Development of Forest Policy. 303 
attempts, sometimes successful, have been made by one 
faction, usually led by the Minister of Finance, to re- 
duce the public forest area (desamortizadoro), opposed 
by another faction under the lead of the forest adminis- 
tration, which was forced again and again to re-classify. 
In 1883, the alienable public forest area was by decree 
placed under the Minister of Finance, the inalienable 
part remaining under the Minister of Public Works 
(Fomento) ; very much the same as it was in the United 
States until recently. The public debt and immediate 
financial needs of the corporations gave the incentive 
for desiring the disposal of forest property, and, to 
satisfy this demand, it was ordered, in 1878, that all 
receipts from the State property and 20 per cent. of the 
receipts from communal forests were to be applied 
towards the extinguishment of the debt. 
The ups and downs in this struggle to keep the public 
forests intact were accentuated on the one hand by the 
pressing needs of taking care of the debt, on the other 
hand by ‘drought and flood. Thus, in 1874, the sale in 
annual installments of over 4.5 million acres in the 
hands of the Minister of Finance was ordered, but the 
floods of the same year were so disastrous, (causing 7 
million dollars damage, 760 deaths, 28,000 homeless), 
being followed by successive droughts, that a reversion of 
sentiment was experienced, which led to the enactment 
of a reboisement law in 1877. This law, with all sorts 
of unnecessary technical details, ordered the immediate 
reforestation of all waste land in the public forest, 
creating for that purpose a corps of 400 cultivators 
(capatacas de cultivos). To furnish the funds for this 
work the communities were to contribute 10 per cent. of 
