wo RKS ON FORESTRY By the Rev. J. C. BROWN, LL.D. I. -Hydrology of South Africa; or, Details of the former Hydrographic Condition of the Cape of Good Hope, and of Causes of its present Aridity, with Suggestions of appropriate Remedies for this Aridity. Price lOs. lu this the desiccation of South Africa, from prc-Adamic times to the present day, is traced by indications supplied by geological formations, by the physical geography or the general contour of the country, and by arborescent productions in the interior, with results confirmatory of the opinion that the appropriate remedies are irrigation, arboriculture, and an improved forest economy ; or the erection of dams to prevent the escape of a portion of the rainfall to the sea — the abandonment or restric- tion of the burning of the herbage and bush in connection with pastoral and agricultural operations — the conservation and extension of existing forests — and the adoption of measures similar to the reboisement and ijazonnement carried out in France, with a view to prevent the formation of torrents, and the destruction of property occasioned by them. II.— Water Supply of South Africa, and Facilities for the Storage of it. Price 18s 6d. In this Volume are detailed meteorological observations on the humi- dity of the air and the rainfall, on clouds, and winds, and thunder- storms ; sources from which is derived the supply of moisture which is at present available for agricultural operations in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and regions beyond, embracing the atmosphere, the rain- fall, rivers, fountains, subterranean streams and reservoirs, and the aei ; and the supply of water and facilities for the storage of it in each of the divisions of the colony — in Basutoland, in the Orange Kiver Free State, in Griqualand West, in the Transvaal Territory, in Zululand, at Natal, and in the Transkei Territory. III.— Forests and Moisture ; or, Effects of Forests on Humidity of Climate. Price 10s. In this are given details of phenomena of vegetation on which tho meteorological effects of forests affecting the humidity of climate depend — of the effects of forests on the humidity of the atmosphere, on the humidity of the ground, on marshes, on the moisture of a wide expanse of country, on the local rainfall, and on rivers — and of the correspond- ence between the distribution of the rainfall and of forests— -the measure of correspondence between the distribution of the rainfall and that of forests — the distribution of the rainfall dependent on geographical posi- tion, determined by the contour of a country — the distribution of forests affected by the distribution of tho rainfall — and the local effects of forests on the distribution of the rainfall within the forest district. IV.— The Forests of England; and the Management of them in Bygone Times. Price Gs. Ancient forests, chases, parks, warrons, and woods are dosoribed ; details are given of destructive treatment to which they have been sub- jected, and of legislation and litoraturo relating to them provioua to thy present century. LIST OF WORKS ON FORESTRY. v.— The Schools of Forestry in Europe : A Plea for the Creation of a School of Forestry in Edinburgh. Price 28, VI.— French Forest Ordinance of 1669 ; with Historical Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France. Price 48. The early history of forests in France is given, with details of devas- tations of these going on in the first half of the seventeenth century ; with a translation of the Ordinance of 1669, which is the basis of modern forest economy ; and notices of forest exploitation in Jardinaye, in La Mclhodt d IHre et Aire, and in La Methode des CompartimejUs. VI I. — Reboisenaent in France ; or, Records of the Replanting of the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, with Trees, Herb- age, and Bush, with a view to arresting and preventing the destructive consequences of torrents. Price 12s. In this are given a resume of Surrel's study of Alpine torrents, and of the literature of France relative to Alpine torrents, and remedial measures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disas- trous consequences following from them — translations of documents and enactments, showing what legislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of France in connection with rihoisement as a remedial application against destructive torrents — and details in regard to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the work. VIII. —Pine Plantations on Sand Wastes in France. Price 7s. In this are detailed the appearance presented by the Landes of the Gironde before and after culture, and the Landes of La Sologne ; the legislation and literature of France in regard to the planting of the Landes with trees ; the characteristics of the sand wastes ; the natural history, culture, and exploitation of the Maritime Pine and of the Scots Fir ; and the diseases and injurious influences to which the Maritime Pine is subject. IX.— Forests and Forestry of Finland. Embodying a dis- cussion of the advantages and disadvantages of Sveajatule, the Sartaye of France, and the Koomarce of India. Price 6s 6d. Which will be followed by a Companion Volume, now in the Press, X.— Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia. Embody- iiig details of the exploitation of forests by Jardinage, and its effects. Copies of any of these Works will be sent Post-paid to any address within the Postal Union on receipt by Dr John C. Brown, Haadingtou, of a Post-Office Order for the Price. Edinburgh : OLIVER & BOYD. London : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., and W. RIDER & SON. MoNTBKAL : DAWSON BROTHERS. INTEODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. BY JOHN CROUMBIE BROWN, LL.D., Formerly Lecturer on Botany in University and King\ilELlMmARY StATEMfiNt. ^ vegetable layer slowly increased, continuously enriching itself with the debris of the plants which it had sustained ; and the inferior vegetables were gradually replaced by others of a higher organisation, to give place in turn to vegetables of yet higher rank in the vegetable kingdom, which do not germinate and develope themselves except under the most favourable conditions ; and, last of all, to forests. It is thus that throusfh the accumulated work of centuries the mountain, at first a bald and naked rock, has been covered, first with a vegetation of cryptogamic and inferior plants, and been prepared by slow degrees, little by little, to sustain plants of a higher order in the vegetable series, and finally with trees, the seeds of which do not germinate and grow excepting on soil which has been previously occupied and prepared for them by other vege- tables, their precursors in the occupation of the soil.' There are points in this statement to which exception may be taken, but as a popular account of the course of events, it may be accepted without cavil. In Finland: its Forests and Forest Management (p. 27), I have stated what I have seen of cryptogams, herbs, and ligneous plants growing upon the same rock ; and in Hydrology of South Africa (pp. 163-164), I have cited the views advanced in Marsh's work, entitled Tke Earth as Modified by Human Action, in regard to the growth of trees on virgin soil, and on soil which has happened to be cleared of vegetation. Amongst other things noticed it is stated by Marsh : — * Whenever a traci, of country, once inhabited and culti- vated by man, is abandoned by him and domestic animals, and surrendered to the undisturbed influences of spontan- eous nature, its soil, sooner or later, clothes itself with herbaceous and arborescent plants, and at no long interval with a dense forest growth. Indeed, upon surfaces of a certain stability, and not absolutely precipitous inclination, the special conditions required for the spontaneous propa- gation of trees may all be negatively expressed, and reduced to these three : — exemption from defect or excess of mois- ture, from perpetual frost, and from the depredationi of 8 MODERN FOKEST ECONOMY. men and browsiny (quadrupeds. Wlien these requisites are secured, the hardest rock is as certain to be overgrown with wood as the most fertile plain, though in drier seasons the process is slower in the former than in the latter case. Lichens and mosses first prepare the way for a more highly organised vegetation, They retain the moisture of rains and dews, and bring it to act, in com- bination with the gases evolved by their organic processes, in decomposing the surface of the rock they cover ; they arrest and confine the dust which the wind scatters over them, and their final decay adds new material to the soil already half-formed beneath and upon them. A very thin stratum of mould is sufficient for the germination of seeds of the hardy evergreens and the birches, the roots of which are often found in immediate contact with the rock, sup- plying tlieir trees with nourishment from a soil deepened and enriched from the decomposition of