INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 83 



cial laws ; b) parcels of land/ even if cultivated, which are included in or 

 adjacent to a State forest domain, if their incorporation m such domain be 

 esteemed necessary to its economic organization ; c) lands, even if cultivated, 

 the expropriation of which is esteemed necessary to the constr action of 

 roads of access and to the provision of sites for deposits or other conveniences 

 necessary to the good management of a complex domain. The Ministry 

 of Agriculture is authorized freely to afford technical direction, and to grant 

 the necessary seeds and plants and piemiums of from 50 to 300 liras a 

 hectare, for optional re-afforestation and for restoring woods which have 

 nmch deteriorated. Where ar evident opportunity for them occurs the forest 

 administration will also provide for the establishment on the spot of tempo- 

 rary nurseries for growing the shoots necessary to optional reafforestation. 

 As soon as the premium has been paid the woods thus constituted will be 

 subjected, if they are not so already, to the forest regime, that is to 

 the effects of the law of 20 June 1877, no. 3917 (i). The mountain pastur- 

 ages belonging to the communes and to bodies having an agricultural or 

 moral character should be utilized according to the rules ^established in the 

 regulations or, failing these, according to the rules prescribed by the forest 

 committee. Such regulations ought in every case to be approved by the 

 forest committee. Where such approval is lacking, or where there is dis- 

 sension as to the rules contained in the regulation or prescribed by the fo- 

 rest committee, the question will be decided by the Minister of Agriculture 

 after hearing the Higher Council of Forests. 



Finally, when a mountain pasturage is owned in common by several 

 proprietors the rules established for the administration and enjoyment of 

 the common property and its improvement will bind even a dissenting mi- 

 nority, if these rules have obtained the approval of the numerical majority 

 of the co-owners and if this majority also represent a majority of interests. 

 Other provisions concern the management of communal woods and the 

 improvement of pasturages. 



* 

 * * 



2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROXTKMENTS IN THE SOUTH. — Gazzetta, UfficMs del 

 Refmo d'ltalia, Rome no. 244, 16 October 117. 



The decree-law (no. 1597), dated 2 September 1917, as to " financial 

 aid for works of improvement granted to the consortia and the development 

 of improvements in Southern and Insular Italy " is of capital importance 

 to national economy. The Deposit and Loans Fund will institute a 

 special branch for granting this aid. It is authorized for ten years 

 to grant to consortia who are concessionaries of works of improvement 

 the loans needed for carrjnng out the programme of these works within the 

 limits of a total sum of 150,000,000 liras. The sum corresponds exactly to 



(x) See the articles already died in Bulletin des Institutions Economiques et Sociaks for ]n\y 

 and August 1911. 



