308 FORESTS OF FEANCE. 



one-fourteenth part of the soil, where the restoration of the woods 

 is thought feasible, and, at the same time, specially important aa 

 a security against the evils ascribed, ui a great measure, to its 

 destruction."^ 



In 1865 the Legislative Assembly passed a bill amendatory of 

 the law of 1860, providing, among other things, for securing the 

 soil in exposed localities by grading, and by promoting the growth 

 of grass and the formation of greensward over the surface. This 

 has proved a most beneficial measure, and its adoption under cor- 

 responding conditions in the United States is most highly to be 

 recommended. The leading features of the system are : 



1. Marking out, and securing from pasturage and all other 

 encroachments, a zone along the banks and around the head of 

 ravines. 



2. Turfing this zone, which in France accomphshes itself, if 

 not spontaneously, at least with httle aid from art. 



3. Consolidation of the scarps of the ravines by grading and 

 watthng, and by estabhshing barriers, sometimes of sohd masonry, 

 but generally of fascines or any other simple materials at hand, 

 across the bed of the stream. 



4. Cutting hanqiiettes or narrow terraces along the scarps, and 

 planting upon them rows of small deciduous trees and arborescent 

 shrubs, alternating with belts of grass obtained by turfing with 

 sods or sowing grass-seeds. Planting the banquettes and slopes 

 with bushes and other vegetables with tenacious roots is especially 

 recommended.f 



* In 1848 the Government of the short-lived French Republic sold to the 

 Bank of France 187,000 acres of public forests, and notwithstanding the zeal 

 with which the Imperial Government had pressed the protective legislation 

 of 1860, it introduced into the Legislative Assembly in 1865 a bill for the sale, 

 and consequently destruction, of the forests of the State to the amount of one 

 hundred million francs. The question was much debated in the Assembly, 

 and public opinion manifested itself so energetically against the measure that 

 the ministry felt itself compelled to withdraw it. See the discussions in 

 L' Alienation des Forets de VEtat. Paris, 1865. 



The late Imperial Government sold about 170,000 acres of woodland be- 

 tween 1853 and 1866, both inclusive. The other Governments, since the res- 

 toration of the Bourbons in 1814, alienated more than 700,000 acres of the 

 public forests, exclusive of sales between 1836 and 1857, which are not re- 

 ported. — Annuaire des Eaux et Forets, 1872, p. 9. 



f See a description of similar processes recommended and adopted by Meu- 

 ,gotti, in his Idraulica, vol ii. , chap. xvii. 



