PROTECTION itval 
pasturage which the forest affords. The most objec- 
tionable feature to forest pasturage is the fact that 
the temptation is strong to set fire to benefit the 
grass at the expense of the trees. 
A heavy sod prevents natural regeneration. In 
forests with a dense canopy sod seldom forms. 
Sheep and goats are extremely injurious when in 
large numbers, owing to the fact that they feed upon 
a wider variety of substances than do other browsing 
animals. M. Mélard, in his famous paper on the 
Insufficiency of the World’s Timber Supply, which 
was read at the International Congress of Silvicul- 
ture, thus speaks of forests and sheep in Australia: 
“Ts there any chance that these very insufficient 
forests will be properly cared for? Unfortunately, 
the negative may be foretold with certainty in a 
country which lives by sheep, and in 1896 possessed 
89,745,000 of them. There is no possible modus 
vivendi between sheep and forests. In pastoral coun- 
tries the forests universally disappear. Rules and 
prohibitions are useless. They can only be enforced 
in moist years when outside grazing is good. The 
sheep then multiply, because food is plenty. When 
the dry year comes the forest is sacrificed. The pub- 
lic interest is asserted to require that the breeders 
must be saved from ruin at all costs. The forests are 
opened, the hungry animals fall on the youngest and 
