KEBOISEMENT. 119 



before the close of the year, But the execution of the 

 works could not be undertaken if the necessary credit 

 were not conditionally granted. The sum stated was the 

 minimum which would be required. According to infor- 

 mation in possession of the Administration, to execute 

 the works in Savoie alone would absorb more than a 

 million of francs ; and it was stated that it was impossible 

 to attach too great prominence to the essential fact, which 

 according to the opinion of the Corps of Engineers of 

 Roads and Bridges and of the Forest Corps, completely 

 covers and governs the question, and which is this that 

 the scourge of inundations cannot be averted without the 

 preventive action of works of reboisement, and that there 

 was consequently an urgent necessity to carry out these 

 works with the least possible loss of time. 



The Budget Committee, in reporting on this, called 

 attention to the fact that out of the total grant applied 

 for, there had to be met the expenses of the construction 

 of forest roads, and subsidies to public roads facilitating 

 the exploitation of forests, and the erection of forest 

 lodges ; and further, 1, To grant seeds and plants, and 

 subsidies in money to communes and private individuals 

 undertaking works of reboisement or gazonnement ; 2, 

 To acquire lands within areas in which works of reboise- 

 ment were declared to be of public utility ; 3, The execu- 

 tion of works intended to buy ground and extinguish 

 torrents by such works over areas in which they were 

 compulsory ; and 4, Subsidies to individuals and communes 

 possessed of servitudes, to promote the substitution of 

 cattle for sheep, and to secure the conservation of mountain 

 pastures. And in regard to the extra million called for 

 they entered at large on a detailed statement of what 

 had been done, and with what results, giving tabulated 

 statements as well as details, all showing how effectually 

 reboisement had arrested torrents, and that for the com- 

 pletion of the works in the Alps, in the Cevennes, and the 

 Plateau of Central France, and in the Pyrenees, there 

 would be required 148 millions of francs (upwards of 



