296 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



Italy has long suffered from the effects of forest 

 devastation by droughts and floods, but the gov- 

 ernment was always too weak to secure effective 

 remedies. Densely populated, with one-third of 

 its area unproductive and one-quarter almost be- 

 yond redemption, no country offers better oppor- 

 tunities for studying the evil effects of deforestation 

 on soil and waterflow. The state owns only 1.6 

 per cent, or 116,000 acres of forest, the balance of 

 7,000,000 acres belonging to communities and cor- 

 porations or to individuals. Yet by the laws of 

 1877, revised in 1888, the policy of state inter- 

 ference is clearly defined. Excellent though the 

 law appears on paper, it has probably not yielded 

 any significant results, since owing to the finan- 

 cial disability of the government there has not 

 even been general enforcement. This law placed 

 nearly half the area not owned by the state 

 under government control, namely, all woods 

 and lands cleared of wood on the summits and 

 slopes of the mountains above the upper limit of 

 chestnut growth, and those that from their charac- 

 ter and situation may, in consequence of being 

 cleared or tilled, give rise to landslips, caving, 

 or gullying, avalanches and snowslides, and may 

 to the public injury interfere with watercourses 

 or change the character of the soil or injure local 

 hygienic conditions. Government aid is to be 

 extended where reforestation appears necessary. 



Of the 76,000 acres which required immediate re- 



