PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 



IN CHARGE : 



botanical Journals R. T. Fisher 



Foreign Journals B. E. Fernow, R. Zon F. Dunlap 



Propagandist Journals H. P. Baker 



Trade Journals F. Roth, J. F. Bond 



FOREST GEOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION. 



For three-quarters of a century France has 

 Reboisement Policy been making amends for the disastrous 

 in policy of disposing of public lands and for- 



France. ests adopted at the time of the first Revolu- 



tion. Purchase at prices that savor of ex- 

 tortion for reforestation at an expense unwarranted unless we 

 recognize that a forest cover is indispensable has only too widely 

 prevailed. Those reforestation projects lying in southeastern 

 France, in the Alps, have attracted most attention. The scale upon 

 which they were undertaken was enormous, and it is estimated that 

 another hundred years of work is necessary to complete present 

 plans for protecting this miserable country from torrential floods, 

 avalanches and landslips. 



The technical excellence of these works compel admiration, says 

 Schwappach, and they have long stood as models of their kind be- 

 fore engineers from all parts of the world. 



The criticism has lately made itself heard in France that simple 

 tree planting is alone sufficient to control those mountain streams, 

 and that all the expense of dykes and drains may be spared. But 

 a study of local conditions reveals to one who is somewhat ac- 

 quainted with similar work in other parts of Europe that the forest 

 cover really plays quite a minor part in the control. Only when the 

 criticism goes farther and calls to question the policy of these im- 

 provements does it touch a vital point. The whole region is wretch- 

 edly poor and with all human effort soil and climate can be modified 

 but little. For but a fraction of the contemplated expenditure every 

 parcel of land could be bought outright and the whole population 

 transferred to more favored regions. 



