■REPORT BY MINISTER OF FINANCE, 1860. 151 



" The replanting there is not less necessary in the interest of the shepherd 

 of the mountain, than in the interest of the agriculturists of the valley , who are 

 threatened by inundations ; and the legitimacy of the exceptional measures 

 in certain determinate cases is justified by public interests of the very highest 

 order. It would be possible, movever, to moderate the dreaded effect of 

 these measures : there might be granted, for Lnstanee, to private proprietors, 

 after the reboisement of their lands, the power of re-entering on the proprietor- 

 ship of these lands on repayment to the State of the indemnity of expropri- 

 ation, and the expense of the works. The replanting with woods being 

 effected, the public interest is secured, and the proprietor might be permit- 

 ted to exercise a kind of action .of recovery within a determinate period. 

 On the other hand, the State would thus recover a portion of the advances 

 made, and might apply the amounts received to new works of reboisement. 



" So, also, might communes be permitted to recover possession of their 

 wooded lands, on reimbursement to the State of the advances made ; but 

 more than this, they might be allowed, without making any reimbursement, 

 to resume possession of one half of these lands, on ceding the other half of 

 them absolutely to the State. 



" These varied combinations will be appreciated at their true value by the 

 Council of State, which will know how to reconcile the requirements of the 

 public interest with the guarantees and arrangements due to private pro- 

 prietors, and to communes. 



"It only remains to intimate to your Majesty the financial measures 

 which it appears ought to be adopted, in order to the carrying out of the 

 projet de loi. 



" A sum of ten millions should be appropriated to subventions, and to 

 works of replanting with woods on the mountains. The necessary resources 

 for meeting this expense should be obtained through the sale of woods 

 belonging to the State to a corresponding amount of ten millions. 



" The alienation of these woods should take place successively, throughout 

 a period of ten years, in such a way as to proportionate each year the 

 resources obtained by the sale of woods on the plain to the allocations 

 granted to the budget for replanting the mountains with woods. The Forest 

 Administration should be charged with the double operation, and the 

 Minister of Finance should be charged to see that the advances made from 

 the treasury be covered by the payments received in the year. 



"For the success of the operation of replanting, as well as for the 

 successful operation of the alienation of woods, it is not needful to urge on 

 precipitately either the works to be executed, on the one hand, or, on the 

 other hand, the sales to be effected. An allocation of a million per annum, 

 devoted to replanting, is sufficient for the distribution of subventions and 

 important premiums, and for the undertaking of somewhat considerable 

 sowings and plantations within the exceptional boundaries specified by the 

 Imperial Decrees. The corresponding annual alienations of woods to the 

 value of a million can occasion no perturbations in the sales of landed pro- 

 perty, or of fellings of timber. Hitherto, the success of alienations of woods 

 has always been neutralised by the mass of operations going on at the time 

 to meet the urgent requirements of a period of crisis. The alienation which 

 will take place in carrying into execution the present law will be made 

 in circumstances much more favourable, and there may be anticipated 

 good results. 



" The woods of which the projected law proposes the alienation are those 



