NOTICES AND REVIEWS OF BOOKS. II5 



The plague of goats has its counterpart with us in rabbits, 

 squirrels and, in a minor degree, roe deer and black game. 



Passing to modern times Mr Hutchins, anxious to stimulate a 

 cautious Government and reluctant Treasury to remunerative forest 

 expenditure, quotes to excellent purpose the most conspicuous 

 and pertinent European examples. Switzerland and the French 

 Alps are first quoted ; then the Gascony Sand Drifts, with an 

 expenditure of half a million pounds (recovered plus ^24,000, 

 and cluster pine forests now valued at ;^2, 000,000) ; next, the 

 Sand Drifts of the Landes, with forests now worth ^20,000,000 ; 

 La Sologne, now worth in timber ;^3, 500,000, with recent 

 reforestation on the limestones of Champagne, again valued 

 at ;,^2, 000,000, the rise in value per acre being, of course, 

 proportionate in each case. Similar results are quoted for the 

 Austrian limestone "Karst" on the Adriatic from Trieste to 

 Montenegro, for part of Provence, and the vast lesson of German 

 enterprise — as well as that of Italian neglect. 



The British occupation of Cyprus has now lasted thirty years, 

 but only for the last fourteen years has there been an organised 

 Forest Department, under Mr A. K. Rovill. In 1907, Mr Winston 

 Churchill visited Cyprus, and from this visit dates the grant of 

 more adequate funds for forest work. The problem to be met 

 and the results up to date may now be noted. 



The rainfall in Cyprus is very small — 18 inches annually in 

 the south, and 24 inches on the northern ridge, the whole fall 

 being in winter. 



The summer, therefore, is long, hot (100°) and excessively dry, 

 while in winter the rains cause floods, sweep the remaining soil 

 from the higher limestone ridges (largely denuded of forest), and 

 leave the country parched and dry throughout most of the 

 year. The choice, for agricultural development, lies between 

 forming expensive surface reservoirs for irrigation, and the cheaper 

 measure of re-afforestation, thereby retaining moisture in the 

 soil and in the natural underground fissures and cavities which 

 abound in limestone formations. In addition, of course, there 

 is the value of the timber and the necessity for cheaper fuel — 

 firewood and charcoal being the only indigenous fuel. 



The dry summer conditions would be even more harmful than 

 they are, but that the snow remains on the mountain summits 

 until midsummer. 



Great stress is laid on the increased fertility of agricultural 



