no TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Reafforestation in Italy. 



According to a note in the Times, the Italian Ministry of 

 Agriculture has just published its report upon the work of re- 

 afforestation which has been carried out in Italy during the last 

 forty years, and more particularly during the year 1907. Under 

 the law of 1877, twenty-five committees were appointed to 

 superintend the work in the following provinces : — Aquila, 

 Belluno, Bologna, Brescia, Campobasso, Caltanisetta, Catania, 

 Cosenza, Cuneo, Florence, Forli, Genoa, Messina, Novara, 

 Parma, Perugia, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Sondrio, Teramo, 

 Turin, Treviso, Udine, Verona, and Vicenza. The total area 

 which has been replanted in these districts amounts to about 

 122,000 acres, of which 69,000 were replanted during last year. 

 The area still to be dealt with amounts to about 36,000 acres. 

 In addition, over 130,000,000 young trees have been distributed 

 during the last forty years, and more than 108,000 kilos of 

 seeds. The cost of last year's operations amounted to the 

 considerable sum of ^^382, 484. Forest fires still continue to be 

 the cause of heavy damage, and were more numerous last year 

 than in the year before. There were 1294 reported in 1907, 

 with an estimated loss of some ^^40,000. Of these fires it is 

 noted that 94 were due to criminal design, 267 to culpable 

 negligence, 132 to accident, and the rest to unknown causes. 



This official report shows, at any rate, that the need for re- 

 aff"orestation is appreciated by both the Government and the 

 local authorities ; but it leaves out of account a tendency 

 towards forest destruction which almost threatens in some 

 places to keep pace with the making of new plantations. Fire 

 is far from being the only enemy of the Italian woods. The 

 small landholder still fells recklessly, and sometimes with good 

 excuse, when the heavy land taxation tempts him to realise 

 upon every stick of his property, and to leave only the bare soil 

 to the exactions of the State. Large tracts which used to be 

 covered by a thick growth of chestnuts — notably the slopes of 

 Monte Amiata in Tuscany — have, even during recent years, been 

 stripped of every tree. The Italian Government has still to find 

 some eff'ective means of staying this work of destruction, for the 

 law which exists on the subject is too often and too easily 

 evaded. 



