11 



had been there now rushed torrents which flooded the fertile fields 

 and covered them with sterile soil washed down from the mountains. 

 The clearing continued unchecked until some 800,000 acres of farm 

 land had been ruined or seriously injured, and the population of 

 eighteen Departments had been reduced to poverty and forced to emi- 

 grate. By 1860 the State took up the problem, but in such a way 

 that the burden of expense for reforestation was thrown upon the 

 mountaineers, who, moreover, were deprived of much pasturage. 

 Complaints naturally arose. An attempt was made to check torrents 

 by sodding instead of by forest planting. This, however, proved a 

 failure, and recourse was again had to planting, by the law of 1882, 

 which provides that the State shall bear the costs. Since then the 

 excellent results of planting have completely changed public senti- 

 ment. The mountaineers are most eager to have the work go on 

 and are ready to offer their land for nothing to the forest depart- 

 ment. In addition to lands secured by gift, the State acquires 25,000 

 or 30,000 acres a year. Over 500,000 acres have been acquired and 

 more than one-half of this area has been planted. Already 163 of the 

 torrents have been entirely controlled and 654 are beginning to show 

 the controlling effects of the forest on their watersheds. Thirty-one 

 of the torrents now entirely controlled were considered hopelessly bad 

 half a century ago. 



It is expected that $50,000,000 will have been spent before the work 

 of reforesting for protection is complete. 



The sand dunes on the coast of France, mainly in Gascony, which 

 the winds drove farther and farther inland, wasting the vineyards, 

 have now largely been fixed in place by forest plantations which were 

 begun in 1793. Of the 350,000 acres of sand dunes 275,000 have been 

 planted in forest, and the dunes, instead of being a constant menace 

 to the neighboring farmers, now are growing crops of pine which 

 produce valuable wood and resin. In all, about $2,000,000 was spent 

 in the work and an additional $700,000 was laid out in bringing the 

 forests under administration. Now, though about one-half of the 

 lands have been acquired by private persons and the State retains 

 only about 125,000 acres, the State has received $120,000 above all ex- 

 penses, and possesses a property worth $10,000,000, acquired virtually 

 for nothing. 



Some 2,000,000 acres of shifting sands and marshes toward the in- 

 terior of the country, a triangular territory known as the Landes, has 

 been changed from a formerly worthless condition into a profitable 

 forest valued at $100,000,000. Reforestation was begun about the 

 middle of the last century. This work was done principally by the 

 communes, aided and imitated by private owners, and encouraged 

 by the State. The resulting forest produces both pine timber and 

 resin, upon the yield of which the present valuation is based. 



[Cir. 140] 



