6 



wrong both ourselves and them if our fields are impoverished 

 by our improvidence. But much as foresight is admired 

 when its predictions are realized and its achievements made, 

 all history too plainly tells that the mass of men are not 

 easily persuaded to provide for exigencies far in the future. 

 It was more than two centuries after the death of Bernard 

 Palissy, the famous " Potter of the Tuilleries," and after 

 many sad lessons of devastating mountain torrents resulting 

 from excessive forest denudation, before France learned to 

 heed his earnest warning. Expressing his indignation at the 

 folly of such general destruction of the woods he said: " I call 

 it not error, but a curse and a calamity to all France. When 

 I consider the value of the least clump of trees, I marvel at the 

 great ignorance of men who do now-a-days study only to break 

 down, fell and waste the fair forests which their forefathers did 

 guard so choicely. I would think no evil of them for cutting 

 down the woods, did they but replant some part of them 

 again, but they care naught for the time to come, neither 

 reck they of the great damage they do to their children." In 

 1680, the eminent French statesman, Colbert, said to Louis 

 XIY. : " France will perish for want of wood." 



It was not, however, till 1859 and 1860 that stringent laws 

 were passed for the protection of existing woodlands and the 

 formation of new forests. The former of these laws passed 

 the Assembly by a vote of 216 against 4, and the latter with 

 but a single negative voice. The unanimity with which these 

 laws were enacted, though they seriously interfere with the 

 rights of private domain, shows at last the strength of the 

 popular conviction that the protection and extension of forests 

 were matters of national interest and necessity, and would 

 arrest the devastations of mountain torrents and river inun- 

 dations. The law of 1860 appropriated 10,000,000 francs, 

 at the rate of 1,000,000 a year, in aiding the replanting of 

 woods. In 1865 a bill was passed for securing the soil in ex- 

 posed localities by grading, and the formation of greensward. 



This measure, proved to be beneficial in France, Mr. Marsh 

 highly recommends for adoption in the United States, The 

 * leading features of this system are marking out and securing 



