FORESTRY IN SPAIN. 



* It is the case that with a view to remedy this evil there 

 have been constructed protective banks, in regard to 

 which this town addresses a separate representation to 

 your Highness ; but much more important would be such 

 a plantation of pines as has been spoken of which would 

 be productive of two great benefits one arresting and 

 breaking the force of the winds, and the other clothing and 

 solidifying the ground, delivering this beautiful town for all 

 time coming from an enemy which has been destructive 

 to it in many ways, and proportionally producing an 

 abundance of wood so necessary at the entrance to a port 

 which has its little shipbuilding yard, where are being 

 constructed continuously boats, pinaces, launches, and 

 other vessels used in fishery and commerce. 



' This is the more desirable because it would lead the 

 town to extend other plantations in its immediate vicinity, 

 for which it holds lands more extensive and well adapted 

 for the purpose than may be imagined, affording protection 

 to the new highway which is being constructed by orders 

 of his Majesty ; and giving shade to the new promenade and 

 canals of the Humedal, made by permission of your 

 Highness ; and crowning with trees the forest of Santa 

 Catalina, which protects this coast town on the north. 



' All of these plantations, and many others which might 

 be made in the vicinity of this town, were proposed to 

 our Town Council by our compatriot D. Gaspar Melchor 

 de Jovellanos.' 



It has been for many years past a subject of keen contro- 

 versy, I may say of bitter dispute, between the Govern- 

 ment and the students of forest science in Spain, whether 

 it would tend to the saving or the ruin of the country to 

 alienate the State forests, which, it is alleged, would almost 

 certainly issue in the destruction of them ; and it supplies to 

 the opponents of alienation a sentimental satisfaction to find 

 that Jovellanos, to the publication of whose Informe Sobre 

 Icy Agraria is attributed the modern development of 

 forest science and forest economy in Spain, of whom it 

 been alleged thathe was opposed to their views, was 



