INTRODUCTION. 



very recent times are being destroyed with great rapidity and with 

 the inevitable results. Even in the countries most enlightened in 

 forest management such as France the results of forest destruction are 

 still very much in evidence. 



' When the mountains are laid bare 1 all is ruined. The rains 

 fall in torrents and rush off the denuded soil. They first carry off* the' 

 vegetable cover. The mountain shows its rocky skeleton, the rocks 

 eak up, cones of erosion are formed, landslides, gullies, unstable 

 slopes become so many running sores by which the substance of the 

 mountain is carried down. The rocks offer more or less resistance 

 according to their texture, but none withstands. Even granite splits 

 up into enormous blocks which roll irresistably down into the valley 

 . . . When the highlands are ruined, what becomes of the plain ? 

 . . . The river becomes a torrent when it rains, carrying down earth 

 trees and rocks. Swollen beyond measure, it flows over the plain' 

 in a sudden flood which destroys houses, flocks, villages and people 

 Che sudden flood is characteristic of denuded countries. . . The moun- 

 tain can no longer supply the valley with water. Now is the time of 

 drought and famine. Irrigation is mpossible, for the rivers are dry " 



In support of the statement that the destruction of mountain 



ests is prejudicial to irrigation it may be noted that the canal 



irrigation of Mesopotamia became disorganised by the sinkin- of the 



spring level due to disforestation and erosion, Babylonian tablets 



of great antiquity refer to the attempts to reclaim the country thus 



thrown out of cultivation. 2 The Arab conquest of Irak was completed 



with the capture of the cities Al-Medain in 637 A.D., at which time 



the plain of Chaldaea was still a fruitful garden 3 ; its present condition 



I known. At the time of the Spanish conquest of the plateau 



of Mexico the country was irrigated and intensively cultivated ; the 



forests of larch, oak and pine were protected by the most stringent 



R REC ""- T - lo-ll.***. March I, 1 904. Studies in French Forestry 



*Aorestalion in the United "Provtncei BENSKIN. 

 3 The Caliphate. Hi rise, decline and fall- MUIR. 



