68 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Production of Timber, in cubic feet. 



The insufficiency of normal production has been hitherto met 

 by excessive felling, which has encroached upon the capital of 

 timber, and by importation, which increases to an alarming 

 extent. 



The law on the forest domain has considered the difficult 

 problem of the restoration of forests with great breadth of view, 

 and has attempted to remedy the fundamental defect of the 

 present servitude, which on the bare lands ends by causing 

 much harm. It is injurious inasmuch as it forbids the breaking 

 up of the land to convert it into fields and meadows, which 

 would often protect the soil exposed to erosion and washing 

 away by torrential rains : further, as it is not concerned with the 

 positive duty of re-afforesting and of consolidating slopes liable 

 to landslides, it is an encouragement to inertia. The law on the 

 forest domain considers the problem from the standpoint of 

 public utility, not only as connected with the hydraulic, hygienic 

 and economic aspects, but also with the aesthetic and historical 

 ones. Due attention is also paid to those forests which provide 

 the only work available to the inhabitants of mountain communes. 

 But it was not enough to provide for the defence of the soil by 

 the improvement of the water-courses and of the forests ; it was 

 necessary also to increase our forest domain, by creating large 

 extents of forest sufficient to meet the future penury of timber 

 from which our country will certainly suffer. Thus betimes the 

 administration will purchase bare lands suitable for profitable 

 afforestation, and badly managed woods, taking the place of 

 private ownership which can ill afford to wait a long time for 

 returns. The administration will also exert the necessary 

 pressure on corporations and private owners by setting an 

 example of good management, and will also assist them by 

 means of active propaganda, advice, technical direction, prizes, 

 and exemptions from taxation calculated to render forestry in 

 the mountains more profitable and consequently preferable to 

 other forms of exploitation. The forest officials should become 



