FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN THE CANTON VAUD, SWITZERLAND, 81 



The ideal aimed at — and successive reports show that the ideal 

 has been in part, at any rate, attained — was the administration 

 of the forests with the concurrence and by the assistance of the 

 people. 



Conscious of the difficulty of stating the position of matters in 

 a clear and intelligible manner, we would ask the indulgence of 

 our readers, while we have recourse to an actual example to 

 throw some light on our meaning. 



EXAMPLE OF ITS WORKING. 



The mountains of the Hautes Alpes had, previously to the year 

 1856, been swept bare of trees, and their unprotected slopes used 

 solely for pasturage. In that year disastrous floods occurred, 

 which at last moved public opinion, and a law was passed in 1860 

 prescribing the re-afibresting of the mountains. The year follow- 

 ing, the work was begun. In addition to the obstacles offered by 

 nature, the unsuitability of the soil for plantations, etc., the 

 scheme met with the greatest opposition, pushed even to fury, 

 sometimes to crime, fi-om the mountaineers. These declared that 

 the mountains were sacrificed to the plain, and that they weie 

 thus deprived of their pasturages, and consequently of their flocks, 

 their only means of subsistence. 



The remonstrances of the mountaineers were met not by 

 absolute refusal, but by conciliation. The works of re-afibresting 

 and re-grassing, if we may coin the word, went on side by side. 

 And, in brief, their success was rapid and complete. The most 

 violent storms of 1868, which had formerly caused such disastei'S, 

 were absolutely harmless in the regenerated portions. The moun- 

 tains became productive. Where a few sheep formerly found it 

 difficult to live, by devouring all the existing vegetation, abundant 

 crops of grass, capable of being mown, now sprung up. The moun- 

 taineers, essentially a pastoral people, found not only food for 

 their increasing flocks, but shelter and poles for the cultivation of 

 their vines. Thus the very people who most violently opposed 

 the re-aff'orestation of the mountains, were the most loyal sup- 

 porters of the forest administration. Their confidence was gained, 

 not forced. And this, as we have already said, is the ideal 

 aimed at in the Swiss system of Communal Government. How 

 this has succeeded generally in the forest administration of the 

 canton of Vaud, let the report of the Department of Agriculture 

 and Commerce itself show. 



VOL. XII., PART I. F 



