298 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



closed against grazing for any period not exceeding ten years, in which case compensation is 

 paid annually to the proprietors for their loss of the use of it. During this interval the state has 

 the power to execute works, in order to promote the more rapid consolidation of the soil, but 

 the nature of the property cannot be changed thereby, and the proprietor cannot be called 

 upon to pay anything for the improvement thus effected ; while if, after the lapse of ten years, 

 it is found necessary to continue the exclusion of cattle, the state must buy the land, either by 

 mutual agreement or by expropriation. 



But none of the measures above described would deal effectually with the situation unless 

 the source of the evil were at the same time attacked, by bringing the pastoral arrangements 

 on the neighboring hills under control, so as to avoid overgrazing ; and the law therefore 

 provides that in 313 village communities, all those in which works are undertaken being in- 

 cluded, as well as many others, the grazing must be carried out in the manner approved by 

 the forest department. The communes are therefore obliged to submit to the prefect annual 

 proposals on this subject, showing the nature and extent of their pasture lands, the portions 

 that they propose to use during the year, the number of animals of each kind that are to graze, 

 the roads by which they are to reach and return from the pastures, and other matters. These 

 proposals are considered by the forest department, and modified if necessary. In addition to 

 this, with a view to encourage the pastoral population of the mountains to take care of their 

 grazing grounds, and to put a stop to abuses resulting from ignorance and from the continuance 

 of injurious customs, the forest department is empowered to grant money rewards \.o fntitieres 

 (associations of cattle-owners for the manufacture of cheeses) for improvement made by tliem 

 to their pastures. It is also desired to encourage, as far as possible, the substitution of cows 

 for sheep ; but the population of the mountains does not like the afforestation of their grazing 

 grounds, and the principal reason for the offer of rewards by the state is that it is considered 

 politic to do something to aid them in their industry, as some set-off against the inconvenience 

 to which individual communities are sometimes put by these operations. 



Scope and progress of the entire work. — The total surface to be treated as a work of public 

 utility in the Alps, Pyrenees, and Cevennes, is estimated to amount to 1 ,035 square miles, in 

 addition to about 1,900 linear miles of torrent beds. Up to the end of 1885, 152 square miles 

 of this surface and 373 miles of. torrent beds had been completed; the expenditure having 

 amounted to ;!f 819,320, and the rates having varied from £-^, 2s. to £(1, 3s. 6d. per acre, and 

 from 2s. to 7s. 6d. per linear yard of torrent bed. There remain to be treated, therefore, 

 about 883 square miles of surface, and 1,500 miles of torrent beds. In addition to the above, 

 the state has paid ^138,000, or half the cost of treating 212 square miles, as "permissive 

 works," under the old law, and £\2fxx:i toward pastoral improvements. 



DRAINING AND PLANTING OF SWAMl-S AND WASTE LANDS. 



Measures of the nature above described for the consolidation and protection of mountain 

 slopes are undertaken in the interest of the population generally. In the case of sterile un- 

 productive wastes or swamps, not requiring to be dealt with on these grounds, the government 

 has thought it better, as a general rule, to leave each proprietor free to do what he considers 

 most to his own advantage, confining it to the exemption from taxes for thirty years of all 

 lands planted up. But the state has the right to force the communes to drain their swamps 

 and wastes, with a view to rendering them suitable either for cultivation or for the growth of 

 trees ; and when this is done, advances of funds may be made under certain conditions, one 

 of which is that the commune has the right to surrender to the state, in satisfaction of all 

 claims, a portion of the area not exceeding one-half. 



THE DUNES OF THE WF.ST COAST. 



The winds that blow continually from the ocean on to the west coast, carry with them enor- 

 mous quantities of sand, which, advancing steadily over the country at the rate of some 14 

 feet per annum, in the form of moving hills called dunes, bury under them the fields and vil- 



