322 POSITION AND tROSl'ECTS OF TEE ENTBEPEISE. 



.^nd of flocks. Each of these products, wisely confined to the region which 

 suits it, would leave a free iield to the adjoining product. The flocks would 

 no longer trespass on the cultivated fields, nor the cultivated fields encroach 

 upon the forests ; and the territory, thus utilised in its various parts, would 

 yield all it can yield. 



' y " Without speaking of the happy change which these new forests might 

 introduce into the climate, might we not reckon, on good grounds, on the 

 reappearance of a great number of springs which the feUing of the woods 

 have caused to dry up, and which the restoration of these would most 

 probably bring to light again. These springs would spread around them 

 fertility and freshness ; whilst the waters of the torrents, become tranquil, 

 would furnish to agriculture fertilising slime and moisture in abundance, 

 to industrial works force of inexhaustible power, which doubtless would then 

 excite astonishment that it was allowed so long to run to waste without 

 benefit to man. 



" The destruction of torrents and of ravines, and the general stability 

 of the ground, would allow of good district roads being opened at little 

 expense. These roads, at present expensive and constantly torn up, 

 rendered more solid and increased in number, would carry life into the 

 deepest recesses of the mountains. They would even facilitate in many 

 quarters the working of lands which the inconvenience of communication 

 often renders difficult, and sometimes impracticable. 



" Then, also, there would be nothing to hinder the multiplication, at little 

 expense, of works of irrigation. At present one cannot resort to these im- 

 portant works without trembling on account of the difficulties, sometimes 

 insurmountable, presented by the courses of torrents ; and when at last 

 these obstacles are overcome, one sees rise given to new difficulties through 

 the extreme want of cohesion in the soil. The storms, in carrying away the 

 ground, cut up the channels ; the friable revirs across which it flows allow 

 the water to filter away until they dry up ; and the crumbling down of the 

 grounds fills up the canals. These difficulties experienced in the construction, 

 in the cleaning, and in the maintenance of them, are such that they have 

 often occasioned a recoil from the execution of canals likely to be most 

 useful. From the day that these drawbacks shall be taken away these 

 works will no longer present any difficulty, nor will they be of costly 

 execution, and they might be easily spread over all parts of the territory. 



" Easy communications, combined with the presence of forests, of water- 

 courses, and of mineral riches which are shut up in the bowels of the 

 mountains, will attract thither industrial operations which hitherto have 

 never found there a home. This will give employment during the winter, 

 and will retain there the population which generally deserts the country at 

 that time of year. On the other hand, the increase of the products of the 

 soil, in" dififusing here more ease, will relieve the inhabitants from the 

 necessity of seeking a livelihood elsewhere. Thus will come to an end the 

 wretched custom of emigration, which disperses families from their domestic 

 hearths, and condemns them to an unpleasant wandering and solitary life. 



" The State, in this transformation, will have seen her roads improved, 

 the maintenance of them become more easy and more perfect, and their 

 creation more economical ; there will be gained a very extensive area of 

 taxable lands, and of fine forests in proximity to its harbours. In fine, the 

 Treasury will reap that increase of revenue which always follows the pro- 

 sperity and numerical increase of population." 



