346 Italy. 



or else sale by government; right of the department to 

 regulate and restrict pasture, but compensation to 

 be paid to restricted owners; encouragement of co- 

 operative planters' associations. The area to be 

 reforested was estimated at somewhat over 500,000 

 acres and the expense at over 7 million dollars. 



The execution of the law was not any stricter than 

 before. In 1900, the Secretary of Agriculture reports 

 that "the laws do not yet receive effective applica- 

 tion." The difficulty of determining what is and what 

 is not necessary to reforest, what is and what is not 

 absolute forest soil made ostensibly the greatest 

 trouble and occasioned delay, but financial incapacity 

 and political influences bidding for popularity are 

 probably the main cause of the inefficiency. 



Meanwhile the forest department tried to promote 

 reforestation by giving premiums from its scanty 

 appropriation and distributing from its 130 acres 

 of nurseries, during the years from 1867 to 1899, some 

 46 million plants and over 500 pounds of seed, and 

 furnishing advice free of charge. 



In 1897, again a commission was instituted to 

 formulate new legislation. This commission reported 

 in 1902, declaring that all accessible forests were more 

 or less devastated, accentuating the needs of water 

 management, and proposing a more rigorous definition 

 of ban forests, a strict supervision of communal forests, 

 and the management of private properties under 

 working plans by accredited foresters or else under 

 direct control of the forest department, the foresters 

 to be paid by the State, which is to recover from the 

 owners. It was found that in the past 35 years of 



