Development of Forest Policy. 303 



attempts, sometimes successful, have been made by one 

 faction, usually led by the Minister of Finance, to re- 

 duce the public forest area (desamortizadoro) , opposed 

 by another faction under the lead of the forest adminis- 

 tration, which was forced again and again to re-classify. 

 In 1883, the alienable public forest area was by decree 

 placed under the Minister of Fiuance, the inalienable 

 part remaining under the Minister of Public Works 

 (Fomento) ; very much the same as it was in the United 

 States until recently. The public debt and immediate 

 financial needs of the corporations gave the incentive 

 for desiring the disposal of forest property, and, to 

 satisfy this demand, it was ordered, in 1878, that all 

 receipts from the State property and 20 per cent, of the 

 receipts from communal forests were to be applied 

 towards the extinguishment of the debt. 



The ups and downs in this struggle to keep the public 

 forests intact were accentuated on the one hand by the 

 pressing needs of taking care of the debt, on the other 

 hand by drought and flood. Thus, in 1874, the sale in 

 annual installments of over 4.5 million acres in the 

 hands of the Minister of Finance was ordered, but the 

 floods of the same year were so disastrous, (causing 7 

 million dollars damage, 760 deaths, 28,000 homeless), 

 being followed by successive droughts, that a reversion of 

 sentiment was experienced, which led to the enactment 

 of a reboisement law in 1877. This law, with all sorts 

 of unnecessary technical details, ordered the immediate 

 reforestation of all waste land in the public forest, 

 creating for that purpose a corps of 400 cultivators 

 {capatacas de cnliivos). To furnish the funds for this 

 work the communities were to contribute 10 per cent, of 



