148 LEGISLATION ON TOEBBNTB. 



" But the greater part of the general councils have not ceased to call, 

 year by year, for legislative measures, designed to favour the reforesting of 

 the mountains. Many have even voted subventions with this view. There 

 may be cited; more especially, the general councils of the Puy-de-dome, of 

 the Lozere, of the Bouches-du-rMne, of I'Ariege, and of UAin ; and lastly, a 

 certain number of communes have imposed on themselves sacrifices, and 

 have taken the initiative in works of reforesting ; but these efforts, which 

 attest the urgency of the need, are not in keeping with the magnitude of the 

 evil, and they must remain, moreovet, inoperative in securing the co-operation 

 of the State. It is this co-operation which your Majesty has sought to 

 secure to the population of the mountains. 



"The region in which reforesting is becoming most urgently necessary 

 comprises a certain number of departments, furrowed by many chains of 

 mountains, of which the principal, and the most deforested, are the Alps, 

 the Pyrenees, the Cevennes, and the mountains of Auvergne. It is in these 

 chains of mountains which the principal aflSuents of our rivers, and the rivers 

 themselves, of which the basins are most exposed to inundations — the Rhone, 

 the Is6re, the Loire, the Durance, the Garonne, &c. — take their rise. 



" Statistics have been prepared at different times to determine the extent 

 of lands susceptible of reforesting in the mountain regions of France. These, 

 carried out more fully and completed of late years by the forest administrators, 

 have been verified by special reports which had been required of conservators 

 in 1859. The results have been tabulated, and show that lands susceptible of 

 reforesting, in the departments the most threatened by the denudation of 

 their declivities, may be estimated proximately to be in extent 1,133,000 

 hectares. These lands Ijelong to the State, to communes, and to private 

 proprietors. 



" No legislative arrangement appears to be necessary in regard to lands 

 belonging to the State ; it suffices to secure the reforesting of these that 

 special credits be introduced into the budget of the administration of the 

 forests. Your Majesty's Government has already taken the initiative in 

 this matter, and since 1855 a sum of 500,000 francs has been appropriated 

 annually to works of replenishing in the State forests. This appropriation 

 has allowed of a great reduction of the void spaces existing in the forests, and 

 of works being executed during the last five years on lands situated on the 

 mountains or on the declivities, and thus has led to the reforesting of 

 fourteen thousand hectares. By continuing this appropriation of 500,000 

 francs for a certain number of years, it is believed that the forty thousand 

 hectares of lands belonging to the State in these departments of the moun- 

 tains may be completely replanted with woods. 



" But it is not the same with lands belonging to communes, to public 

 bodies, and to private proprietors ; the replantings executed by them on 

 these lands are the result of a few isolated efforts — trials left to themselves, 

 without direction and without encouragement. The State ought to inter- 

 fere, to give to these works the impulse demanded by the general interest ; 

 and a law is required to point out the importance of this joint action, and to 

 determine the conditions of it. 



" For the greater part of the lands situated on mountains, the inter- 

 vention of the State can only consist in subventions granted to private 

 proprietors, to communes, and to public bodies. These subventions might 

 consist, in those which relate to private proprietors, in supplying to them 

 plants and seeds before the execution of the works, aoid in iie subsequent 



