172 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



enees, the diminution that had become 

 apparent in the flow of the streams that 

 had their sources in these mountains. 



In Italy, Perelh, and Paleocapa also, 

 in 1841, admitted that rainfall is partly 

 retained by the forests. Paleocapa af- 

 firms also that the increase of floods is 

 the result of denuding the mountains. 

 Lombardini also in 1858 maintains that 

 the forest retains the rainfall and de- 

 lays the arrival of the afflux in the 

 channel. 



"The destruction of forests, the fail- 

 ure of perennial springs, and the ex- 

 istence of torrents," Humboldt wrote, 

 "are three phenomena closely inter- 

 connected." "After deforestation," he 

 says, at another time, "water flows un- 

 checked, without having time to infil- 

 trate ; it carries away the soil from the 

 slopes, gathers in every depression of 

 the ground^ and forms torrents that hol- 

 low out channels and force along 

 masses of sand and pebbles, which are 

 left upon the surface of the lower 

 lands or are carried into the rivers that 

 receive the flood waters." Can the rav- 

 ages made by the torrents from de- 

 nuded mountains be more clearly de- 

 scribed? 



In 1797, Fabre, the engineer, in his 

 "Essay on the Theory of Torrents and 

 Streams," had drawn attention to the 

 ravages of torrents and pointed out as 

 the original cause of their formation 

 the destruction of the forests that cov- 

 ered the mountains. The protective ac- 

 tion of forest foliage upon the soil, the 

 retention of a part of the rainfall by 

 the humus, the diminution of the vol- 

 ume and swiftness of the waters by the 

 presence of bits of trees and clumps of 

 underbrush were well understood and 

 described by him. Later Mr. Dugied, 

 a former chief magistrate of the Lower 

 Alps, in a memorial addressed to the 

 minister of the interior, attributed the 

 desolation into which the department 

 was plunged to the destruction of the 

 forests and the mania for clearing land. 



Moreau de Jonnes. in a memorial 

 crowned by the Royal Academy of 

 ]^>russels in 1825. maintains that moun- 

 tain forests feed springs and increase 



stream-flow, and he affirms that "their 

 conservation and extension are meas- 

 ures of public economy no less indis- 

 pensable to modern society than the 

 dredging of streams or the making of 

 canals." This is the opinion of Michel 

 Chevalier, also, in his work on "The 

 Material Interests of France." Ac- 

 cording to the eminent economist, the 

 navigability of streams would be greatly 

 improved by "the replanting of the 

 mountains that have been stripped of 

 their woods with such great lack of 

 foresight and have been abandoned in 

 their nakedness with guilty indififer- 

 ence." 



Finally, shall we add that Mr. Alex- 

 andre Surell, in his authoritative work 

 on "The Torrents of the Higher Alps," 

 extolled reforestation as the efficacious 

 remedy for the disasters engendered by 

 the incessant development of torrents? 

 He was the great promoter of the work 

 of reforestation. 



There is in France at the present 

 moment a marked reawakening of the 

 forestry idea, which is the result of the 

 influence, already old, of writers like 

 Michelet, economists like Michel Chev- 

 alier, and of engineers like Surell and 

 Cezanne. The professional foresters, 

 born but yesterday, count for little in 

 this movement. At its head we find 

 among the geographers : Onesime Rec- 

 lus, Schrader, Camena d'Almeida ; 

 physicians, Leon Petit, Trolard ; the 

 poet, Frangois Fabie ; the artists, Saint- 

 Saens ; among publicists and statesmen : 

 Pierre Baudin ; finally, among power- 

 ful organizations, full of ardor for the 

 prosperity and upbuilding of the coun- 

 try, composed of engineers, bankers, 

 manufacturers, merchants, and so 

 forth : The Touring Club of France, 

 the Loire Navigable, Southwest Navi- 

 gable, Association for the Forest Man- 

 agement of the Mountains, Society of 

 Friends of the Trees, Reforestation 

 League, and others. It would be much 

 to be regretted if upon the evidence of 

 experiments, more or less conclusive, 

 made beyond the Rhine, the import of 

 which, moreover, has been singularly 



