598 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 199. 



admit this classification, but entrusted to the foresters the bold 

 mission of reclothing the mountains, under the inspiration of 

 Surrell, the apostle and master of this wise and beneficent 

 policy. 



THE EXECUTION OF THE WORK. 



In an enterprise without precedents the best guide was 

 indisputably the "Study of Torrents," by Surrell; but, not- 

 withstanding the correctness of its principles, the task was, 

 at the outset, beset with difficulties, and at times, it 

 seemed, with impossibilities. It is small wonder that 

 the engineers considered many of these torrents in- 

 vincible. The impression produced by the sight of these 

 devastated regions is a sort of stupor, or, at least, of discour- 

 agement, which makes one doubt the power of man in the 

 face of such disasters. But if we analyze the conditions with 

 care — if we compare the land in question with other regions 

 less devastated or still wooded — if, finally, we study precedents 

 which exist, although on a very much reduced scale, we shall 

 feel confidence in the means of regenerating the mountains, 

 which man alone has brought to a state of apparent ruin. 

 This re-assuring faith which inspired the foresters was well 

 expressed in the beautiful aphorism of Viollet-le-Duc, in his 

 work upon the grandeur of Mount Blanc: "In Nature there 

 are no little forces, or, rather, the work of Nature results only 

 from the accumulation of little forces. Man is, therefore, able 

 to act his part, since these little forces are under his dominion, 

 and his intelligence enables him to appreciate their effects." 



It was indispensable for the foresters to begin cautiously, 

 and to try first a series of experiments of a duration and of a 

 magnitude sufficient to enable them afterward to adjust the 

 remedies to the extent of the evils to be corrected. Their 

 firstefforts were to create forest-masses on the denuded slopes, 

 and it is only casually, and on certain small typical torrents, 

 that cautious corrective trials were made, from the results of 

 which a series of well co-ordinated observations was to be 

 built up as a basis for the treatment of greater torrents. 

 Having become familiar with the kind of dangers to be met, 

 and once armed by long study and observations, they dared 

 to assault resolutely the most formidable torrents. It is thus 

 that in the lower Alps the correction of the torrent of La- 

 boured subdued after eighteen years, furnished a complete 

 series of most valuable observations. It only remained to use 

 the principles thus established in treating the great torrents of 

 the valley of theUbaye, the extinction of which, begun in 1872, 

 is to-day accomplished. 



The experimental methods in the Alps of upper Provence 

 were ultimately applied in Savoy, Dauphiny and the Pyrenees. 

 Everywhere they have given the quickest, the most economi- 

 cal and the most conclusive results. We possess at present, 

 therefore, all the most desirable and most varied experiences 

 in all the kinds of work that may be necessary for the extinc- 

 tion of the greatest torrents. 



I will not detain you to describe the divers operations exe- 

 cuted throughout our field of action, but I desire to.deduce 

 from these experiences of more than a quarter of a century 

 the principles which have been justified by facts. 



The method of treatment is based ultimately upon the entire 

 reforestation of all the tributaries of each basin susceptible of 

 being eroded. The forest, thus re-established in its natural 

 place in the upper basins, is alone capable of insuring the ulti- 

 mate extinction of the torrent by maintaining forever the be- 

 neficent effect of corrective works which are temporary and 

 precarious at best. These works, in fact, have usually proved 

 ephemeral, except certain great works of unusual importance, 

 which, kept up by proper repairs, will be found in the future 

 the only witnesses of the first temporary construction by which 

 the forest will have profited to establish itself firmly and 

 develop vigorously, until its perpetual vitality is finally substi- 

 tuted for inanimate works. The regular course pursued is as 

 follows : (1) A survey and map of the boundaries of the lands 

 to be reforested or to be kept wooded in the basin of the tor- 

 rent ; (2) Reforestation, as prompt as possible, of all the stable 

 lands within the boundaries ; (3) The fixing of the unstable 

 lands by corrective works ; (4) Reforestation of unstable lands 

 as soon as they become fixed ; (5) Finally, the selection of the 

 engineering works which it will be necessary to preserve in 

 the future. 



On the side of sylviculture, the first question to consider was 

 to know whether forest-vegetation could be introduced into 

 altitudes much above that of the actual forests. Upon the 

 solution of this primary question depended in most cases the 

 justification of the method, because a great many of the larger 

 torrents have their origin in altitudes of nearly 3,000 meters, 

 while the actual forests hardly reach 2,000 meters. 



