155 
ten years. By 1803 the people had become aroused to the folly 
of this cutting. Where useful brooks had been there now 
rushed torrents which flooded the fertile fields and covered them 
with sterile soil washed down from the mountains. The clear- 
ing 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 emigrate. By i860 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 cost. Since then the excellent results of planting have 
completely changed public sentiment. The mountaineers are 
most eager to have the work go on and are ready to offer their 
land for nothing to the forest department. In addition to lands 
secured by gift, the State reclaims 25,000 to 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 con- 
trolling effects of the forest on their watersheds. Thirty-one 
of the torrents now entirely controlled were considered hopeless- 
ly bad a half 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 planta- 
tions which were begun in 1793. Of the 350,000 acres of sand 
dunes 275,000 have been planted in forest, and the dunes, in- 
stead 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. Xow. 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 expenses, 
and possesses a property worth $10,000,000, acquired virtually 
for nothing. 
Some 2,000,000 acres of shifting sands and marshes toward the 
interior of the country, a triangular territory known as the 
Landes, has been changed from a formerlv worthless condition 
into a profitable forest valued at $100,000,000. Reforestation 
was begun about the middle of the last centurv. This work was 
done principally by the communes, aided and imitated by private 
owners, and encouraged by the State. The resulting forest pro- 
