FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND 



9 



six feet wide in the hill side. The ground behind such 

 structures is planted as soon as practicable. Hardy shrubs 

 are set out in masses of glacial drift or the talus of a 

 slope where the ground is too unstable or too sterile to 

 support trees ; but the aim in all cases is to get the land 

 in forest as soon as it can be done. The more elaborate 

 masonry structures have been employed but little in later 

 years, at points where particular villages, water power 

 works, or railroads have required special protection.* 

 The experience of the French has demonstrated that 

 progress in the control of mountain erosion as a whole 

 is measured by the spread of the "armor of the forest" 

 over denuded slopes. 



The restoration projects of the state are still supple- 

 mented by the effort initiated in i860 to induce private 



land owners, Communes, 



associations of land owners 

 or cheese-makers, etc., to 

 protect their own holdings 

 with public aid and co- 

 operation. The state may 

 furnish seed or plants for 

 tree planting or improving 

 pasture lands, or may co- 

 operate in the construction 

 of dams and avalanche 

 breaks, or may pay the 

 owner a fixed sum upon his 

 completing plantations or 

 other measures approved 

 by the forest authorities. 

 The amount or form of 

 assistance is not covered by 

 fixed rules. Each project 

 is worked up by the local 

 forest officers and submit- 

 ted to the Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture for approval. The 

 aggregate amount of co- 

 operative work of this 

 character has not been 

 great. 



Many bills have been in- 

 troduced in the French 

 Parliament to give her 

 mountain watersheds bet- 

 ter protection. Nearly all 

 of these have sought to create large protective belts, 

 carrying out the principle of prevention which is em- 

 bodied in the present law but has failed in its applica- 

 tion. The proposed legislation is built up largely on 

 three principles : 



(1) The nationalization of much larger areas in the 

 mountains, extending the perimeters of the existing res- 

 toration projects to cover the whole watersheds, not 

 merely the parts of them where immediate erosion is 

 active or dangerous. 



* These costly structures were undertaken, as a rule to protect local 

 property or economic interests of special importance, where it was feared 

 that protection from reforestation would come too late. 



THE BED OF AN ALPINE STREAM 



The torrents of water which swept down this water course have been 

 in a measure held back by a series of barrier dams while trees have 

 also been planted. 



(2) The placing of all forests in the mountainous 

 sections of France under public control and giving them 

 a special status as protection forests. Such areas would 

 either be put under the "regime forestier" or made sub-- 

 ject to special regulation forbidding the cutting of small 

 trees without public sanction. One of the proposals 

 would exempt protection forests in private ownership 

 from taxation. 



(3) The establishment of a "regime pastoral," corre- 

 sponding to the present "regime forestier" but covering 

 private as well as Communal grazing lands in the moun- 

 tain regions. Grazing would thus be regulated by the 

 Service of Waters and Forests as public owned timber 

 lands are now controlled, and the recalcitrant Communes 

 would be compelled to submit to national regulation of 



their pastures as they were 

 in 1827, in the case of their 

 forests. The principle of 

 the "regime pastoral" is ex- 

 actly that which has been 

 applied in the National 

 Forests of the Unted 

 States to limit the num- 

 ber of stock grazed on 

 every holding to what its 

 forage will adequately sup- 

 port without deterioration. 

 On Communal lands, it is 

 proposed to allot grazing 

 sights to every member of 

 the Commune, thus divid- 

 ing up the total number of 

 sheep, goats or cattle which 

 the Communal pasture will 

 support. Under this plan, 

 the individual citizen might 

 either use his grazing right 

 himself, or rent it to others. 

 Americans may well be 

 gratified that the develop- 

 ment of our National For- 

 est policy at an earlier 

 stage in the settlement and 

 economic growth of the 

 nation than the measures 

 attempted by France has 

 placed us in a much better 

 position to protect our mountain watersheds. Every- 

 thing proposed in the most progressive bills before the 

 French Parliament can now be done on practically all of 

 our mountain watersheds in the West under National 

 Forest administration and can be extended to the water- 

 sheds of the East under the policy initiated by the Weeks 

 Law. The lesson for us to draw from the bitter experi- 

 ences and handicaps of France is to let no influence or 

 local interest break up the national protection of our 

 watersheds in the existing public forests or stop the 

 extension of such protection to all important watersheds 

 in our mountain ranges. 



