1 82 FORESTRY IN ITALY. 



The felling of single trees for urgent wants, such as for bridges, embankments and the 

 Ijke, shall not be considered as an improvement by the method of selection. 



Art. 1 1 . In forests where there are clearings, or empty spaces of an extent of 9^ or 

 more square meters, the reafforestation of which cannot be expected by natural growth and 

 from chance seed, the proprietor after each cutting shall see that this is brought about either 

 by sowing or transplanting within a period of two years from the last cutting. Resource shall 

 be had to such artificial culture, when three years shall have elapsed since the last cutting 

 without the reafforestation having been brought about by the trees left standing for this pur. 

 pose. From this provision are exempted those cultivated lands not subject to land slides 

 which for a period more or less long have been devoted to purposes of pasture, provided the 

 necessity of this is admitted by the forest committee. 



In forests on heavy slopes, exceeding an angle of 40° with the horizon, and in those 

 which protect the inhabitants of tlie lands below, and public highways, agains't the descent of 

 earth, stones and the like, the cutting of trees will be limited to those physically mature, and. 

 in case the growth is so thick as to interfere with the proper growth and development of young 

 trees, to such others as may be removed without injury to the efficiency of the forest as a pro- 

 tection from the above-mentioned accidents. Hence the improvement of such forests will be 

 by the method of selection, and the cutting of the trunk, and, further, when the purpose of 

 the forest is to protect against avalanches and the like, the trees shall be cut at a distance of 

 1.20 meters from the ground. 



Trees growing isolated or in small groups on ridges and low but steep and rocky emi- 

 nences, isolated in their forests, shall be preserved on account of their advantageous position 

 for the dispersion of seed. 



Art. 13. Whichever method of improvement be adopted in the utilization of forests 

 wherever they are adjacent to or cut by deep valleys or ravines, a strip shall be left uncut . 

 along the edge at least 15 meters wide, measuring in horizontal projection firom the edge 

 towards the interior of the forest. The trees to be cut shall be selected and cut above ground 

 when they have arrived at their maturity. 



Art. 14. Likewise the method of selection shall be employed in highwood forests situ- 

 ated on land extending downward from the summit of the mountain or from the superior 

 limit of the growth of trees, for a width of 50 meters in horizontal projection, and the trees 

 shall be cut, either below or above ground, according to the slope of the ground and the char- 

 acter of the soil, as indicated in article 5. 



Art. 15. In every method of improvement, whether the trees are cut above or below 

 ground, the logs, if not at once removed from the forest, are to be immediately stripped of 

 their bark. 



TITLE III. 



IN REGARD TO THINNING OUT. 

 Art. i6. The thinning out required by a rational silviculture shall be so managed that at 

 the completion the branches just touch in the case of conifers, and in the case of broad-leaved 

 trees, do not intermingle in a space wider than 2.5 meters. 



TITLE IV. 

 CONCERNING PASTURE. 



Art. 17. In highwood forests, where all the trees have been cut in certain areas, pasture 

 will not be permitted until the new growth of young trees is sufficiently strong not to be 

 broken down by the animals grazing, and the terminal branches high enough to be in no danger 

 of being bitten off. 



Where the method of selection has been employed, pasture may be allowed where the 

 young trees are no longer in danger of losing their terminal buds and branches. 



Art. 18. Pasture is forbidden in forests preserved for the purpose of protection, or in the 

 bells or tracts mentioned in articles 12 and 13, as well as those devastated by fire ; in these last, 

 temporarily; that is, until they have resumed their former normal state of growth. 



