110 MODERN FOEEST ECONOMY. 



should have announced there the present amount of the 

 budget of the receipts of the metropolis? 



'In Algeria it should certainly suffice if the annual 

 increase of taxes should amount to five millions through 

 the assured protection to agriculture afforded by the 

 forests, to justify an annual expenditure of five millions in 

 works of reboisement or of improvement of existing forests. 

 The State ought not to seek indeed more than a simple 

 equilibrium of expenditure and income in the Budget. I 

 do not know what time and what works will be necessary 

 to secure this annual augmentation of the revenue ; but 

 forest science and forest economy affirm unhesitatingly 

 that it would require less time for the existing fatalistic 

 inertia to lead to a much greater diminution by the gradual 

 increase of aridity, and by the uncertainty of the crops, 

 which is becoming greater every year. 



' Between these two alternatives, that of seeing the 

 receipts by degrees disappearing, or that of maintaining 

 an equilibrium in the budget by means of a productive 

 expenditure, a modern nation cannot hesitate.' 



SECTION B. EFFECTS OF REBOISEMENT IN ARRESTING 



AND PREVENTING THE OCCURRENCE OF TORRENTS 



AND INUNDATIONS. 



While in Algeria we see such results as have been 

 stated obtained elsewhere from extensive plantations in 

 mountainous regions, we find equally satisfactory results 

 obtained by the replanting of mountain basins and moun- 

 tain slopes. 



While Bremontier was towards the end of the last 

 century musing on the waste of land covered by the dunes 

 of Gascony, and the means of reclaiming those sand 

 wastes, it was perceived by others that the continuous 

 destruction of forests, and more especially the destruction 

 of these on the mountains, was producing disastrous 

 consequences. And more than one attempt was made by 

 legislative enactment to arrest the evil and reverse the 



