CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 57 



to cause sudden freshets, but when several months of continuous 

 rain occur a bad flood occasionally takes place after the ground 

 has reached its saturation point and can hold no more water, 

 and this point is reached even in wooded basins. But it is 

 evident that with forest to act as a sponge this saturation point 

 is much more slowly reached, and there is of course no question 

 that the more forest that exists the less is the danger of flood, 

 and also of the silting up of rivers (as in the case of the Loire 

 and certain Russian rivers), 



M. Broilliard states that between 1815 and 1870 the State 

 alienated some 881,500 acres. He strongly advises the purchase 

 of woodlands wherever possible, and says such a purchase is a 

 good investment. Germany and Belgium are steadily doing 

 this, while in Norway and Sweden the area of State forests has 

 greatly increased in late years. Nor is it necessary to buy 

 woodlands in large stretches only. Indeed, the more scattered 

 the State woods are, the more will the example of sane working 

 be visible, for though the State is not good at commercial 

 enterprise it is the best forest proprietor, with the best means at 

 its disposal of ensuring a sound method of treatment, and, it 

 may be added, of taking a long view of things. It is the fact 

 that when there is a strong forest administration neighbouring 

 proprietors copy its methods. 



Originally the laws against clearance of forest in France 

 were strict, but unsuccessful. Curiously enough when this 

 constraint was relaxed, and when, simultaneously, the State 

 ceased to alienate its forests, things improved, and private 

 owners began to afforest to some extent. Still, a law for the 

 protection of mountain slopes is a necessity, and the law of 

 1882 on this matter has just been altered. When mountain 

 slopes are so barren and so situated as to constitute a danger 

 to the country lying below them they may be taken over by the 

 State and aff"orested, but only after the passing of a special law 

 in each case. If the proprietors agree to afl'orest under State 

 control their land is not expropriated, and they are also assisted 

 by the State. In the case of areas belonging to Communes 

 (parishes), public establishments and associations, when the 

 State controls the work it pays at least two-thirds of the cost of 

 reboisement. Information as to the practice in neighbouring 

 countries may, in certain directions, be of use to ourselves, as we 

 are considering the formation of State forests. 



