the Mark forests he claimed for himself and divided two-thirds among his vassals; but the larger part of the other third became also gradually property of the nobility and church, so that, by the 12th century, only a relatively small royal property remained. Afterwards, the royal or State property grew again in various ways, as the power of the kings grew. In 1539, Francis I declared the same inalienable. But neither himself nor his successors paid heed to this self-imposed prohibition and, whenever financial troubles made it expedient, they disposed of some of their holdings.
By the ordinance of 1566 (Edit de Moulins), King Charles IX again declared the domain of the crown inalienable. Nevertheless he himself in the same year, and repeatedly afterwards, sold parts of his domain. Henry III, in 1579, renewed the ordinance of non-alienation and restored some of the last parcels to the domain by the exercise of the royal right. Himself and his successors, however, continually broke this contract, and the royal domain decreased while that of the seigneurs grew. Similarly to what happened in Germany, the church property was taken by machination or force to increase the holdings of kings or seigneurs. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the revolution in 1789, the royal domain comprised not more than 1,200,000 acres, producing a net income of 1.2 million dollars. Then followed an era of ups and downs, continuous changes of policy, increases and decreases of the property until with the inauguration of the republic, in 1871, comparative stability was secured.