their foliage, or sending out long rootlets into the surrounding earth in search of juices to feed them.' The light which has been thrown by Darwin and others, who have followed in the track of research opened up by him, upon the phenomena of a struggle for life and the survival of the fittest, which is going on extensively in nature, enables us to account satisfactorily for the great extension of forests over Europe and over other lands in which forests predominate. We can see how it may have been brought about, and not only see how ligneous vege- tables should have superseded herbs, but understand how these have superseded lichens, and fruitful fields have super- seded forests. In the case of the lichen-covered rock each succeeding plant found a soil and condition more favour- able for its growth than for the growth of the plant by which it was preceded ; and this made way for it after it had served its generation according to the will of God. By a similar process was the soil subsequently prepared for the production of trees, which, in common with their imme- diate predecessors, could not have flourished at an earlier iPkELlMtNARV STATEMENT. d epoch. But wc find that man has made the forest to give place to the garden and to the fruitful field produced by man's device. He has handicapped the cereal and the fruit -bearing tree ; he has burned or felled the forest; has sown seeds of the vegetables he desired to grow ; has promoted the growth of them by all means at his com- mand, and has succeeded to an extent which he never could have done had he sown his seed on the bare rock, or on the sand dune or the heath, or upon the same spot before it had undergone the preparation through which it has passed. In view of this we may bo led to conclude that one important function of forests in terrestrial economy is to utilise the area covered by them, and while so utilising it to prepare it for being utilised still more by man when ho is so advanced in civilisation as to be able otherwise to make use of it to the benefit of himself, his family, and his people. But all is not gain. Evil as well as good has followed in the wake of the artificial change. Marsh, in continuation of the statement I have cited in regard to the natural production of the forests on what was long before a bare rock, tells : — ' With the extirpation of the forest all is changed. At one season the earth parts with its warmth by radiation to an open sky ; receives, at another, an immoderate heat from the unobstructed rays of the sun. Hence the climate becomes excessive, and the soil is alternately parched by the fervours of summer, and seared by the rigours of winter. Bleak winds sweep unresisted over its surface, drift away the snow that sheltered it from the frost, and dry up its scanty moisture. The precipitation becomes as irregular as the temperature ; the melting snows and varied rains, no longer absorbed by a loose and bibular vegetable mould, rush over the frozen surface, and pour down the valleys seawards, instead of filling a retentive bed of absorbent earth, and storing up a supply of moisture to feed perennial springs. The soil is bared of its covering of Icavey, is broken and loosened by the plough, deprived 10 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. of the fibrous rootlets wliicli liuld it to<3^etlicr, dried and pulverised by sun and wind, and at last exhausted by new combinations. The face of the earth is no longer a sponge, but a dust heap ; and the floods which the waters of the sky pour over it hurry swiftly along its slopes, carrying in suspension vast quantities of earthy particles, which increase the abrading power and mechanical force of the current, and, augmented by the sand and gravel of falling banks, fill the bed of the streams, divert them into new channels, and obstruct their outlets. The rivulets, wanting their former regularity of supply, and deprived of the protecting shade of the woods, are heated, evaporated, and thus reduced in their former currents, — but swollen to raging torrents in autumn and in spring. ' From these causes there is a constant degradation of uplands, and a consequent elevation of the beds of water- courses, and of lakes, by the deposition of the mineral and vegetable matter carried down by the waters. The channels of great rivers become unnavigable, their estuaries are choked up, and harbours which once sheltered large navies are shoaled by dangerous sand-bars. * The earth stript of its vegetable glebe grows less and less productive, and consequently less able to protect itself by weaving a new net-work of roots to bind its particles together, a new carpeting of turf to shield it from wind and sun and scouring rain. Gradually it becomes altogether barren. The washing of the soil from the mountains leave bare ridges of sterile rock, and the rich organic mould which covered them, now swept down into the dark low grounds, promotes a luxuriance of aquatic vegetation that breeds fever and more insidious forms of mortal disease by its decay, and thus the earth is rendered no longer fit for the habitation of man.' But this is only one of many evils. At different times and in different countries there has been raised a cry that the destruction of forests was being carried on too rapidly and too extensively; and consequent evils have IPRELIMINARY STATEMENT. manifested themselves to an extent which has caused considerable anxiety to men of observation and fore- thought. The cry has gone up not once only, or from one land alone, but it has been repeatedly heard ; there is scarcely a country in Europe in which it has not been raised at one time or another ; and as it has been in Europe so has it been elsewhere. This has been chiefly within the last 250 years ; but it has been found that the evil has been going on since a time long before the com- mencement of the 2000 years which are characterised to us by the march of Christianity and modern civilisation and science ; and the effects have been felt both in the Old World and the New. Now, after successive applica- tions of topical remedies to the evils as they manifested themselves in different lands and at different times, modern science, and more especially that in modern science to which the designation * Forest Science ' has been given, has been brought to bear, not without success, upon the discovery of appropriate permanent scientific remedies for the evil in the multiform phases in which it presents itself. The more pressing forms of the evil were seen in a reduced supply of wood, such as is yielded by timber forests ; and of wood, such as is yielded by coppice woods ; a diminished humidity of soil and climate beyond what is favourable to agriculture and allied industries pertaining to rural economy / the occasional occurrence of devasta- ting torrents and inundations ; and the drifting of sterile sands over lands previously fertile and productive. In regard to some of these phases of the evil it may be stated that the remedy which at once suggested itself as practicable was employed, sometimes with success and sometimes ineffectually ; and the accumulated observa- tions of results have not been lost to forest science, or the practical application of that science in forest economy. There are numerous well-known facts which show that the destruction of single trees, of plots of trees, and in IS MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. some cases, of extensive stretches ot forest, have been destroyed by means in operation apart from the doings of man : such as what may be called natural decay ; drought and frost; thunder storms and storms of wind and hail and snow; epiphetic and parasitic vegetable growths ; and insects, and birds, and beasts. But to a far greater extent have forests been destroyed by reckless fellings in wasteful exploitations; and by these increased by malversations of officials, and by depredations. To some extent injuries have been done by flocks and herds depastured in the woods. And to a great extent have forests been destroyed by fire applied to the clearing away of trees, in order that the ground might be obtained for agriculture, and by fires attributable to accident, but to accident attributable to the carelessness of man. The comprehensive view thus taken of the matter con- firms the conclusion that the appropriate remedial applica- tions may resolve themselves into endeavours to arrest the progress of destruction, and endeavours to restore again what has been taken away ; but it may also have expanded somewhat the conception formed by us of what is required in forest conservation and in forest restoration, and this may call for further differentiations : — There must be conservation against destruction occurring irrespective of man's agency, against destruction through man's carelessness, against destruction through man's dis- honesty, and with this an improved, more ecoraonic, and less wasteful forest exploitation ; and with this may be combined or