Behoisement WorJc. 205 



wholesome restrictions vanished; inconsiderate exploita- 

 tion by the farmers began and the damage came so 

 rapidly that in less than ten years after the beginning 

 of freedom, the effect was felt. Within three years 

 (1793) the first complaints of the result of unrestricted 

 cutting were heard, and by 1803 they were quite general. 

 The brooks had changed to torrents, inundating the 

 plains, tearing away fertile lands or silting them over 

 with the debris carried down from the mountains. Yet 

 in spite of these early warnings and the theoretical dis- 

 cussions by such men as Boussingault, Becquerel and 

 others, the destructive work by axe, fire and over-pastur- 

 ing progressed until about 800;000 acres of tillable 

 land had been rendered more or less useless, and the pop- 

 ulation of 18 departments had been impoverished or 

 reduced in nimiber by emigration. 



The first work of recovery was tentatively begun in 

 1843, but the political events following did not promote 

 its extension, until in 1860 a special law charged the 

 Forest Department with the mission of extinguishing the 

 torrents. There were recognized two categories of work, 

 the one, considered of general public interest being des- 

 ignated as obligatory, the other with less immediate need 

 being f acidtative ; the territories devastated by each river 

 and its aflfluents on which the work of recovery was to 

 be executed being known as perimeters. In the obliga- 

 tory perimeters private lands were to be acquired by the 

 state by process of expropriation, the communal proper- 

 ties were to be only for a time occupied by the state 

 and after the achievement of the recovery were to be 

 restituted on payment of the expense of the work, or else 

 the corporation could get rid of the debt by ceding one- 

 half of its property to the state. 



