144 CONTROL OF EROSION IN THE MOUNTAINS 



being small) that it was possible with the approval of the public to 

 make the boundaries larger and to really reforest on a considerable 

 scale. In the lower part of the Cevennes, including the departments 

 of the Gard and Herault, a region which has neither large lakes nor 

 glaciers to regulate the water flow, it has seemed best to create considerable 

 forested areas. 



"The great forest which one dreams of forming in this region will act like an enor- 

 mous spring; it would tend to retard the collection and then the runoff of water, by 

 decreasing the volume and by storing most of it in order to give out released water, 

 flowing with checked or diminished speed, to the tremendous profit of business and 

 agriculture. . . ." 



The era of hesitation and doubt in regard to the execution of the 

 reforestation work has passed; mistakes very rarely occur. The cer- 

 tainty of the methods used for combating floods at their starting points, 

 which finally consists only in a series of small, inexpensive measures, is 

 to-day recognized. The facts estabhshed the value of French methods. 

 The soil is stabilized, the aridity and barrenness of the slopes disappear 

 as the forest and grass growth is re-established, and "the torrent muddy 

 and menacing changes into a brook harmless and even beneficent"; this 

 is what has happened in many localities through the application of the 

 law of April 4, 1882. Everywhere the efficiency of the reforestation work 

 is apparent. 



"The provisions of the law of 1882 relative to grazing, despite the efforts of the 

 administration, have not been able always to give the results expected, because of the 

 opposition of the mountain people. Must one fall back on force? Nothing should 

 oblige too rapid a march, or the attempt to do everything at once; everything, on the 

 contrary, induces one to advance cautiously and progressively in a way which the 

 study of the past has shown full of difficulties and possible dangers. One feels that 

 much more would be obtained by example rather than by force. Encourage, by liberal 

 grants, the individual initiative; stimulate everywhere good will; make an appeal very 

 skillfully to the intelligence and interest of communities and individuals." 



Such is the administration program adopted in order to bring the 

 grazing population to a better comprehension of the value of the regula- 

 tion of grazing land. 



The work of grazing betterment, which is in every way the necessary 

 counterpart of reforestation, has been greatly extended, but there are 

 still obstacles to be met. 



"Grazing betterment work has been criticised on the ground that it has only ephem- 

 eral duration; the habits of the mountaineers are in poor keeping with the betterment 

 of a common weal, and people have proposed different remedies. Some have recently 

 asked, in order to smooth out the deficiencies of the law, to place the communal grazing 

 under 'a grazing regime,' similar to the regime applicable to the administration of 

 the communal forests." 