conjoined forest restoration, reboisement as a preventive of the formation of destructive torrents and inundrttions, reboisement as a means of increasing the humidity of the soil and climate, and increasing the salubrity of the atmosphere, and the planting of trees as a means of arresting and utilising drifting sand. Moat of what relates to the first of these measures — conservation against destruction, occurring irrespective of man's agency, may with advantage be discussed apart under a discussion PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 13 of the physiology and pathology of trees and arborescent vegetation ; and most of what relates to the destruction of forests through the carelessness of man may with advan- tage be discussed apart under a discussion of the destruc- tion of forests by fire and of preventive appliances. Most of the other measures specified will be discussed in the sequel under the general head of Forest Economy, inclusive of forest conservation and forest extension and forest exploitation. But first must be established the conviction of my readers that some such extensive destruc- tion of forests as I have indicated has actually occurred, with the results I have alleged. In view of this the immediately succeeding chapters will be occupied with illustrations of what has been alleged, advanced in illustration of the meaning of what has been said, but which may be found to be to some extent of the nature of proofs, — such proofs as hypotheses are subjected to hy experiments designed to test them by demonstrating their accordance, or their want of accordance, with fact. CHAPTER II. ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. The indications of its having been the case that, some two thousand years ago the greater part of Europe was covered with forests, are numerous and varied. And from existing remains of these forests some idea may be formed of what must then have been the condition of Europe : in some regions, but not every v/h ere, one con- tinuous dense mass of trees ; but more frequently exten- sive stretches of forest, impenetrable to man and beast, but varied with forest glades, the home of the beasts of the forest, and inhabited by a savage people : so named, it may be, from their living in the woods, * wild men of the woods ' — Silvagers, sauvages — savages ; a people cruel in their revenge when molested by immigrants of greater civilisation, and so cruel in retaliating on those forcibly invading their dwelling-place injuries done to them or imagined, that in the present day the term savage has become a synonym for cruel ; and it is applied to all uncivi- lised nations, with an embodied idea that such is their character, though deeds not less to be reprobated than any of theirs have been perpetrated by individuals and nations, the product of the civilisation of modern times, with all the elevating influences which Christianity has yet exer- cised upon Christendom. The existing forests of Germany, the Thuringerwald in Cotha, the Scbwartzwald or Black Forest in Baden, the Oderswald in Hesse, the SpCssart, between Aschaffenburg and Wurtzburg, and the forests in the Austrian Alps, are all of them only fragmentary remains of the great Hircynian Forest, which originally covered the greater part of Con- ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. 15 tinental Europe, and was extensively diffused over the districts now known as Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c. In CjEsar's time it extended from the borders of Alsatia and Switzerland to Transylvania, and was computed to be sixty days' journey long and nine broad. So late as the eleventh century, Adam of Bremen, writing of Denmark, describes it as horrida sylvis. There all remains of that ancient forest have disappeared. But in Norway and Sweden, in Finland and Russia, we have remains, or representatives, of the northern skirt of the immense forest which once covered Europe. In Northern Russia we still have forests through which the traveller, travelling fast as his tarantass and troika can carry him, is days and days passing through a continuous forest of trees, columnar trees, tall and straight, bearing aloft an umbrageous canopy, under the shade of which is induced a melancholy which is oppressive to the soul. In Finland, with its thousand lakes, all is joy and gladness as day after day the steamer wends its way, rounding islands and headlands which are wooded to the water's edge, and present on every change a scene of loveliness.* On the Hartz mountains, again, are found upon a small scale dense forests like to those of Russia, but with varia- tions attributable to hills taking the place of plains, and giving pleasing variety to the scene ; and in the Black Forest we meet again with the counterpart to Finland, with forest glades for wooded isles, and fertile fields for fiord-like lakes. These are two types of forests and forest lands widely dispersed over Europe, separated by wider areas which, though not devoid of trees, are altogether devoid of forests. And in these again the former exist- ence of forests is indicated by the names of many places having a reference to some adjacent wood, once growing there, but now no more ; while in some cases the remains of the former forest are* found buried in the ground, or Finland : Its Forests and Forest Management, pp. 910. 16 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. preserved in some peat bog which has been created there. Of forests in Europe the following account is given in a valuable work on the subject by M. F. L. Marny: — 'Greece jDossessed scarcely any forests at the Roman epoch. The rapid progress of agriculture had caused the disappearance, or reduced to simple groves, those forests of Erymantheus, of Nemeus, with whose name so many herioc recollections of the Hellenes are connected. These have in our day almost totally disappeared ; Tempd was already at the commencement of our era only a shady valley, instead of the thick forest it had been; lastly, Dodona, so renowned for her forest of oaks, had seen her prophetic trees diminishing with the celebrity of her oracle. ' From the time of Pindar, the Altis of Olympia was nothing more than a simple thicket, which bore little resemblance to that sacred wood consecrated to Jupiter, like the forest of Dodona, a wood of which it has pre- served the name. ' Crete now no longer presents forests ; scarcely do a few thickets of olive trees yet adorn her heights, which were doubtless formerly as shady as those of the Ida of Phrygia It is the same with the Isles of Nanfi, Antiparos, Ipsara, Nio, Samos, and Polycandro. The forests of Chios, formerly so abundant, have abandoned her mountains; for they no longer present any thing but an image of drought and sterility. ' In the Archipelago forests are no longer met with except at Imbros, which is still completely covered with them, and in which abundance of game is concealed under the tall oaks and firs ; at Lemnos, not less wooded ; at Pares, whoso mountains are shaded by oaks, pines, and firs, like those of Mycone, of Thaos. Stampalia, the ancient Astypelea, if it does not afford lofty trees, has at least numerous groups of Kerraes oaks, pines, brambles, and maples. ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. 17 ' In the loDian Isles the clearance of wood has proceeded more rapidly than in the Cyclades ; forests, from which Mount Nero in the island of Cephalonia obtained its name, disappeared after the establishment of the Venetians. The northern part of Corfu, at the same time, remains yet covered with abundant forests of planes, cedars, pines, lirs, beeches, and elms. Leucadia has beautiful oak-woods, which supply Ithaca with the wood with which it is actually unprovided. Zante, the ancient Zacynthus, whicli Strabo describes as still very woovdy, is now completely destitute of forests, • Turkey presents in our days a state analogous to that of ancient Greece ; the distribution of forest vegetation does not appear to have changed much. The oak is the kind which forms the basis of it ; the predominant species are quercus rohur, quercus cern's, quercus jmbescens, quercus pedunculata, aegtlops, ci/Iindnca, and apemnna; to these species are united, in Albania and at Epirus, as well as in Thessaly, in maritime Macedonia, and upon Tekir-Dagh, tlie quercus ilex, quercus aciculus, and quercus coccifera. Servia and Bosnia possess the most beautiful forests ; in this latter province firs, pines, and birches announce a more northern vegetation ; these kinds are extended upon the southern ridge. ' Russia, which appears to be the last country of Europe that has awoke to civilisation, exhibits still that forest condition which was that of the rest of the world before man had dispossessed the ground of its thick shades, to open a free space for his agricultural labours. In this vast empire forest lines of a prodigious extent run in every direction ; in the south forests are little met with except along