224 MGHSLATION ON TORBBNTS. 



" The sanctioned works, travaux facuUatifs, of 1865 embraced a total 

 extent of 7,734:'15 hectares, and necessitated allocations on the part of the 

 State to communes and private proprietors of subventions, in kind or in 

 money, amounting to 374,772'32 francs, with an expenditure on the works 

 of 169,776'26 francs for the reboisement of lands belonging to the State — in 

 all, 544,548-58 francs. 



" The subventions, in money and in kind, granted by the Administration 

 for works of maintenance have amounted to a sum of 99,904'10 francs ; the 

 expense of maintenance of State reboisements has been 51,531'75 francs. 



" Proprietors of different classes have further constructed, by means 

 of the above-mentioned subventions, 5,804 new barrages, and have 

 repaired 818. 



" The whole expense to the State for sanctioned works of reboisement, in 

 1865, has amounted to 695,984'43 francs; and the expenses of every kind, 

 incurred by communes and private proprietors, for the works for which 

 subventions were granted, including funds granted by the General Councils 

 of the districts, may be estimated at 650,000 francs. 



" The extent of land belonging to communes, private proprietors, and to 

 the State, over which reboisement was effected in 1866 was 5,697'80 

 hectares. The reboisement of lands belonging to the State cost 119,615-77 

 francs ; the subventions, in money and in kind, granted by the State for 

 reboisements by communes and private proprietors, amounted to 273,484'67 

 francs ; the maintenance of State reboisements entailed an expenditure of 

 47,95r85 francs; the State contributed by subventions, in money and in 

 kind, for the maintenance of reboisement by communes and by private pro- 

 prietors, 112,573'75 francs ; the total expense to the State for sanctioned 

 reboisement in the course of the year amounted to 553,826'04 francs. 



" There were constructed in the course of the year in the sanctioned 

 reboisements effected with the subventions mentioned, 2459 new barrages, 

 and besides these, 561 old ones were repaired. The quarter of the expense 

 of the whole work born by private proprietors, by communes, and by 

 departments, was estimated at 400,000 francs." 



It has been stated, that circumstances prevented the issue of the report 

 for 1865 at the usual time. In reference to this it is stated by the 

 Director-General of the Forest Administration : — 



"The report, relative to the operations carried on in 1865, could not be 

 produced at the usual time in consequence of serious disturbances which 

 the unexpected inundations in the autumn of 1866 occasioned in the 

 greater part of the moimtaiuous countries the regeneration of which has ■ 

 been entrusted to the Forest Administration. It might be expected 

 that the restocking of foi-ests, executed within a year before, could scarcely 

 fail to have suffered much from such an outbreak of waters, and I tliought 

 it desirable, before making known the result of the works, to be fully and 

 correctly informed on the extent of the evil done to them. 



"Happily," he goes on to say, "the delay has, and has only, established 

 the fact that any desolations which have occurred are trifling in import- 

 ance compared with the calamities which have befallen the valleys and the 

 . plains. 



"The deluges of rain which fell on the 23rd and 24th of September in 

 the high lying regions of Auvergne, and of Vivarais, and on some spots in 

 Savoie, transformed the most of the thread-like streamlets almost instan- 



