830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



FOEEST-CULTUEE m ALPINE EAYINES.* 



By M. J. CLEVE. 



WHATEVEE differences of opinion may exist respecting the 

 meteorological influence of forests, it is generally agreed that 

 in mountainous countries they play an important part in regulating 

 water-courses and in preserving the soil on the slopes of the hills. 

 This function, which has been observed for a long time, was presented 

 in a clear light by M. Surrell, engineer of bridges and highways, 

 whose fine work on the torrents of the high Alps (" Torrens des 

 Hautes-Alps "), published in 1841, has been the point of departure for 

 all studies and all legal projects respecting rewooding. AVhile the au- 

 thor had in view only the restoration of the French Alps, his conclu- 

 sions are applicable, although in different degrees, to all mountainous 

 countries ; but the phenomena which he considers are manifested with 

 the most intensity in the Alps, and the renewal of the woods there is 

 imposed as a real measure of public policy. 



In respect to vegetation, nature has divided the Alpestrian moun- 

 tains into three zones : creating on the summits, around the rocks and 

 glaciers, pasture-lands on the middle slopes, forests ; in the lower 

 valleys, lands suited to occupation by agriculture and by villages. 

 Unfortunately, this natural division has been too often disturbed ; the 

 inhabitants, leaving the valleys, have established themselves in the 

 higher regions, have cut down the forests around their houses, and 

 devoted to cultivation lands which, disintegrated by the jdIow, are in- 

 cessantly cut up into ravines by every rain ; or the zone of pasture- 

 lands has encroached on that of the forests, and has been increased by 

 the daily devastations of the shepherds. Extending its borders every 

 year lower down the mountain, it has finished by taking possession of 

 the slopes and despoiling them of their wood. Gradually the grass 

 itself, no longer protected by the cover of large trees and continually 

 fed upon by hungry flocks, has disappeared, leaving behind it only 

 the denuded flank of the mountain, an easy prey of which the torrents 

 have not been slow to take possession. 



The mountain-torrent is not an ordinary brook, but is a stream with 

 characters of its own and peculiar ways. Originating in a narrow ba- 

 sin, the bed of which is very steep, it is subject to sudden variations j 



* [Some instructive reports have recently been published in France concerning the 

 progress that has been made in rewooding the slopes of the Alps, which, having been 

 stripped of trees, are most exposed to the ravages of torrents. While the Alps present 

 features which have no counterpart in the settled regions in the United States, the pi'ob- 

 Icms which had to be solved in reclothing the lower parts of the mountains with wood 

 and staying the processes of devastation involve principles which may be applied as well 

 in our own hilly and mountainous districts. Editor.] 



