TUNISIA 3 



settlements are of protective value since cultivated land forms 

 admirable fire lines. Settlers living within forest boundaries are 

 an asset when fire must be controlled. There can be no grazing 

 on a forest for six years after a fire, and railroad rights-of-way / 

 must be cleared of inflammable debris and, if necessary, addi- 

 tional fire lines constructed parallel to the track. There can be 

 no deforestation in reserved forests, unless the wood is cut for 

 use in protection against erosion, for the improvement of springs, 

 or to stop drifting sand. The grazing control methods, al- 

 though of wide interest, are comparatively undeveloped as com- 

 pared with the United States. 



Quite a feature of the cork-oak management is the simplicity 

 of regulation. It is very much as if the forester were managing 

 a valuable crop of fruit trees which matured periodically. The 

 approximate equal annual cut is secured by working about the 

 same area each year, but the same cork-oak forest is only worked 

 for bark once in three years. A most important lesson to be 

 gathered from a study of forestry in an arid country is the diffi- 

 culty of restocking after the original forest has been destroyed, 

 a principle which must apply with equal force in our Southwest. 

 This is to be expected, since the period of drought occurs during 

 the summer months when the plants are less able to withstand 

 lack of moisture than during the cooler weather. The methods 

 of forestation, moreover, have an excellent application in southern 

 California where the winter rains correspond so closely to those 

 in Tunisia. On the more favorable situations, the seed-spot 

 method of sowing is preferred; on the more difficult sites, ball 

 planting must be resorted to, notwithstanding the additional 

 expense. In order to reduce the cost of forestation, spacing as 

 wide as six by eight feet is officially allowed, but, in practice, 

 there are rarely more than 250 seed spots per acre. Sowing or 

 planting just before or during the winter rains is the invariable 

 practice. Thus far the scale of operations has been so small 

 that forestation in Tunisia may still be considered as experi- 

 mental in character. 



The accomplishment in Tunisia since 1885 has been consider- 

 able, considering the small appropriations which are available. 



