The whole country was divided into 18 arrondissements of _grandes-maîtrises des eaux et forêts_ and these were divided into 134 _maîtrises_, each under a _maître particulier_, with a _lieutenant_, a _garde-marteau_, a _garde général_, two _arpenteurs_ and a number of _gardes_. A financial branch for the handling of moneys, and the judicial branch represented by the three courts described above, completed the organization, which lasted until the revolution, albeit some details were changed soon after its enactment, and the offices became again purchaseable and hereditary. The sale of royal forests was again forbidden, penalties being provided for the eventual purchaser. Theft and incendiarism were severely punished, and specific rules of management were established. Clearings could only be made by permission even on the part of private owners. The methods of sale and harvest were determined. The prescriptions of older ordinances were renewed to the effect that at least 13 to 16 seed trees (_baliveaux_) per acre in the coppice, and 8 seed trees in timber forest, were to be reserved in all forests without exception. Private owners were not to cut these seed trees before they were 40 years old in the coppice, and 120 years in the timber forest, while in the public and church forests these seed trees were treated like reserves. Similarly, the prescription that no woods were to be cut before 10 years of age was revived from former ordinances, the time later (1787) being increased for public forests to 25 years. Also the obligation to keep one-fourth of the forest in reserve, which Charles IX had decreed in 1560, was renewed for the public forests (those belonging to corporations and other public institutions). For the fir forests of the mountains, which had become important as furnishers of ship masts, special regulations were issued, and the mast timber reserved for the crown. There was lively opposition to the enforcement of these prescriptions, especially where they interfered with property rights, nevertheless they persisted until the changes brought about by the revolution of 1789. Certain prescriptions, as for instance the exclusion of sheepherding were never enforced, and this practice continues even to-day in certain sections. As a result of the reform, however, the revenues from the royal forests trebled in 20 years.