64 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



It is believed that upwards of one-third of the forests freed 

 from servitudes have already been ruined, and that another third 

 is deteriorating so that before long it also will disappear. Some 

 instances taken from official publications will give an idea of this 

 work of destruction: In the Sila (Calabria) 77,341 acres of land 

 freed from forest servitude were broken up and sown with rye, 

 flax and potatoes, ///<? timber being but tit on the spot as it could not 

 he sold. In the province of Sassari (Sardinia), 407,550 acres of 

 high-forest and coppice were freed from forest servitude, and the 

 owners were left absolutely free to do what they liked with them. 

 They paid no attention to either the preservation or the 

 regeneration of the forests, because after the trees were felled 

 unrestricted destructive grazing of all kinds of animals was 

 allowed. 



That the measures concerning the freeing of forest servitudes 

 were very injurious, and that the list of such abrogations were 

 hastily drawn up, besides being full of errors and not sufficiently 

 controlled, is proved by the fact that in many cases it has been 

 found necessary to propose the reimposition of the servitude, 

 and that in general, and especially along the Apennines and in 

 Sardinia, many of the freed belts have become bare stony slopes, 

 rocky precipices, or steep clay banks burnt up by the sun, 

 which seem to baffle every attempt to render them fertile or 

 clothe them with forests by economical methods. Liebig used 

 to say that a population that allows the fertilising substances of 

 its land to be carried into the sea during a century will be 

 obliged to follow them and to emigrate ; and Victor Hugo wrote : 

 " C\st la substance mCnie du peuple qu^emporte, ici goutte a goutte, 

 la aflots^ le miserable voniissenient de nosfleuves dans la nier." ^ This 

 indeed has happened on the slopes of the Southern Apennines, 

 where a part of the mischief is no doubt due to geological 

 causes beyond -the control of man; but by far the greater part 

 of it is the effect of the wastefulness and neglect of man, who 

 has paid no heed to the equilibrium of natural forces, and has 

 not considered the far-reaching effects of his actions. 



There were not wanting scientists and parliamentary men who 

 attempted to stay this continued work of destruction. But 

 failure attended every effort to introduce a real forest law 



' It is the very suljslance of the people which is being carried away, here 

 drop by droj^, there in floods, by the torrential discharge of our rivers into 

 the sea. 



