378 RECENT ITALIAN LAW FOR REBOISEMENT. 



theories beyond the limit necessary for understanding the execution of 

 practical labors. 



The course is to embrace the following subjects : 



1. Forest-surveys; the marking out of woodlands; measurement and calculation of 

 small areas, as also of the trunks of trees, linear distances, &c. ; estimation of single 

 trees and parcels of forest, as to quantity and value; making of forest-roads; means 

 of shielding forests against avalanches and smaller slides. 



2. Study of the kinds of wood and of injurious herbs that should be known by sub- 

 foresters. 



3. Elementary study of the soil, and of the relations between different kinds, and of 

 the nature of different tracts of land. 



4. Indispensable ideas of climatology and meteorology. 



5. Cultivation and management of forests. 



6. The information most important to subforesters concerning the working of 

 forests, forest-police and protection, and book-keeping. 



7. The number of pupils shall not exceed thirty. 



The applicants must be examined in the primary studies as taught in 

 the best schools, and, at the end of the course, and if approved, a certifi- 

 cate is given. The iustructors are appointed by the cantons, subject 

 to approval of the central authority, and their pay is provided for out 

 of the general treasury. 



Under regulations of the same date, the mode of making application 

 for the establishment of new forests, and for planting forests for protec- 

 tion, is defined. It must be accompanied by a detailed statement of the 

 place, names of proprietors interested, an indication of the kind and 

 extent of the work desired, and other details sufficient to enable the 

 central authority to understand the case. The federal government 

 grants aid for reboisemeut and works of defense, which is paid only 

 after completion, but it will not entertain claims exceeding first esti- 

 mates. The cantons, on receiving this subsidy, engage on their part to 

 carefully protect the work done, and to execute such works of repair or 

 improvement as may be necessary. 



The report of the Department of the Interior, made in April, 1874 

 (p. 52), shows that labors of improvement and reboisement had been 

 carried on upon a large scale in the canton of Grisons. 



In the case of planting for protection, however, the attempts made in 

 most localities were as yet too timid and incomplete, as compared with 

 strictest necessity, to justify hopes of notable success, and in places 

 where there was the most urgent need nothing had been done. 



ITALY. 



Kecent law for reboisement. 



On the 20th of June, 1877, a law took effect in the Kingdom of Italy, 

 for regulating the planting or clearing of woodlands, where the public 

 ■welfare required, and for relieving such lands from servitudes and rights 

 of usage where the exercise of these rights interferred with the princi- 

 pal object sought to be attained. The fact Is recognized in that country, 

 as elsewhere, that forests in mountainous regions have suffered greatly 

 from abuse of pasturage, and that nothing short of the energetic meas- 

 ures provided in this would rescue the country from the evils that might 

 attend the wasting of forests, where their presence was necessary, as in 

 cases mentioned in the the first articles of this law. 



Title I. — Concerning the lands submitted to forest-regulations. 



Article 1. — The following lands shall be considered, for the purposes 

 of the present law, as subject to forest-regulation , viz : Forests and lands 



