RE-STOCKING DENUDED WOODLANDS. 201 



have been made able to produce a green swath, in Eu- 

 rope, have been planted with forest-trees, thereby 

 changing the nature of the country entirely. Formerly, 

 bleak winds swept unresisted over these mountains, 

 drifting away during the winter the snow which shel- 

 tered the surface against cold and dryness ; and while 

 during the spring, the rains and melting snow rushed 

 over the frozen soil, causing very often, in the rivers of 

 the valleys, inundations which occasioned great losses of 

 life and property, now after a thirty years' wood culture, 

 assisted by the above-described system of accumulating 

 and properly distributing the natural waters over the 

 entire mountain district, the winter snow is all over 

 retained, and when slowly melting, absorbed by a loose 

 and retentive mould ; and the rain and snow waters, in- 

 stead of rushing destructively downward, fill a retentive 

 bed of absorbent soil, storing up a supply of moisture 

 to feed, besides the forest vegetation, perennial springs 

 and brooks. 



D. Regulation of the Overflowing Rivers in the Valleys. 



The mountain waters which are not consumed by the 

 soil or air, flow, if regulated as before described, greatly 

 reduced into the valleys, forming brooks and streams or 

 increasing the contents of other streams and rivers. But 

 under extraordinary circumstances there may, in spite 

 of all human precautions, occur such an increase of 

 water that the shallow streams in the valleys cannot 

 hold it but let it run over the cultivated lands. To ob- 

 viate such overflows, or at least to mitigate their effects, 

 in case they occur, it is advisable to reduce the width of 

 the flowing waters and force them into smaller but 

 deeper beds. It is not necessary to make expensive em- 

 bankments or jetties, the cultivation of the willow 



