284 Italy. 



diflBcult to carry on any reform, and the enforcement of 

 the laws has again and again led to serious trouble. 

 "Forestry is a sore point in the national economy of 

 Italy, as it involves sacrifice of money and time." Italy, 

 therefore, like ourselves, is still in the transition period 

 from forestal rapine to forest culture. 



Densely populated (33 million on 119 thousand 

 square miles), with nearly one-third of its area unpro- 

 ductive, or at least unused, and one-quarter of this 

 almost or quite beyond redemption, no country offers 

 better opportunities for studying the evil effects of de- 

 forestation on soil and waterflow. As a result' of the 

 combination of geology (slates and limestones), topo- 

 graphy (steep slopes), climate, and forest devastation 

 or destruction, mainly by pasturage of goats (two mil- 

 lion), the Italian rivers are invariably flooded in March 

 and mostly dry in summer; the melting of the snow 

 coinciding with the heavy spring rains turns them into 

 raging torrents (fiumare), silting over the fertile lands 

 in the valleys and occasioning landslides in the mountain 

 country, where extensive tracts are nearly bare of vegeta- 

 tion. Especially the rivers around Bologna, which in 



Bolletino ufficiale per V atnfninstrazione forestaU Italiana. 



Dirtzione generate delV Agricoltora : Relaziont interna aW antministrazione 

 dei boschi dontaniali inalienabili. 



Various essays by Prof. Vittorio Perona of Vallarabrosa in German maga- 

 z\m%\ziOX.a.h\y\nAllgemeine Forst-und Jagdzeitung^ 1888, 1888. 



Archeologia forestaU. Delfantica storia e giurisprudenza fortstale in 

 Italia. A. Di Berengkr, 1859. 



Maffei, Revista /orestale. 



Italy. By Prof. W. Deeke. 1904. 



// rimboschimento dello Apennino meridionale, by LuiGi Savastano, 

 1893. An exceedingly well written popular treatise on silviculture, which gives 

 also briefly insight into forest conditions and forest practice*. 



/ boschi e la nostra politica Italiana, by Bertagnolli, 1889. 



Italia moderna, 1904, article by Lunadoni. 