the rivers, if we except the Black Forest, an immense wood of oaks, which covers a superficies of 4000 versts. ' Yet, in the Crimea, forest kinds become more abundant. Forests stretch over the two slopes of tl '^ central range; c 18 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. and in the localities where the soil is argilaceoiis, and consequently humid, the trees reach a great height. Trees are seen, above all, upon the heights which line the coast from Balaklava as far as Aloupka ; from the side of Alouchta they form vast forests between Babougine-Yaila and Tehatir-Dagh. The pine of Taurida, which often attains a height of 50 feet, climbs the most elevated summits of Baghtcheh-Terai and of Tchoufout-Kaleh, whose schistous declivities it adorns. The beech, which grows in the environs of Laspi as much as a metre in diameter, composes the bulk of certain woods. ' In Ukraine, the black earth called bv the Russians stepiw'i-ezernozem, which constitutes the soil of a part of South Russia, gives rise to forests of a special nature, and of which the principal kinds are oaks, limes, and elms. These trees grow with uncommon vigour, and are asso- ciated with an immense number of large pear-trees of a magnificent aspect. Nevertheless this beautiful forest mantle is often etiolated under the pernicious action of drought, which causes the destruction of thousands of trees, and particularly hazels, ashes, and elms ; only the species with deep roots escape its devastating influence. * The governments the richest in forests are those of Archangel, Vologda, Viatki, Olonetz, Perm, Kostroma, Novogorod, Minsk, and Vihia. They are each of them com- posed of different kinds. In the government of Archangel pines predominate, and lines of them ascend as far as 67 degrees of latitude. In that of Kostroma reign vast forests of limes. In the government of Toula this same kind constitutes also woods of a peculiar physiognomy, on account of the special forms which this tree invests itself with in this country. Its top, instead of the thick rami- fication which belongs to it in our climates, presents only a very slight development with insignificant branches. The oak also of these forests throws out only a small number of branches, and its leaves, like those of all the kinds in this government, have not that thickness which one admires in the forests of the East ; a phenomenon which is partly owing to the constant dryness of the air. ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. 19 * These forests of particular kinds, such as pines, birches, limes, oaks, &c., have each received in the Russian lan- guage special names which express the nature of their kinds. The richness of this language to express the idea of a forest demonstrates the ancient predominance of forests in this country. Thus they call a forest of firs, jnchtovnikk ; one of birches, berecnikk ; a thick forest upon a marsh, luiva ; dehre is a forest placed in a hollow ; a forest of pines and birches situated in a sandy country is called horr ; one composed of lofty trees is doubrava, &c. Formerly, when France presented a forest condition analo- gous to that of Russia, this language designated also by special names each kind of forest ; people said a cliesnaie, an aulnaie, an urnaie, a boulaie, a possellniere, expressions which fell into desuetude as soon as the forests afforded little else than a mixture of all these kinds. * Lithuania forms a vast frontier boundary which separ- ates Russia from Poland ; it is there that the celebrated forest of Bialowieza, which extends all over the district of Bialistock, and which still serves as a refuge for the last descendants of the urus of Oriental Europe, This forest is the only one in this region which is worthy the name of primeval forest ; for it remained a few years ago abandoned to the operations of nature, and forest science made no provision for its management. It is among these aged woods, which overshadow the source of the Narova, that the urus wanders in company with the buli'alo and the elk. ' Amid these primitive scenes of nature there subsists a distinct population, the Ruskes, almost as savage as the animals whicli surround them. In several forests of Lithu- ania the beech has entirely disappeared ; pines, birches, and oaks replace this tree. In Esthonia, in Courland, limes re-appear, and constitute vast forests. *In the vicinity of the Oural, the birches, larches, and cedars have ceased to form distinct forests ; they are asso- ciated with other kinds, — with firs, which like marshy ground ; with pines, which grow upon stony places. ' In going towards Russia from Asia, the forest line is 20 MODERN FOREST FX'ONOMY. arrested only by extreme cold ; elsewhere it is propagated with incredible activity. In the government of Kasan reign forests of oaks exclusively ; in those of Irkoutsk and Tobolsk forests of mixed species. On the north the coni- ferae predominate ; to the south, the lime, ash, and maple. The banks of thu Irtisch, the Barnaol, and the Alei are covered with vast forests of firs. * Let lis advance towards tlie Altai' chain, let us pene- trate into the range of the Sailougueme, and we shall see the forests re-appear more vigorous than those of Siberia. The slopes of Atbachi are furnished with magnificent masses of pines and larches, whilst rhododendrons, dwarf birches, and wild currants, carpet the depths of its vaUeys. In the neighbourhood of Lake Kara-Kol, upon the borders of Samadjir, this latter kind is united to the fir. Between Ouspenka and the Tome, a forest of black poplars skirts the hills, which become lower as they approach this river. From the Alei to the banks of the Irtisch stretch vast forests which have not yet been explored. If we re-ascend now those which extend into the government of Yenisei, between the chains of Tazkil and Sayansk, new kinds appear in the forest masses, and give them an aspect more or less monotonous ; these are evergreen birches, whose foliage is intermingled with that of the white birch and service-trees, which take rank among the firs. * When we leave the banks of the Yenesei, and follow the route which leads from Minousink to Touba, we find an uninterrupted succession of woods and forests. The former are composed of agreeable groups of birches, poplars, and willows. The forests less smiling were for- merly overrun by the indigenous tribes and their herds of reindeer. In the present day it is with incredible diffi- culty that the tra.veller can pass through the forest bounds which divide the country with st^ppes. Some unfold uninterrupted lines of coniferae, pines, and firs — these receive in the country the name of black forests ; the others, called white forests, set up, like so many tall masts, long files of white birches, ANOIENT FORESTS OF EUKOPE. ^l 'Notwithstanding tins vast extent of forests, the epoch is not very distant in which these forests will have dis- appeared, and made way for meagre plantations, for clumps spread here and there upon the cultivated plain. The Muscovite peasant yields to no other people in his reckless fury in removing the timber. Cultivated lands daily suc- ceed the forests. The sectaries who seek in the depth of the forest a refuge against religious persecution, labour also on their side in the destruction of the woods, and set on fire [?] the retreats which at present screen them from the rigour of the laws. 'At times it is not the flame kindled by the Russian labourer, but the fire brought by the carelessness of the Syrian or Siberian hunter which produces these fatal causes of destruction. The thunder-bolt [?] has equally determined those combustions which annihilated thousands of trees and sables ; lastly, the rigour of cold produces also effects analogous to those of fire. If the frost does not reduce the trees to ashes it splits them often through the whole extent of their stem, with a noise that resounds in the steppes like the firing of a cannon at sea. During the winter season the forests remain buried under the ice, which by accumulating overreaches their tops. This terrible cold tinges the larches with different tints, the only trees which remind the traveller, lost in the toundraa, of the existence of vegetation. Their bark is black or red according as they are exposed to the north or to the south, and this circumstance furnishes a sort of natural compass. ' When the forests have been ravaged by fire or cut down by the axe, the kinds which again spring up over the burned or cleared land present in succession some pheno- mena of alternations similar to what takes place in America. It is the birch which comes first, in small thickets; then the pines make their appearance. In Poland we meet with only very few forests capable of giving an idea of the ancient forest state of the country, A sample may be seen in the forest of Wodwosco, which 2l2 MODEKN FOEEST ECONOMY. lies upon the domain of that namo, between those of Wianiezko and of Lublowicz. Whilst one part, cleared about