Forest Culture. 93 



than one- fifth of her entire area, once forest, is now a barren, 

 sandy heath, and the government, at great expense, is endeavoring 

 to reclothe these naked wastes. " The river Po, when first 

 spoken of in history, was a charming river, from its innumerable 

 sources in the Alps on the north side, and the Appenines on the 

 south side, one of the mo>t charming livers in the world, and a 

 blessing to all who dwelt on its banks." For centuries the 

 destruction of the forests along its banks, and in the mountain 

 valleys whence its waters come, has been steadily going on. The 

 natural results have followed. Sudden floods have washed the 

 fertile soil from the denuded surface over much of its basin. 

 Tbe earth, pebbles and rocks have been swept into the 

 main stream. Its mouth has advanced several miles into the 

 sea. Its bed has filled up till its waters flow over the plains 

 of Lombardy, higher than the tops of the houses, confined within 

 the steadily rising walls by which the threatened people strive to 

 protect their cities and farms. Almost yearly the overstrained 

 ■wall gives way, a mighty torrent devastates the fairest fields in 

 the world, cities are overwhelmed, farms buried under vast sheets 

 of sand and pebbles, and thousands of people made beggars. 

 Though not a large stream, this one river has, perhaps, done more 

 damage in the last thousand years than any other in the world, 

 and all this is attributable directly to the destruction of the 

 forests, and to no other cause. France has suffered more than any 

 other civilized country. The destruction of her forests was very 

 rapid at the time of the revolution, and immediately after. The 

 flanks of the Alps, on her southeastern frontier, being thus left 

 bare, the most terrible results followed. Says a French wi iter 

 (Blanqui) : " If you overlook from an eminence one of those land- 

 scapes, furrowed with so many ravines, it presents only images of 

 desolation and death. Vast deposits of flinty pebbles, many feet 

 in thickness, which have been swept down from above, spread far 

 over the plain, surround large trees, bury even their tops, and 

 rise above them, leaving to the husbandman no ray of hope. "'' ''' 

 Eivers might be mentioned whose beds have been raised ten feet 

 in a single year. The devastation advances in geometrical pro- 

 gression as the higher slopes are bared, and the ruin from above 

 helps to hasten the desolation below. 



