ACQUIRING LAND FOR PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS, ETC. 7 



Italy has suffered extremely from the ruin which follows the re- 

 moval of protective forests. One-third of all the land is unproductive, 

 and though some of this area may be made to support forest growth, 

 one-fourth of it is beyond reclamation, mainly as the result of cleared 

 hillsides and the pasturing of goats. The rivers are dry in summer; 

 in spring they are wild torrents, and the floods, brown with the soil 

 of the hillsides, bury the fertile lowland fields. The hills are scored 

 where the rains have loosened the soil, and landslides have left exposed 

 the sterile rocks, on which no vegetation finds a foothold. Such floods 

 as that of 1897, near Bologna, which did over $1,000,000 damage, 

 destroy property and life. 



The dearth of wood and especially the great need of protecting forests 

 to control stream flow have brought some excellent forest laws. In 

 spite of the first general forest law (1877), which regulated cutting and 

 forbade clearing on mountain slopes, large areas have persistently been 

 cleared, and though provision has been made for thorough reforesting 

 work, very little of the needed planting has been done. The classifi- 

 cation of the lands to which restriction shall and shall not apply is a 

 constant matter of dispute. An effort has been made to show that the 

 forest planting contemplated b}^ law is largely unnecessary. The last 

 point, however, has been safely settled by recommendations of a recent 

 commission, which declare that at least 500,000 acres will have to be 

 planted, at a cost of not less than $12,000,000, before the destructive 

 torrents, brought on by stripping and overgrazing the hillsides, can 

 be controlled. 



Spain has suffered greatly from destructive floods caused by insuffi- 

 cient forests on the mountains. She has enacted an elaborate system 

 of laws to prevent overcutting, but the indebtedness of the country 

 has prevented the efficient carrying out of these laws. 



Other countries which are working out comprehensive schemes of 

 protecting forests at the headwaters of mountain streams are England 

 in India, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 

 Russia, Roumania, and Japan. 



China holds a unique position as the only great country which has 

 persistently destroyed its forests. What has been done in other coun- 

 tries stands out in bold relief against the background of China, whose 

 mountains and hills have been stripped nearly clean of trees, and whose 

 soil is in many districts completely at the mercy of floods. Trees have 

 been left only where they could not be reached. Streams which for- 

 merly were narrow and deep, with an even flow of water throughout 

 the year, are now broad, shallow beds choked with gravel, sand, and 

 rock's from the mountains. During most of the year many of them 

 are entirely dry, but when it rains the muddy torrents come pouring 

 down, bringing destruction to life and all forms of property. In a 

 word, the Chinese, by forest waste, have brought upon themselves two 

 costly calamities floods and water famine. The forest school just 

 opened at Mukden is the -first step in the direction of repairing this 

 waste so far as it now may be repaired. 



The results of deforestation in China are particularly discussed and 

 graphically illustrated in the President's annual message to the second 

 session of the Sixtieth Congress. 