forty years ago, affords only a continuation of bushes and thickets, in the midst of which spring up here and there a few alders, maples, or hollies, in that which the hand of man has respected to this day the forest offers admirably tall trees of oak and beecli mingled with majestic firs. The l)ushcs disappear, then a thick carpet of moss and heath recover the soil. Beyond, the land loses tiiat uniformity and l)ecomes more broken ; a torrent dashes with fracas over the debris of rocks. The trees are crowded together, and their branches, drawn nearer and' nearer, end by forming a dome which the rays of the sun seek in vain to penetrate. * Hungary, less devastated than Poland, has preserved a greater proportion of her forest wealth. Although they also have experienced the effects of the mountaineer's improvidence and the avidity of the commoner, the forests occupy upon her territory an extent of o,00(),000 hectares. The evergreen forests which cover the heights of Transyl- vania have singularly to suffer from the absence of all care. These same forests, from which the amentacese are generally banished reappear upon the military frontiers of Sclavonia, whose mountains especially they shade. It is more particularly in the district of Tchaikiotes that those he which have retained the physiognomy of the ancient primeval forests, such as those of Gardinovecz, of Kovill, and of Katy. 'Croatia is still better wooded than the military fron- tiers. The evergreens give place to species with leaves that fall, especially to beeches and the birch. In the plains and valleys oaks also erect their magnificent trunks. It is only on the frontiers of Illyria and Styria that the pines and firs re-appear. The county of Warasdin alone presents an extent of 14,450 hectares of forests. ' In lower Bosnia and Servia the oak becomes the predo- A^TIENt FOliESTS OF EUROPE. 2§ minant kind, whilst this character belongs to the tir in Upper Bosnia and Upper Croatia. In these provinces the firs, which commence at a height from 2,800 to 4,700 feet, cover often lengths of 6, 10, and even 20 leagues. In advancing towards the north of Hungary, the forests approach each other. The evergreens, by their predomin- ance, serve to measure the elevation in latitude. Whilst the oak still prevails in that admirable forest of Bakony, which occupies an extent of 12 miles the counties of Verprim and Szalad, they have almost wholly disappeared in Galicia and upon the declivities of the Carpathians. 'Austria offers, in her northern parts especially, a striking contrast with Hungary. If Styria yet reckons a few fine forests, composed principally of larches and pines, the other provinces begin to feel greatly the want of fuel In Lower Austria one single forest has remained worthy of attention, it is that of Vienna, whose vast lines of oaks, of ashes, and elms, adorn the Kahlen mountains. * In Bohemia the forests, composed of the same kinds as in the other parts of the Austrian empire, are so richly furnished that they have to this day been adequate to the demand for consumption, and subjected to extensive fellings, without any yet sensible diminution. 'Let us proceed towards the north, and cross the North Sea, in order to penetrate into the Scandinavian Penin- sula. ' In Sweden we only rajely meet with vast forests ; the woods are numerous, but little productive. Dalecarlia, Warmeland, the district of Orvebro, are the only countries where arborescent vegetation attains sufficient energy to cover with wood a large extent of country. They are almost always the coniferaB that constitute the basis of these forests. Sometimes, however, the birch replaces them notably in Ostergothland. Sweden, like America and Siberia, has her fires, that deprive in a few moments a 24 MODERN FOJIEST ECONOMY. whole district of its shade; but vegetable life once destroyed revives only with difficulty upon this frozen soil. *In Norway the forests are more extensive; they are suspended along the Scandinavian Alps, which separate this country from Sweden. The birch reaches there an altitude of 3G5 metres. In the diocese of Bergen the fir has still those gigantic proportions of the forests of Swit- zerland and Germany ; but more to the north its size is diminished to stunted proportions, and at the Polar Circle it has totally disappeared ; whilst in Swedish Lapland it advances yet to two degrees beyond. * In Norway it is the birch that really serves as a ladder to vegetation ; it is the measure of its energy, and marks by the different states through which it passes, in propor- tion as it rises in altitude, the degree of weakness of vegetative life. To the weeping birch succeeds the hetula acer, which replaces the white birch ; after which comes the birch of the prairies, which passes in its turn through different gradations of size, and which at the Polar Circle is nothing more than a stunted shrub, of pyramidal form, and covered with moss. * The Peninsula of Jutland, which in the eleventh cen- tury Adam of Bremen designated as horrida sylvis, has gradually lost the greatest part of its woods. One would now seek for them in vain upon the western coast of Schleswig. All the marsh which extends as far as the Eider is completely despoiled of trees. The eastern coast is a little less so, although the woods, almost wholly of beech, are very thinly scattered. * When we leave Denmark, and re-enter Germany by Holstein, forests become more numerous. Yet the Duchy of Oldenburg announces already, by the rarity of its trees, the vicinity of the Netherlands, where the marsh no longer permits the appearance of forests. ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. 25 * Sicily has lost the greater part of the forests which invested the sides of her valleys. The crests of Mounts Gcmclli, Heroei, and Nebrodes are only slightly shaded. Etna alone has saved the crown which surrounds the mean region of her summit. The wood of Catania, which con- stitutes the woody region, is not less than eight leagues long. * Sardinia, less unprovided with wood than Sicily, has seen, however, from the time of the first Carthaginian establishments, her forest mantle gradually becoming nar- rower from the effect of fires and in consequence of the improvidence of the peasants. Forests form still the sixth part of the territory of the island, and several are true primeval forests. This forest line of Sardinia continues beyond the strait of Bonifacio, upon the chain which crosses Corsica almost longitudinally, and the culminating points of which are Mounts Rotondo, Paglia-Orba, Ciuto, and Cordo. These are forests of remarkable beauty. They are principally formed of pines, white and green oaks, chestnuts, junipers, &c. Olive woods are distributed on several points. In these forests there are grottoes whose entrance is embellished with a multitude of shrubs, and which serve as a refuge to the shepherds and their flocks. * Italy also possessed magnificent forests, of which there are nothing more than a few rare vestiges. We now find with difficulty the trace of those which the Romans have signalised for us on account of their extent. What has become of that celebrated Cimian wood, which, from the borders of Lake Ronciglione, spread as far as the centre of Etruria? It is now reduced to a few groups of wood. One might say as much of the forest of Mcesia. of the forest of Alba, of the Sylva Litana, which extended from the source of the Panaro to that of Secchia, and whose name appears to have drawn its origin from the extent it occupied. * One would seek vainly now for the forest of Aricie, which the Jews doubtless began to destroy, which was established there in the time of Juvenal. 26 MODERN FOREST ECONOMV. * Of the forests that Vibius Sequester cites as the most extensive of Italy, that of Sila, in Bruttium, is the only one which has escaped destruction, thanks to the special protection with which it has long been surrounded. Strabo tells us that it occupied an extent of 700 stadia, in the present day, though occupying an ai*ea of considerably smaller dimensions, it yet enjoys a notable importance, and is above all renowned for the magnificent pines which rise upon its slopes to a height of 120 or 130 feet. In Basili- cate, the fine forests of oaks, which Zeuvie points out in the environs of Lago-Negro, seem to be the remains of the forest of Angitia, in Lucania, which Virgil has cele- brated, and which had doubtless given its name to that province (Lucania, from Lucas.) The forest of Garganus, so vast in antiquity, offers now only meagre thickets. 