Reboisement Work. 231 



Etude sur les torrents, in 1841, its relation to forest 

 cover, and the need of attacking it at the sources. 

 The first work of recovery was tentatively begun 

 in 1843, but the political events following did not 

 promote its extension, until, in 18G0, a special law 

 charged the Forest Department with the mission of 

 extinguishing the torrents. There were recognized 

 two categories of work, the one, considered of general 

 public interest being designated as obligatory, the 

 other with less immediate need being facultative; the 

 territories devastated by each river and its affluents 

 on which the work of recovery was to be executed 

 were known as perimeters. In the obligatory peri- 

 meters, private lands were to be acquired by the state 

 by process of expropriation, the communal properties 

 were to be only for a time occupied by the state and 

 after the achievement of the recovery were to be 

 restituted on payment of the expense of the work; 

 or else the corporation could get rid of the debt by 

 ceding one-half of its property to the state. 



In the facultative perimeters, the state was simply 

 to assist in the work of recovery by gratuitous dis- 

 tribution of seeds and plants, or even by money sub- 

 ventions in some cases. It appeared hard that the 

 poor mountaineers should have to bear all the expense 

 of the extinction of the torrents, and much complaint 

 was heard. In response to these complaints, in 1864, 

 a law was passed allowing the substitution of sodding 

 instead of forest planting for at least part of the 

 perimeters, with a view of securing pastures; but this 

 method seems not to have been successful and was 

 mostly not employed. 



