324 POSITION AND PROSPBOTB OF THE ENTERPEIBB. 



hears the workmen and the foremen crying out for rain as their most 

 efficient helper, may be astonished to see in the bed of the torrent a 

 stream of water going to lose itself in the river without any one attempting 

 ,to use it for irrigation. And yet amongst these terraces, some formed with 

 a gentle slope might have been formed, at little expense, into irrigating 

 runnels. It seems that the difficulties experienced in fixing the moist 

 parts of hills have inspired exaggerated dread of the accidents which water 

 might produce, and the local inconvenience has caused to be forgotten the 

 more general and more important advantages referred to. It is, however, 

 necessary to guard against prejudging in a question of such delicacy ; ex- 

 perience alone can decide whether the irrigation of hiUs be advantageous or 

 hurtful, and therefore it is matter of regret that that experience has not 

 been catechised on this point of primary importance in any of the p6ri- 

 mfetres." 



At the end of 1869 there had been spent upon the High Alps alone 

 1,074,136 francs 57 centimes, more than a tenth of the 10,500,000 francs 

 allotted for the whole work, So large share of the funds at command 

 having been allocated by the Administration for works in this department 

 shows how serious the evil had become in that district. The total area of 

 the surface given up to the Administration in the High Alps amounts to 

 85,962 hectares, spread over 13 p6rimfetres; 16,903 hectares have given 

 occasion for works of restoration, hoisement, ox gazonnement ; 13,460 hectares 

 have been only interdicted to flocks and left to a natural gazonnement. 



Now, over against the expense incurred must be set the benefits which 

 have thence resulted. But with the feeling that these are considerable, it is 

 difficult, says M. Cezanne, to represent them in figures. 



M. Gentil, ingenieur en cMf des ponts et chaussees in the High Alps, writes : 

 — " The aspect of the mountain has been suddenly changed ; the soil has 

 acquired such stability that the violent storms of rain in 1868, which have 

 brought such disasters on the High Alps, have been innocuous on the 

 regenerated p6rimfetres. 



" The mountain has in a short time become productive ; there, where a 

 sheep could scarcely live destroying all, are now to be seen an abundant 

 herbage fit for the scythe. 



" This mode of mise en valeur — one may say, of culture — is remarkable 

 in this, that it furnishes to the population the very thing which they need, 

 and furnishes this to them with little delay. The population of the High 

 Alps are essentially a pastoral people; what is required by them is provision 

 for the support of flocks'; this they find in these p^rimfetres — be it in the 

 herbage which shall be mown— be it in the leaves of the ash trees and the 

 elm trees planted on the levelled terraces; and further, the acacia will 

 yield soon wood which will be employed in the culture of the vine. 



'_' M. Sequinard has sought above all, in the creation of vegetation, to 

 satisfy the actual and immediate wants of the inhabitants ; in acting so, he 

 has secured the concurrence and support of the populations, who can very 

 well comprehend that, in a not distant future, they will find, thanks to the 

 Forest Administration, important and more abundant resources for the 

 feeding of cattle. These populations were, on the contrary, openly hostile 

 when they feared they might have to submit indefinitely to ;the prohibition 

 of depasturing, in a remote hope of forests which might be enjoyed by some 

 future generation, and these forests the growth of which was considered very 



