72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



preventing the ravages of torrents. He kept dinning it into tbeir ears 

 that, since excessive and unscientific clearings, and unregulated pastur- 

 age of the cleared spaces afterward, were the causes of the torrents, so 

 the remedy must be to clothe the steeper zones below the pastures 

 with trees or bushes, and to exclude sheep and goats from the pastures 

 above until they were again covered with a stable turf. 



He was not, indeed, the first to protest against the destruction of 

 the woods, and to insist upon their restoration. The famous inventor, 

 engineer, and artist, Bernard Palissy (born about 1509), had discovered 

 the influence of forests upon springs, and raised an unheeded cry 

 to warn men against the calamities which lack of fuel and timber 

 would occasion. The chief nobles, and especially the ecclesiastics, 

 were clearing at a great rate and taking no thought of those who 

 would come after them. In the time of Henry IV and Louis XIV a 

 sharp check was given to the plundering of the crown forests by 

 these ecclesiastics and court favorites. In 1669, three years after 

 the famous announcement of Louis XIV that he had been long enough 

 in leading-strings, and that he proposed from that time to be master 

 of himself and of France, the great ordinance was passed upon which 

 most of the subsequent forest legislation of Europe has been based. 

 Under it, in connection with the crown forests, the science of arbori- 

 culture was studied, and a thoroughly organized corps of officials 

 trained. 



Before we come to Surell, a passing mention should be made of 

 Fabre and Dugied. Fabre published in 1797 his " Essai sur la Theorie 

 des Torrents et des Rivieres," which may be called a prophetic work. 

 It outlines quite distinctly the main principles which were followed in 

 the works of restoration under the reboisement law of 1860. He said 

 sheep and goats must be kept away from young trees, and that no 

 clearing should be permitted except in horizontal strips not more 

 than thirty feet in width where the acclivity of a slope is more than 

 one foot in thi'ee, and these strips may be made wider according as the 

 slopes are less steep. No clearings without authorization of compe- 

 tent officials, and on plans made by them. Where there was little 

 earth left, he recommended gazonnement * and huissement. 



Dugied, who had been a prefect in the Lower Alps, published a 

 project for reforesting the Basses- Alpes. He said that more than half 

 that department was dry and unproductive soil, and that torrents 

 caused by cutting and grubbing woodland brought debris and added 

 to the barren areas. For remedies he recommended : 1. Enforcement 

 of the old law of 1667, which imposed a fine of three thousand francs 

 for grubbing steep land ; land already grubbed to be turned into 



* Reboiser, to reforest ; deboiser, to deforest ; ffazonner, to plant with turf ; huissonner, 

 to plant with bushes, with their nouns, boisemenl, reboisement, deboisement, gazonnement, 

 luis; onnement, arc in constant use in French forest literature. The nouns are, in transla- 

 tions, often transferred to the English, and sometimes one meets, to reboise = to reforest. 