'The forest of Vulsinia exists still in part in the nemoral lines which run over the mountains comprised between the lake of Bolsena and the Tiber, and which is attached to the last remains of the Ciminian Forest which are met with from the Giminie di Loriana to Tolfa. It is there that the evergreen-oak attains astonishing dimensions. The heights of the Apennines, in the centre of Italy, although abodes more protected from spoilation, have been, however, remarkably stripped. Targioni Tozzetti has signalised the disappearance of a great part of the forests which formerly covered the mountains of the province Lunigiana. The great plain of the Po is com- pletely divested of forests; there is not a single conifera in it. Lastly, the clearance has advanced as far as the reverse of the chain of the Alps which separate Switzer- land from Italy, and was remarked thirty years ago in the valley of Aoste. ' Spain has been less fortunate, again, than Italy. The working of the mines from remote antiquity, and the careless improvidence of the Castilian, have hastened the destruction of the arborescent kinds. The centre of the peninsula is now almost totally deprived of trees. A few ANCIENT FORESTS OP EUHOl^'E. 27 yews, service-trees, and maples, are actually, in Sierra- Tcjada, the only vestiges of the forests which crowned these mountains. The Sierra de las Almijarras presents still a few woody crests. Here and there clumps of oaks and firs shade the Sierra de Toloza. In the Sierra Nevada the pine constitutes wood of from 20 to 30 feet ; whilst two different species of pines give rise to some forests in Granada. The Balearic Isles are entirely stripped of their trees ; and one would seek in vain in the Pityusae (Iviya and Tormentera) for the pines to which they are indebted for their names.' The description of the other forests of Europe con- stitutes the special subject of M. Marny's work ; but it is given at too great length for quotation ; enough has been quoted to indicate that formerly Europe must have been covered with forests. Moreover, according to Marsh, in Southern Europe, Breul, Broglio, Brolio, Brolo; and, in Northern Europe, Breuil, and the endings -dean, -den, -don, -ham, -holt, -herst, -hurst, -lund, -schaw, -shot, -skog, -skov, -wald, -weald, -wold, -wood, are all etymologically indicative of the places so named having been situated in woods or groves, though it may be no woods or groves are exist- ing there now, and these are numerous. In England we have not a few of such names ; and we have the names of numerous forests which have partially or entirely disappeared, details of which I have given in The Forests of England, and the Management of them in Bye-gone Times [pp. 13G-139; 1 40-107]. On the maps of Scotland, according to Chalmers, the learned author of Caledonia, there are a thousand names of places derived from forests which no longer exist, and there also we have remains of forests which once covered extensively the land — Ettrick Forest, and the Caledonian 28 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. Forest, and others which have been celebrated in history and in song * Chalmers, in his work entitled Caledonia, to which reference has been made, tells that during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, not only the king, but the bishops, barons, and abbots, had their forests in every district of North Britain ;' and he adds, ' it will scarce be credited that many black moors which now disfigure the face of the country, and produce only barren heath, were formerly clothed with wood, and furnished useful timber and excel- lent pasturage ; yet it is a fact clearly proved by the posi- tive evidence of record, a great part of which is now without a tree.' Corroborative evidence of the existence of forests afore- time, where forests now there are none, is afforded by immense quanities of wood found in various places in peat bogs and similar formations. Similar remains of ancient forests buried in the ground and submerged in the sea are met with in England, details in regard to some of which are given in Forests of England, cfcc. [pp. 168-188]. In Ireland also we meet with the remains of buried forests ; and in Scotland they are not awanting. * Mention is made by Pliny of the Caledonian Forest. The ancient town of Caledonia had become in Buchanan's time, in the Itith century, he tella us, vuljyarly (or commonly) called Dunkcld— the Hill of Hazel Trees ; ' for here,' says he, ' the hazel tree spreads itself widely in those uncultivated places, and having covered the country with shady woods, gave a name both to the town and to the tribe.' Upon this statement Aikman, the translator of Buchanan's UUtory of Scotland, remarks in a note :— ' This derivation of the name is now generally allowed to be correct, though some Gaelic etymologists derive it from Dun ghael dhin—" the fortress of the Gaels of the hills." (Stat. vol. XX. p. 411.) The name Caledonians, which belonged to the tribe, who formea one part of the PictisVi kingdom, Mr Finkerton alleges was given them by their neighbours, and it would seem n^.eans Woodlandem, as their territories were then covered with woods, and especially the vast St/loa Caledonia. (Inq. vol. i. p. 20.) By Latin writers the name Caledonia was ajjplied to the whole peninsula north of the Forth, and there is reason to believe that, at a time long after the days of Pliny, tho whole country was still thickly covered with woods. Buchanan tells :—' Ueneath Caledtmia, about twelve miles »i\ the .same right bank, is Perth. On the left bank, below Athole, looking towards the east, lies the Carae of Uowrie, a noble corn country. Beyond tins again, between tho Tay and the l-jsk, extends the county of Angus, or as the ancient Scots termed it Acneia, by some called Uorrcntia (so named from the Horesti, a tribe mentioned by Tacitus, but omitted by Ptolemy), and by the English Forestia (woodland). In this tract are the cities of Cupar and Dundee, which Boothius, desirous of gratifying his countrymen, calls Deidonum (tho gift of God), but of which I think tho a«icicnt name was Taodunum, that U a hill uoar tho Tay, dun signifying a hill, at tho bottom of which (ho town Is built.' ANCIENT FORESTS OF EUROPE. 29 In Denmark, once the horrid forest, now a land where ancient forests exist no more, buried remains of ancient forests have been found in such abundance, and so pre- served, and in such succession of superposition, that they have commamied the attention of some of the first archaeologists of the age ] and these have been able to fur- nish us with the details of the order in which different kinds of trees have in succession existed there, — and to carry back our study of prehistoric forests to the times in which were formed some of the Kjokken-muddings of Scandinavia — times so remote that though archaiologists speak of them as of eras of unquestionable antiquity, the recital would seem to some to be Uut the creation of a dis- ordered fancy. CHAPTER III. THE DISAPPEARANCE OP FORESTS IN EUROPE. The extent to which in different countries there are names of places with a reference to woods where now woods or forests there are none, and remains of trees are found submerged or buried where now trees no longer grow, tells of the change which has taken place in the forestal character of Europe, and accords with allusions and explicit statements preserved by history; and in comparing the present appearance of Europe with what it must have been 'when a land of forests, it becomes interesting to enquire in what way these forests came to disappear. There is such a thing as a natural decay of trees, by which I mean a decay which occurs, it may be altogether irrespective of man, and of man's doings. In an old wood there may sometimes be seen staghorn-like branches at the very top, or at the extremities of some of the lower boughs. This is an indication of decay. Sometimes there may be seen on a living tree a dead branch, or an entire side apparently dead, or actually so. Sometimes there may be seen a lofty tree growing with apparent vigour, but with only a hollow trunk, a mere shell remaining ; or a tree may be found standing erect but quite dead ; or it may be, multitudes of trees lie uprooted and prostrate, dead, or dying. In all such cases a knowledge of the physiology of vegetation may enable an experienced observer to tell at once how the decay, or the death of the trees has come about. Most probably in the first men- tioned case the roots of the tree had exhausted the nutriment within reach of the extremities of the rootlets. DISAPPEARANCE OF FORESTS. 