170 LEGISLATION ON TORRENTS. 



as do all petitions, requires the official seal. The petitioners are authorised, 

 by express exception, ou paying ready money, to get the offieial seal applied 

 to those formulaSj either before or after the examination of the demand, 

 provided in every case that this be before the despatch of the document to 

 the conservator. In regard to deeds, entitled ' Advice of allocation of a 

 subvention,' copies are exempt from seal and registration. Despatches 

 which shall be delivered otherwise than to the public functionaries, for the 

 service of the Administration, and with notice of this destination, must be 

 written on stamped paper at 1 franc 25 cents per sheet. 



" The instructions which I have just given you for the execution of the 

 principal arrangements of the law on the reboisement of the mountains may 

 possibly prove incomplete. If the preceding explanations do not appear to 

 you suf&cient, I shall supplement them by special instructions. 



" The season being already very much advanced it is of impoitance to 

 set to work immediately. The watchmen belonging to the State or to 

 communes, on duty in the districts where the works are carried on, shall be 

 put at the disposal of the agents whenever you judge this to be necessary. 

 These overseers, by reason of their knowledge of the localities, will be for 

 the material portion of the works very useful auxiliaries. 



" When the number of the overseers shall be insufficient, you can pro- 

 pose to create for the object to which it refers the special employment of 

 watchmen, or of brigadiers, who shall be ultimately appointed to the over- 

 sight of the sowings and plantations, in terms of article 11 of the law of 

 28th July 1860. 



" I have already had occasion to point out to you the great importance 

 which the Administration attaches to the work of reboisement. I shall not 

 insist on this matter. 



" The agents and the overseers who take part in the works in an active 

 and useful way shall acquire special titles at the good pleasure of the 

 Administration. Every time also that the work of reboisement, whatever 

 be its nature, shall occasion to them extraordinary fatigue or expense, there 

 shall be allowed to them either in the form of special indemnity, or in the 

 form of an annual gratuity, a remuneration proportionate to the burdens 

 borne and to the services rendered. 



"In order to keep the Administration acquainted with the progress of the 

 works, you should cause to be sent to them, in the months of July and 

 January, statements in the forms Nos. 16 and 17 hereto annexed, in which 

 shall be given information relative to the works done during the preceding 

 half-year." 



It has not been deemed necessary to append the schedules referred to. 



It may have been observed that care was taken not to run counter to the 

 prejudices and feelings of those who were likely to be benefited more im- 

 mediately by the operations proposed ; and by a ministerial decision of the 

 21st November 1861, there were instituted annual conferences of the agents 

 employed in the superintendence and execution of the works of reboisement. 

 The following is a resume of the first of these conferences which was held on 

 the 9th, 10th, and 11th of December of that year, at Valence, for the region 

 of the Alps ; at Aurillac, for the region of the mountains of Central France ; 

 and at Tarbes, for the region of the Pyrenees. 



There are stated the questions discussed, and the annotations of the 

 Administration, the whole being arranged under different headings. 



