THE FORESTRY OF FRANCE 



499 



nor even perennial weeds had a chance. 

 The result was that over 9000 mountain 

 streams in the Alps and the Pyrennees 

 formerly steady in flow became raging 

 torrents after every rain storm, the 

 springs dried up, vegetation disappeared 

 and the mountain slopes became mere 

 arid sheds of detritus, loam and silt. 

 Mountain real estate values shrivelled, 

 the loss being something over three 

 hundred billion francs and the flood and 

 drouths in the low lands became an 

 annual curse. 



To date over three hundred million 

 francs have been spent on reforestation 

 and barrage and about GOOO torrential 

 streams have been gotten under control. 

 The procedure otitlines as follows : — 

 The first thing to do is to obstruct the 

 flow in the torrent bed and reduce its 

 velocity. A series of rough rock dams 

 across the bed arrests this difficulty to 

 form deposits of silt and mud. These 

 barrages, so called, are planted with wil- 

 low and alder shoots, forming living 

 hedges which are carried far up the 

 sides of the ravines. Next the mountain 



Photo by Waircit H. Miller. 

 STANDARD COPPICE, CIIAMPEROUX. 



forester begins his first attack, for here 



slopes are terraced by digging narrow the run-ofl: is least severe. These slopes 



horizontal ledges and planting seedlings are planted with broom plant, Alpine 



in the banks formed by throwing the heather, gorse and furze, which shrubs 



trench excavation down hill. The have been found to secure a foothold 



trenches are parallel and about (i feet on dry, eroded soils more quickly and 



apart vertically. The species chosen surely than any others, 

 depend almost exclusively upon maxi- 



muni and minimum temperatures ob- re;ci.amation of waste lands 

 taining. In order of temperature — 



withstanding qualities they are : green The reclamation of the Landes of 

 oak, yew oak, pine Alep, Austrian pine, France constitutes another achievement 

 Cembro pine, from highest to lowest of the French foresters which has added 

 temperatures. The silt from the em- something like twenty million dollars 

 bankment above gradually fills the next to the land values of Southwestern 

 trench below, but by the time the slope France. Originally covered with for- 

 has been restored, the seedlings have ests, the denudation of the Landes in 

 formed an extensive root system and the 16th Century left nothing to take 

 are able themselves to resist further up the annual rainfall, so that without 

 erosion. As the plantation grows older natural drainage the Landes soon de- 

 it is managed strictly on the selection generated into swampy moors, in which 

 system. In the Terres Noires, where state they bid fair to remain indefi- 

 the soil base is black calcareous lime- nitely. However, at a cost of but 3 cents 

 stone, the case of complete soil de- a square meter the French foresters re- 

 nudation is exemplified, not even pas- claimed this entire area with a properly 

 turage being left. In such cases the laid out system of drains. The sandy 

 forester's first aim is to produce a sections were planted in Sylvester pine 

 thick covering of shrubs and weeds, after several failures in maritime pine, 

 All mountain slopes consist of a series and the better soils were sown with 

 of more or less vertical ravines with peduncle oak. The forest growth alone 

 ridges or mountain backs in l)ctween. on the Landes is now estimated at over 

 It is on these mountain bucks that the ten million dollars. 



