Methods of Hcboisement. Ill 



disturbed as little as possible in sowing or planting, and on a north 

 slope the seed may sometimes be best sown on the snow. 



437. Steep banks that will probably slide or crumble down, should 

 be rendered more sloping before trees are planted. They are dug 

 away at the top, and the soil slid into the ravine below, or some- 

 times thrown down by blasting. A drain may be secured by first 

 filling in the bottom with trees and brush. 



438. To obtain a chance for the roots of trees, the steep naked 

 slopes are dug into horizontal notches or terraces, beginning at the 

 top, and the edges of these are planted with almost any thing that 

 can be made to grow, or at least are secured by fascines and strong 

 stakes. These bands are nearer together where the slope is steeper, 

 and the brush by slow decay helps to fertilize the soil. These ter- 

 races tend to get filled up in a year or two, and thus afford a soil 

 deep enough to hold the trees, and then lines of young trees from 

 nurseries are set along these belts of deep soil. If they get fairly 

 rooted, they will secure the object intended, and will prevent the 

 recurrence of further damages. 



439. Paths are made along the banks, to give access to the work, 

 and for future use in the removal of products, but in these situa- 

 tions no tree will ever be taken, unless others are coming on to re- 

 place it. By these costly but necessary methods, about one-fourth 

 part of the work to be done in France in the way of restoration by 

 reboisement, which was begun in 1860, had been accomplished in 

 16 years, and 63,168 acres had been replanted with trees, at an 

 enormous cost ; but this expense was less than the damages which 

 a single flood might produce, and which wooded slopes on the hills 

 and mountains would have prevented. 



440. In many parts of our own country, and especially in the 

 mountainous regions of the interior and upon the Pacific coast, the 

 greatest injury is being done from the clearing and burning off of 

 mountain sides, and we already notice a marked effect upon the 

 climate, aside from the local damages to the surface from this cause. 1 

 The same, in less degree, may be seen in every part of the country, 

 wherever there are steep slopes exposed to heavy rains; and private 

 interests should lead to watchful care, in every case where these 

 effects are in operation, or are liable to occur. 



1 See Forestry Report, 1877, p. 334, for a statement of these effects. 



