260 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
submit to the Prefect, annual proposals on this subject, showing the 
nature and extent of their pasture lands, the portions that they 
propose to use during the year, the number of animals of each kind 
that are to graze, the roads by which they are to reach and return 
from the pastures, and other matters. These proposals are con- 
sidered by the Forest Department, and modified if necessary. In 
addition to this, with a view to encourage the pastoral population 
of the mountains to take care of their grazing grounds, and to put 
a stop to abuses resulting from ignorance and from the continuance 
of injurious customs, the Forest Department is empowered to grant 
money rewards to fruitiéres (associations of cattle-owners for the 
manufacture of cheeses) for improvement made by them to their 
pastures. It is also desired to encourage, as far as possible, the 
substitution of cows for sheep ; but the population of the mountains 
does not like the afforestation of their grazing grounds, and the 
principal reason for the offer of rewards by the State is that it is 
considered politic to do something to aid them in their industry, as 
some set off against the inconvenience to which individual com- 
munities are sometimes put by these operations. 
Scope and progress of the entire work.—The total surface to be 
treated as a work of public utility in the Alps, Pyrenees, and 
Cevennes, is estimated to amount to 1035 square miles, in addition 
to about 1900 linear miles of torrent beds. Up to the end of 1885, 
152 square miles of this surface, and 373 miles of torrent beds, had 
been completed ; the expenditure having amounted to £819,320, 
and the rates having varied from £3, 2s. to £6, 3s. 6d. per acre, 
and from 2s. to 7s. 6d. per linear yard, of torrent bed. There 
remain to be treated, therefore, about 583 square miles of surface, 
and 1500 miles of torrent beds. In addition to the above, the State 
has paid £138,000, or half the cost of treating 212 square miles, 
as ‘permissive works,” under the old law ; and £12,000 towards 
pastoral improvements. 
DRAINING AND PLANTING OF SWAMPS AND WASTE LANDS. 
Measures of the nature above described for the consolidation and 
protection of mountain slopes are undertaken in the interest of the 
population generally. In the case of sterile unproductive wastes or 
swamps, not requiring to be dealt with on these grounds, the 
Government has thought it better, as a general rule, to leave each 
proprietor free to do what he considers most to his own advantage, 
