92 



planted tract, when compared with the remote and eventual advantages offered in their 

 preservation ; the hope of compensation, and, beyond this, the advantages, in one way 

 and another, of cultivation, may be recognized as among the causes which sufficiently ex- 

 plain the inducements offered to many of these proprietors, which led them to undertake 

 these clearings." 



I would here notice that this is precisely what we have been doing in Canada, and 

 that the ill effects 'which followed in France will surely in no long time be felt in Ontario. 

 They are already felt ; we have not the climate we had, nor the favouring moisture when 

 most needed. Yet we could get along as we are. But that is just what is impossible. 

 We must, while there is time, use some means of averting the evil, or we shall certainly 

 become much worse off than we are. M. Macarel goes on : — 



" At length, this progressive deforesting of the soil of France, joined with the inces- 

 sant need of firewood, and the demand for wood by manufactories and ships, havej during 

 forty years, made sad havoc with our forest wealth. 



" A renewal of the ancient prohibitions by the law of 9 Floreal, year XI., was 

 deemed necessary to oppose this excessive clearing of woods by private owners. It was 

 accordingly decreed that, during the twenty-five years dating from the date of the pro- 

 mulgation, no wood should be cut or carried off unless six months' notice had been given 

 by the proprietor to the forest conservator of the arrondissement of the district in which 

 the wood was located. Within this time the forest administration might object to the 

 clearing off of the wood, and was charged to refer the question before the end of this time 

 to the Minister of Finance, upon whose report the Government might definitely decide 

 within the same time. It therefore resulted in this, that to make a clearing an authori- 

 zation precedent by the administration was necessary, and that if the administration 

 thought proper not to grant this, the proprietor was restrained against cutting. 



" Thus, according to this branch of agricultural industry, the general law of France 

 is, that owners are free to vary, within certain limits, the cultivation and working of their 

 lands ; but, as to woods and forests, the public interests demand that individuals shall 

 not be free to clear them from the soil whenever they please. From hence it follows, 

 that the administration has a right to pronounce its prohibition against clearing 

 whenever it is deemed that the public interests require that this be done." 



The penalties for clearing when forbidden are, I may state, a fine of about |200 per 

 acre, and compulsory replanting within three years. This law was, I conceive, in full 

 force in 1874, as this quotation forms part of a report to the U. S. Congress of that year. 

 It probably is in force still, and justly so. The voice of the people, not of solitary citi- 

 zens, should decide in so important a matter as deforesting a country. 



The French Government have, at great expense, replanted vast and almost barren 

 districts ; they have also established great forests along the sea-shore where formerly the 

 sand threatened to destroy whole departments, and have averted the evil. But the chief 

 means is the prohibition of clearing ; for it is the interest of an owner who does not clear 

 to plant and improve his forest, so as to receive an increased income from the trees arriv- 

 ing at maturity in increased numbers yearly. 



SwiTZKRLAND. 



In no country in Europe has the waste of forests been more rapid or destructive 

 than in Switzerland, and in none, perhaps, has this improvidence been followed by more 

 disastrous results. The woods, being considered common property, were uprooted ; and 

 the soil on the mountains being exposed* to the wash of the rains, was rapidly carried 



