REMEDIES AGAINST TORRENTS. oly 
4, Cutting banquettes or narrow terraces along the scarps, and 
planting rows of small deciduous trees and arborescent shrubs 
upon them, alternating with belts of grass obtained by turfing 
with sods or sowing grass-seeds. Planting the banquettes and 
slopes with bushes, and sowing any other vegetables with tena- 
cious roots, is also earnestly recommended.* 
Remedies against Torrents. 
The rural population, which in France is generally hostile to all 
forest laws, soon acquiesced in the adoption of this system, and its 
success has far surpassed all expectation. At the end of the year 
1868 about 190,000 acres had been planted with trees,t and nearly 
7,000 acres well turfed over in the Department of the Hautes 
Alpes. Many hundred ravines, several of which had been the 
channels of formidable torrents, had been secured by barriers, 
grading and planting, and according to official reports the aspect 
of the mountains in the Department, wherever these methods 
were employed, had rapidly changed. The soil had acquired 
such stability that the violent rains of 1868, so destructive else- 
where, produced no damage in the districts which had been 
subjected to these operations, and numerous growing torrents 
which threatened irreparable mischief had been completely ex- 
tinguished, or at least rendered altogether harmless. 
Besides the processes directed by the Government of France, 
* See a description of similar processes recommended and adopted by Men- 
gotti, in his Jdraulica, vol. ii., chap. xvii. 
+ Travellers spending the winter at Nice may have a good opportunity of 
studying the methods of forming and conducting the rewooding of mountain 
slopes, under the most unfavorable conditions, by visiting Mont Boron, in the 
immediate vicinity of that city, and other coast plantations in that province, 
where great difficulties have been completely overcome by the skill and per- 
severance of French foresters. See Les Foréts des Maures, Revue des Haux et 
Foréts, January, 1869. 
¢ For ample details of processes and results, see the second volume of Su- 
RELL, Etude sur les Torrents, Paris, 1872, and a Report by Dr LA Gry#, in 
the Revue des Haua et Foréts for January, 1869. 