31 In the second case the evil may have been done by the weight of a load of snow resting on it in winter, or by the growth upon it of some parisitic fungus. In the third case the damage may have been done by a thunderstroke, or through the leaves having become infested with a destructive insect; in the next case the decay of the trunk may be attributable to a twig having been broken by some bird or beast ; while in the last mentioned case all may have been the consequence of a gale. Such accidents are of frequent occurence. But all the destruction caused or occasioned thus is as nothing compared with the destruction which has been occasioned by man. In the organic structure of man, and in many other organisms besides, there may be seen at times a remedial operation going on ascribed to what in default of fuller knowledge has been called the vis mediatrix ; so do we find in operation in primeval forests a remedial process whereby trees thus destroyed are re- placed by others — it may be their superiors in the vege- table scale ; but the destruction effected by man has been carried on so extensively as to render in general this provision unavailing or insufficient to repair his devastating work. Sometimes this destruction by him has been wrought with a purpose ; sometimes it has been wrought only in recklessness of consequences ; sometimes his only purpose may have been to obtain a beam or a switch ; sometimes it may have been done to clear the ground for agriculture ; sometimes through his sending his flocks or herds into the forest for pasture without any thought of damage ; some- times through his kindling a fire wherewith to cook his provisions, and neglecting to extinguish it on leaving ; sometimes through his throwing down a burning match after lighting his pipe ; sometimes through his burnmg the bushes, or grass, or herbage, outside the wood to clear the ground for the plough, or with a view to securing a new succulent crop for his herds, and not keeping fire under control, and the extensive destruction of foresti^ was the consequence. 32 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. From the time when arborescent vegetation entered on the struggle for existence with the herbaceous vegetation which may at first have taken possession of the soil, if such there was, which struggle was to issue in the survival of the fittest, up to the period when victory was secured by the trees, and for ages thereafter, the forest was making increase of itself like the growing babe, the growing boy, the growing youth, and the man in his prime, up to middle age and beyond it. There was waste going on ; again and again, times innumerable, the leaves, one by one, died and fell from the tree — one by one they fell, individually nnmissed, but in their totality considerable : that was waste; and other leaves and fruits were eaten ere they were so mature as to fall. But beyond these a destruction of whole trees — patriarchal trees, monarchs in the wood — occasioned by bird, or beast, or insect it may be, or by the winds of heaven, was going on all the while : a spray got broken, or a leaf in falling carried with it a portion of the bark ; the moisture of rain, or dew, or hoarfrost, or snow, got access to the wound ; the moisture evaporated, but somehow or other the torn wood got oxydised, rotting as does the stake planted in the ground, at the junction line between wind and weather ; and the decay spread, slowly it may be, very slowly perhaps, but there was no occasion to take account of time. We are speaking of the working of Him with whom a thousand years are as one day, while at other times one day is a thousand years. The result was the total destruction of the tree. It fell and perished. But for ages the destruction was as nothing to the increase ; waste went on, but the increase by growth exceeded this, and the forest continued year by year, century by century, to make increase of itself. Thus it continued till man came upon the scene, and then began another era the issue of which we have not yet seen. The recuperative power of a forest is wonderful ; but with the coming of man upon the scene there came a disturbing element against which it could maintain a DISAPPEARANCE OF FORESTS. 3:1 struggle for a time witli some measure of success, but before which it has, let us hope only temporarily, suc- cumbed. By that recuperative power, for ages all waste by natural causes in primeval times was replaced, and not only so, but the woods continued to extend themselves, and make increase; but with the introduction of this disturb- ing element all has been changed. Where the restoration was equivalent to the destruction, the equipoise has been disturbed ; where the growth or production was in (excess of the waste, this has been reversed. There may have been aforetime, as now, extensive destruction of forests by natural causes, and doubtless there were, but in process of time the loss appears to have been repaired and the forest restored. I have intimated that even after the intro- duction of this disturbing element the struggle was main- tained for some time with success ; and from incidents in this struggle we may form some idea of the greatness of the recuperative power and the mode of its operation. It is frequently the case that where forests happen to have been cleared away by accidental fire, forthwith a fresh crop of trees, sometimes of the same kind as those destroyed, but frequently, perhaps more frequently, of a different kind springs up. A similar occurrence has frequently been seen in connection with the destruction of herbaceous plants. After the great fire of London, in 1GG6, there sprung up profusely on the streets flowers which had not been seen there before the fire ; where a piece of quicklime lias fallen upon a moor the vegetation on the spot has perished, but oftentimes there has appeared in its stead a tuft of white clover ; when the foundation of St. George's Church, in Capetown, was dug, there appeared on the rubbish a luxuriant crop of a plant previously unknown in the locality ; and in the London Medical Record, of 1871 we read : — 'The mines of Laurium, which gave rise recently to such lively diplomatic discussion, are generally known to be largely encumbered with scoria), proceeding from the working of the ancient Greeks, but still containing enough S4 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. of silver to repay extraction by the improved modern methods. Professor Hendreich relates, according to L' Union Medicale, that under these scoriae, for at least 1,500 years, has slept the seed of a poppy of the species Ghuctum. After the refuse had been removed to the furnaces, from the whole space which they had covered have sprung up and flowered the pretty yellow corollas of this flower, which was unknown to modern science, but is described by Pliny and Dioscorides. This flower had dis- appeared for fifteen to twenty centuries, and its reproduc- tion at this interval is a fact parallel to the fertility of the famous " mummy wheat." ' Many like cases are mentioned by Marsh'"' in regard to the unexpected appearance not only of herbaceous, but also of ligneous vegetables. In Northern Europe I have had details given to me in regard to numerous cases of coniferous woods having been destroyed and birches springing up in their place. The remains of trees found at different depths in peat-bogs in Denmark testify to a continuous .succession of forests of different kinds of trees having appeared in the same locality. The laws regu- lating the succession have to some extent been evolved, and attention has been given to sources whence the seeds have proceeded ; but it is the fact alone with which we are at present concerned. In a volume entitled Rehoisement in France (pp. 45-47) I have cited cases of extinct torrents which have been extinguished by the natural extension of forests over ground which had been previously denuded of these ; and in the American State of Ohio there exist remarkable mounds and earthworks, constructed by man's device, overgrown with a dense clothing of forest not dis- tinguishable, or scarcely distinguishable, in dimensions or character of growth from the neighbouring forests, the soil of which had probably never been disturbed. Such has been the recuperative power of the forest, and such is it still ; but in the unequal struggle with man forests have '^ The Earth aa Moriified by Human Action. DISAPPEARANCE OF FORESTS. 35 at length extensively disappeared. Whether this has been a blessing or a curse affects not the fact, which is such as I have stated. Without speaking presumptuously of what must havelbeen the purposes of God, as if He were altogether such an one as ourselves, or forgetting that all that the more moderate theologians speak of are the Attributes of God, for which they claim no higher position than that they are what they or others iu their ignorance attribute to Him, we may reverently speak of what has actually occurred. In doing so the fact which has been stated may be accepted ; and with it the additional fact, that as the earth advanced through its changing conditions, it became progressively prepared and fitted for the flora of the present ; and in like manner for the fauna of the present ; and also for the residence of man, who found in the forests a shelter and a home ; but who found also there materials which he could make use of in effecting many of his purposes : building a house or place of shelter, fencing cultivated spots to keep off the beasts of the field, and making implements for which he had occasion, and weapons which he could make use of in hunting, or in defending himself and his family, if not also in committing injury and wrong ; but who even then may have begun to find these sheltering forests a cumbranco, preventing