200 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



area, In addition the private property is controlled entirely as regards clearing; that is to 

 say, no clearing may be done without notice to the Government authorities, or, in the mountain 

 districts, without sanction of the same. 



This control is especially stringent with reference to the holdings of village and city corpora- 

 tions, which represent over 27 per cent of the forest area. These must submit their plans of 

 management to the State forest department for approval, and are debarred from dividing their 

 property, thus insuring continuity of ownership and conservative management. 



The necessity for such control became apparent in the first quarter of the century, when as a 

 consequence of reckless denudation in the Alps, Cevenues, and Pyrenees, whole communities 

 became impoverished by the torrents which destroyed and silted over the fertile lauds at the foot 

 of the mountains. Some 8,000,000 acres of mountain forest in twenty departments were involved 

 in these disastrous consequences of forest destruction, with 1,000,000 acres of once fertile soil made 

 useless. The work of recovery was begun under laws of 1860 and 18(i4, and a revised law, the 

 reboisement act, of J882. Under this law the State buys and recuperates the land, or else forces 

 communities or private owners to do so with financial aid from the Government. 



Since the operation of this law the State has spent in purchases of worn-out lauds and in works 

 to check the torrents and in reforesting, nearly $12,000,000, not including subventions to commu- 

 nities and private owners. It is estimated that $28,000,000 more will have to be expended before 

 the area which the State does or is to possess, some 800,000 acres in all, will be restored. 



A forestry school at Nancy educates the officers, and is among the best on the Continent. 



England, in the home country, has had little need of a forest policy on account of its insular 

 position and topography. Of the 3,000,000 acres of woodlands, mostly devoted to purposes of the 

 chase or parks, 2 per cent are State forests, and so encumbered with rights of adjoining commoners 

 as pasture or for wood supplies that no rational management is possible. But in India there is 

 a well- organized forest administration with a very extensive area, namely, 00,000 square miles 

 reserved and 34,590 square miles protected and under active control of the Government. The 

 organization of the forestry service was begun in 1865 by German foresters. (See pages 259-263.) 

 At present special schools of forestry, one in England and one in India, supply the technical 

 education of the officers. 



Italy has long suffered from the effects of forest devastation by droughts and floods, but the 

 Government was always too weak to secure effective remedies. The State owns only 1.6 per cent 

 of 116,000 acres of forest, the balance of 7,000,000 acres belonging to communities and corporations 

 or individuals. Yet by the laws of 1877, revised in 1888, the policy of State interference is clearly 

 defined. Excellent though the law appears on paper, it has probably not yielded any significant 

 results or even general enforcement, owing to the financial disability of the Government. This 

 law placed nearly half the area not owned by the State under Government control, namely, all 

 woods and lands cleared of wood on the summits and slopes of the mountains above the upper 

 limit of chestnut growth, and those that from their character and situation may, in consequence 

 of being cleared or tilled, give rise to landslips, caving, or gullying, avalanches and snowslides, 

 and may to the public injury interfere with water courses or change the character of the soil or 

 injure local hygienic conditions. Government aid is to be extended where reforestation appeared 

 necessary. 



Of the 76,000 acres which required immediate reforestation, for reasons of public safety, only 

 22,000 were reforested in twenty years up to 1886, the Government contributing $85,000 toward 

 the cost. 



In the revised law of 1888, as a result of the vast experiences preceding, a further elabora- 

 tion of the same plan was attempted by creating further authority to enforce action. It is now 

 estimated that 534,000 acres need reforesting at a cost of $12,000,000, of which two-fifths is to be 

 contributed by the State. 



Expropriation proceedings may be instituted where owners refuse to reforest, with permission 

 to reclaim in five years by paying the cost of work, with interest, incurred by the State. 



In Austria, the disastrous consequences which the reckless devastation and abuse of her 

 mountain forests by their owners has brought upon whole communities have led to a more stringent 

 and general supervision of private and communal forests than anywhere else. Since 1883 there 



