RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND. 443 



chief, and at the same time moistening and fertihsing the 

 soil. The changes brought about by the first revolution 

 have altered all that. Freed from the regime forestier, 

 individuals and communes alike have worked their will 

 upon the forests, cutting down timber indiscriminately 

 and increasing the havoc by driving their herds of cattle 

 through what was left of trees — the cowherds in their 

 ignorance persuading themselves that " forest " and " pas- 

 ture " were natural enemies and incompatibles. In con- 

 sequence, the land has become impoverished. Torrents 

 sweeping down the mountain- sides unhindered have carried 

 along with them what little soil there was on the tops, 

 bringing down pebbles and even big boulders in unmeasured, 

 destructive avalanches, ruining fields, wrecking entire 

 villages and so indirectly -that is, where the mischief is 

 now mainly and painfully felt — assisting depopulation. 

 The effect has been traced by the inquirer of the Musee 

 Social. France is said to have lost five milHons of popula- 

 tion through the deboisement. The engineer Surell having 

 called public attention to the fact, in 1841, in i860 a law 

 was passed (since supplemented by other legislation, more 

 notably by the Act of 1882) which, in spite of its tentative 

 and experimental form, under present circumstances de- 

 serves our attention, providing encouragement for afforesta- 

 tion. And at the same time the rather paltry sum of 

 £60,000 a year was made available for such purpose. With 

 such modest aid, up to 1878, according to M. Herve Mangon, 

 about 250,000 acres were planted. By 1900 the figure 

 had grown to about 400,000 acres. C'est peu, commented 

 at the time M. Cardot, seeing that the upper basins of 

 rivers affected by mountain torrents cover between 5,000,000 

 and 7,000,000 acres. And in truth legislators and states- 

 men were, in passing those laws, thinking more of fixing 

 the pebbles and improving the impoverished mountain 

 pasture — most of which is in possession of communes, which 

 ruin it by overstocking and neglect — than of forest proper. 

 However the law of i860 introduced two new provisions in 

 the interest of afforestation, which it may be worth men- 

 tioning. In the first place it gave the Government power 



