72 A PRIMER OF FORESTRY. 



XXXYI, XXXVII, XXXVIII.) Ill many places tbe 

 effect of the trampling is to destroy the forest floor and 

 to interfere very seriously with the flow of streams. In 

 the Alps of southern France sheep grazing led to the 

 destruction, first, of the mountain forests, and then of 

 the grass which had replaced them, and thus left the 

 soil fully exposed to the rain. Great floods followed, 

 beds of barren stones were spread over the fertile fields 

 by the force of the water, and many rich valleys were 

 almost or altogether depopulated. Besides the loss 

 occasioned in this way, it has cost the French people 

 tens of millions of dollars to repair the damage begun 

 by the sheep, and the task is not yet finished. The loss 

 to the nation is enormously greater than any gain from 

 the mountain pastures could have been, and even the 

 sheep owners themselves, for whose profit the damage 

 was done, were losers in the end, for their industry in 

 that region was utterly destroyed. 



BROWSING. 



The third way in which grazing animals injure the 

 forest is by feeding on the young trees. In the western 

 part of the United States, where most of the forests 

 are evergreen, this is far less important than the dam- 

 age from either fire or trampling, for sheep and other 

 animals seldom eat young conifers if they can get other 

 food. Even where broadleaf trees prevail browsing 

 rarely leads to the destruction of any forest, although 

 it commonly results in scanty young growth, often 

 maimed and unsound as well. Goats are especially 

 harmful, and where they abound the healthy reproduc- 

 tion of broadleaf trees is practically impossible. In 

 the United States they are fortunately not common. 

 Cattle devour tender j^oung shoots and branches in vast 



