OF >ORESf ENGINEERS Itt SPAIN. 



really at one with them. What however chiefly interests 

 us is that this work of Jovellano's marks the rise of the 

 present interest in forestry manifested in Spain. 



In a work by Sr. Don Francisco Garcioa Martino, entitled 

 Los Monies y el Cuerpo de Ingenieros en las Cortes Con- 

 stituents the Forests and the Corps of Forest Engineers 

 in the Cortes and Legislative Assembly, the author, hav- 

 ing referred to the work, proceeds : 'The well-remembered 

 Informe Sobre ley la Agraria of the distinguished Jovel- 

 lanos produced a profound sensation in the beginning of 

 the present century amongst the illustrious men of the 

 country who realised the necessity of developing more 

 fully the productions of our soil. The doings denounced 

 in that celebrated document, with impregnable proofs of 

 the vices inherent in the administrative management of 

 our public forests, led to the serious consideration of that 

 department of spontaneous products, which, with the 

 abrogation of certain ordinances relative to the marine 

 trade, were left abandoned and at the mercy of interested 

 persons, and the ever-increasing pecuniary necessities of 

 the municipal proprietors. Under the inspiration of the 

 views of Jovellanos, they broke the fetters which pre- 

 vented liberty being enjoyed by agriculture. Thus was 

 extended its sphere of action ; but under the pretext of 

 convenient, useful, and even necessary forest clearings, 

 there were committed such abuses in the forests, and 

 our best forest masses were felled in such a way that the 

 Government saw itself under the necessity of legislating 

 anew in regard to forest property, and of doing so in accord- 

 ance with the prevailing views of the day. Reformed 

 France and cultured Germany set the example of restrain- 

 ing and repairing destructions which ignorance and 

 administrative errors on the one hand, and wars and 

 political confusion on the other, had produced in their 

 forest riches.' 



Sr. Martinos, in his introduction to this work, having 



