6 FORESTRY IN SPAIN. 



alluded to the important measures which had been 

 previously adopted with a view to the development of 

 the agricultural capabilities of Spain, to the good service 

 which had been done by the several corps of engineers, 

 and to what more might have been done, writes: 'The 

 law of the 22nd December, 1833, promulgating the 

 general ordinances relative to forests, recognised the 

 fact of the progressive destruction of these, and to meet 

 them created a General Directory, to the charge of which 

 were committed all those denominated public forests. 

 The Admiralty lost then all the privileges it had previ- 

 ously exercised in regard to inspection, marking and 

 appropriating trees. This was a reasonable and just 

 arrangement ; but on the other hand the interests of the 

 State were doomed by the limitation in Art. 24 that no 

 other proofs will be admitted beyond authentic titles of pro- 

 prietorship and uninterrupted possession for more than 

 thirty years ; which is a period far too brief in a matter 

 pertaining to lands without fixed boundaries, and aban- 

 doned from remote times. Moreover, while there is mani- 

 fested an interest in the proper regulation of this branch 

 of the service in these ordinances, comprising in all 236 

 articles, of arrangements in regard to administration, conser- 

 vation, sales, felling, utilization, policy, legal proceedings 

 and penalties, there is apparently a lack of sound doctrine 

 and of special knowledge of the matter in hand. It is a 

 collection of practical rules, some of them contradictory 

 and others impracticable, but they tended, beyond all 

 doubt, to restrain abuses by imposing severe penalties for 

 these. It is an almost literal translation of the French code, 

 applied without sufficient study to our country ; it opened 

 the door to great abuses ; and it was the occasion of no small 

 destruction of the riches, the conservation of which it was 

 designed to secure.' 



What was now felt to be of imperious necessity was 

 that those employed in this department should possess 

 the requisite special knowledge. To meet this it was there 



