292 Italy. 
If the regulations of the commissions had been ob- 
served to their full extent, all would have been wel! in 
time, but it is evident from subsequent legislative 
efforts that the execution of the laws was not what could 
be desired. Political exigencies required leniency in 
the application of the law. An interesting report on 
the results of the first quinquennium shows that during 
that time 170,000 acres were cleared, over 40,000 with- 
out permission, and by 1900, it was estimated, defor- 
estation had taken place on about 5 million acres.. 
Wrangling over the classification of the lands under 
ban has continued until the present, and local authori- 
ties have continued to favor private as against public 
interest, to withdraw lands from the operation, and to 
wink at disregard of the law. Moreover, rights of user 
to dead wood, pasturage (goats are by law excluded) 
and other privileges continued to prevent improvement, 
although several laws to effect their extinction had been 
passed. 
The devastating floods of 1882 led to much agitation, 
and, upon a report of a special commission in 1886, the 
law of 1874 was revived, extending the term of obliga- 
tory reforestation in the endangered sections to ten 
years. By that time, out of 800,000 acres originally 
declared as requiring reforestation, not more than 
40,000 acres had been planted, but the acreage involved 
had also been gradually scaled down by the forest com- 
mittees to 240,000 acres. The report, on the other 
hand, found that the area needing reboisement was at 
least 500,000 acres, requiring an expenditure of 12 
million dollars. 
A revision and broadening of the law led to the gen- 
