INUNDATIONS. 593 



should possess the necessary technical and local knowledge 

 to do so. 



In France, up to 1898, the Government had acquired 

 375,000 acres in mountain districts for reboisement, and 

 spent 13,100 in 1905-6 on the necessary works, having by 

 1892 spent altogether 1,820,000 on the reboisement of 

 156,197 acres. 



Extensive works have also been carried on in Austria 

 since 1882, 180,000 having been spent up to 1894. In 

 Switzerland, in the four years 1894-7, about 50,000 has 

 been spent for the rectification of torrents, in engineering 

 works and planting. 



ii. Wasteland in Mountain Regions, especially on sloping 

 ground, should be planted up, and the forests in such regions 

 carefully maintained. 



Surell,* in 1841, published a paper on the subject, making 

 the following assertions : 



(a) The covering of mountain soil with well-managed woods 

 prevents the formation of destructive torrents, whilst the 

 clearance of mountain woodlands favours them. 



(b) The reboisement of mountain districts will rectify 

 mountain torrents, while the clearance of forest and its 

 soil-covering doubles the strength of the torrents, and causes 

 new ones. 



A treatise on forest protection cannot go very far into the 

 subject of the management of mountain forests. The following 

 remarks, however, are useful : 



The forest should be under the selection system. Planting 

 is better than sowing for wasteland and blank spaces. The 

 species to be cultivated are chiefly Mountain and Cembran 

 pines, larch and spruce. The lines of plants should be at an 

 angle of 45 to the course of the torrent. Grass seed, consist- 

 ing of a mixture of Avena elatior, L., Bromus erectus, Huds., 

 Holcus lanatus, L., should also be sown. Uprooting of trees 

 and stumps in fellings must be abandoned. Pasture, usage 

 of litter and other destructive forest usages must be absolutely 

 forbidden. 



* " Etude sur les Torrents des Hautes Alpes." Paris, 1841. 

 F.P. Q Q 



