89G JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



flow and to stop floods. It might be well for us at this time to turn 

 to history to see how, before the Revolution, the mountains in the 

 Vosges and the Jura Alps in France were protected and no clearing 

 was allowed. But during the Revolution restriction vanished and ruth- 

 less cutting began. Cutting, forest fires, etc., went on until millions 

 of acres of land were rendered useless on account of torrents doing 

 great damage, inundating plains, tearing away fertile lands, and silting 

 up rivers. This went on until Surell, in 1841, made a special study 

 of the regions, and in his "Etude sur les Torrents" he called the atten- 

 tion of the people to the relation of forests to torrents and emphasized 

 the need of tackling the problem at the sources. Then work was 

 started, but it was not until 1882, when the Reboisement Law was 

 passed, that systematic work was taken up. The work is still going on 

 and millions of dollars have been spent already, but it is estimated that 

 many more millions will have to be spent to complete the work. Now 

 what has been the result? It is said that of the 1,462 torrents, 163 are 

 entirely controlled, and about 650 have begun to be "cured." It is 

 also said that among the 163 that are controlled are 31 which 50 years 

 ago were considered by engineers as incurable. 



France, then, like every other country, has had a sad forestry story 

 10 tell ; but doubtless such experiences as she had are invaluable and 

 should be an object-lesson to us at this time. 



It is hoped, therefore, that our country will soon realize that want, 

 loss, and misery are inevitable results of a long-continued deforesta- 

 tion, and that this may act as a spur to wake her up to do something 

 to start this all-important work — forestry. We have not mentioned 

 here the direct benefits that China will derive from practicing forestry, 

 but let it be sufficient to say that forestry and agriculture are the 

 greatest of all industries, and that unless both of them are developed 

 China cannot hope to utilize fully her greatest of all resources — the 

 land. It is hoped that all well-wishers of China, and especially the 

 engineers who have worked so assiduously to improve the hydraulic 

 conditions in this country, will co-operate to bring this message to our 

 officials and gentry, that the problem of flood in the north cannot be 

 permanently solved until the different zvatersheds are properly clothed 

 with trees and protected. 