It has been made a rule to stop only where the snow lies for 

 several consecutive years, and we have sowed or planted, as 

 the case demanded, either Larch or Cembran Pine. Each 

 Pine or Larch becomes the centre of a circle of herbaceous 

 vegetation, increasing spontaneously from year to year, follow- 

 ing a law of selective association, which impresses every 

 observer. In a little while the mountain recovers its double 

 helmet of forestal and herbaceous vegetation, and nature 

 regains her rights. 



The reforestation of stable lands may be accomplished in a 

 very few years. If care is taken to prepare at the outset the 

 nurseries necessary for the different altitudes it is possible to 

 attack in the same year all the different climatic zones in their 

 most favorable seasons. At great altitudes special nurseries 

 may be dispensed with if some small grassy plats are provided. 

 It will suffice at first to sow appropriate seeds very thickly, 

 which at the end of four or five years furnish myriads of plants 

 that may be taken up and set out with pieces of sod, a course 

 that would hardly succeed with plants from a cultivated nurs- 

 ery. Seedlings thus produced may be kept until seven or 

 eight years old, to ase in banks and crevices, where the young 

 plants run great risk from stones brought down by the melting 

 snows and the hail-storms. Years of experience justify the 

 utmost confidence in our ability to reforest stable lands. 



The unstable lands usually occupy the steep banks of the 

 torrent or the slopes immediately above them. This insta- 

 bility is nearly always due to erosion by the torrent, sometimes 

 longitudinal, and again lateral, by cutting under the bottom of 

 slopes, which induces destructive landslides. 



When the slide is over, the earth is left in the form of a se- 

 ries of shelves or steps, at the bottom of which the soil has a 

 slope opposite to that of the general surface, and the result is 

 a series of depressions, into which the snows are drifted by 

 the winds. In spring the water from the melting sinks into 

 the fissures, saturates the earth, and thus causes the formidable 

 slipping away of entire mountain flanks or enormous washes 

 of mud in certain sections. It is in these sections that cor- 

 rective operations act the most important part. 



Correspondence. 



The Great Wurtemberg Linden. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In one of the August numbers of Garden and Forest 

 you mentioned the remarkable Linden of Neustadt, in Wur- 

 temberg, and the readers of your journal may take some 

 interest in learning a few more facts concerning this giant, 

 which can rival some of the Big Trees of your Pacific coast, if 

 not in height, at least in the size of its trunk, and in age. • 



Mr. Falter, a resident of the said town, writes as follows on 

 this subject : 



In 1867 the trunk was described as having a diameter of 

 twelve feet and a circumference of thirty-seven feet. The 

 botanists Kemmler and Von Martens, in their flora of Wur- 

 temberg, published in 1882, gave a circumference of forty-two 

 feet. In reality these dimensions are difficult to verify, be- 

 cause the main trunk is surrounded with a solid wall of sup- 

 port two feet in height. One of the principal branches, which 

 threatens to fall off, is likewise protected by a wall, and these 

 make measurement impossible. The height of the trunk to 

 the branching is only six feet. The branches extend horizon- 

 tally over the ground. Eight young Lindens have been planted 

 at different times to fill the gaps in the dome of verdure of the 

 principal tree. The total heightof this is to-day seventy-two feet. 

 On June 17th, 1773, a storm broke off one of the two vertical 

 branches at a height of thirty-two feet from the base. The scar 

 is now well covered with a new bark, but the tree suffered 

 greatly by this amputation. On July 18th, 1847, during a hard 

 tempest, the second vertical branch was broken thirty feet from 

 the trunk, and this grave wound is seen very plainly through 

 the foliage, and will never be cured. The diameter of the 

 whole crown, from one extreme branch to the other, is 114 

 feet. The original trunk and the principal branches are filled 

 with masonry in order to delay the destruction of the tree, 

 which is visibly approaching, for in many places the sap has 

 ceased to circulate. The tree belongs to the species Tilia 

 grandiflora, Ehrhart, while the trees planted around it are T. 

 parviflora, Ehrh. The columns intended to support the hori- 

 zontal branches of the tree still exist to the number of ninety- 

 eight, ninety being of stone and eight of wood. A few are no 

 longer in their places. Kemmler and Von Martens add, that 

 this Linden marks the place of an ancient tribunal which was 

 held in the open air. Indeed, everywhere in Germany during 