him from artificially cultivating, so extensively as he desired, other plants which were good for food. Then by fire and axe he may have sought the removal of at least a portion of them ; and effecting this, he may have found, though he may not have realised, or even under- stood, or even perceived the fact, that in the centuries of growth through which these trees had passed, they had prepared a soil for such cultures as he wished to practise ; and that the ashes remaining, after he had consumed them by fire, promoted the growth of the plants he was culti- vating. And in process of time, with increased experience of this, and intensified energy, he may have jDroceeded more and more extensively to fell and to destroy, till the 36 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. forest first becoming a fruitful field, then partially, but to a great extent, the site of industrial establishments, and the site of cities, and the dwelling-place of a population advan- cing in civilisation, and in intellect, and in culture, with results which are now to be seen. Such is one view of what has occurred, but there is yet another. The forest was the paradise of the ' wild man of the woods.' It was his Eden, his garden of delights ; but ere he left it he began to destroy it, and his descendants, his improved descendants, have carried on the work of destruction initiated by him, and they have substituted for tlie paradise of Eden the paradise — I had almost said the 'fool's paradise' — of modern life in the capitals and pleasure haunts of what is called advanced civilisation. The advancement is great, but the cost has been consider- able. Forests, or trees of which forests are composed, are still useful in the world's economy. The supply, though great, was not inexhaustible. Destruction has in many places been carried so far that privation has proved hurt- ful in its effects. And now there must be a judicious conservation and exploitation of what remains ; aye, and in some places man must restore again what he had taken away, or the consequences may be fatal. What seems to me to be an apt illustration of what has been going on suggests itself In the animal ecomony there may be seen and traced in the life history of every man who lives to extreme old age, a process which is similiar to what has occurred in the history of the ancient forests of Europe : in the infant, in the child, in the youth, in the man in the prime of life, the man in middle life, and in the man in old age, there is going on simultaneously a correlative process of growth and decay, of nourishment and waste, of assimilation and elimination. Many among us have been eating for twenty, for fifty, it may be, for eighty years. What has become of all the material we have eaten in all these years? Whereas we might by this MSAPPEARANCE OF FORESTS . Si lime have equalled the elephant in bulk, we seem to have been for years of the same size and our bulk unchanged. It may seem to l)e so ; but it is not exactly so. Never have we lifted a finger, never have we unconsciously winked, but the act has occasioned a waste of tissues of the body ; and as it is with these so it has been with every act of our life ; and the food we have taken has gone to supply this waste, and therefore have I spoken of these two processes being correlative. If, however, we were by a well-known practice to represent the measure of these processes at the progressive stages of man's life by a line we should find that the form taken by neitlier would be a straight line, but that of a curve, starting from a low point, gradually ascending, and again descending : little being eaten in childhood ; more in youth and in manhood ; less again in old age. But it would be found that the curve represent- ing the waste and elimination, though similar in its general outline differed from tliis in its curvature ; the curve representative of the quantity of food assimilated in the early life representing an excess above that of waste, growth in stature and in bulk being a consequence ; with the two curves approaching to parallelism in middle life : but the assimilation being then slightly in excess of waste, is accompanied by a slight increase in bulk but not in stature ; while in old age the curve of assimilation is far below that of waste and elimination, with the accom- panying result that he who was once a strapping youth, and presented afterwards a noble manly figure, has become a little wee, wee old man. Thus has it been with forests in Europe. Once they covered extensively the whole land, now they are reduced in most lands to a limited area, and in many localities they have entirely disappeared, while in others, though they still retain a footing, they look like things which are ready to perish and vanish away. CHAPTER IV. EVILS WHICH HAVE FOLLOWED THE EXTENSIVE DESTllUCTION OF FORESTS IN EUROPE. Section A. — Scarcity of Timber and Firewood. Large timber is every year becoming more and more scarce ; and had it not happened that iron is extensively used instead of it the deficient supply would have been felt painfully, In some of the extensive forests whence supplies of timber are obtained^ large areas, embracing most of those from which timber can easily be brought out, have been cleared of trees yielding such timber as is desired. This has now to be obtained from areas more remote, and more difficult of access, and thus the expense of bringing the timber to market has become greatly increased ; prices have risen, and they have been prevented from rising higher only through the extensive use of iron in shipbuilding and other industries in which timber was formerly employed. In many cases the increased price is not sufficient to cover the increased expense of bringing the timber to market. In Russia I was informed that to such an extent was this the case that by some the timber trade was continued only because they were already in the trade with established connections, and with skill and capital invested in the enterprise ; moreover, wood-cutters were in debt to them, and these men having to purchase from them their supplies they had thus a narrow margin of profit which still made the prosecution of the work remunerative, and a little — a very little more. And the distance which such timber has to be brought from the place of growth to the port of shipment is still pro- gressively becoming greater and greater. As with timber, so is it with firewood in some countries in teVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 39 which this is reckonod amoug the necessaries of life. In the.sc the demand for firewood is such that there must bo kept up a supply ; but this is done with a rise in price, which rise is ever increasing as the supplies have to be brought from ever-increasing distances. Thus it is in the larger cities of Russia ; and there in mining districts the continuation of smelting and manufacturing operations has in many cases been found to be unprofitable. In India, some twenty years ago, the destruction of forests in connection with the construction and the working of railways, imperilled the very existence of large communities through the diminution thus occasioned in their supply of fuel needed for lesser industries, and for the preparation of their food. In Siberia and in Mongolia dry cow dung is extensively made use of by the Mongols, under the name of argol ; and in South Africa the same material and sheeps' droppings called mist constitute in many districts the only fuel made use of. But from this the Indians shrunk ; and, some influenced perhaps by religious prejudice, would have died rather than make use of such fuel. With the abundant supply of coal which exists in Britain, this evil may not be felt here ; but it is otherwise elsewhere. In a volume entitled French Forest Ordinance of 1660 : with Historical /Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France, I have given details of the crisis produced in France, which called forth the memorable saying of Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., France perira faute des Bois ! and the delight with which this Ordinance, designed to arrest the destruction of forests, w^as hailed in other countries in Europe in which it is still spoken of as the Famous Ordinance of 1669, tells of the extent to which the evils mentioned were then prevalent. Of such Hvils it may be alleged that they are simply the privation of what has been destroyed, in accordance with what is taught to children, that they cannot both eat thoir cake and keep it, spend their shilling and retain it. But other evils have followed. 40 MOt)ERN FOREST ECONOM"^. Section B. — Droughts. More generally felt, perhaps, than the scarcity of timber and firewood, is the effect produced upon the humidity of a country by the destruction of its forests. There is, I believe, much of prejudice and much of error mixed up with the prevailing popular beliefs on this subject; but the confirmation of the underlvinu' fact oiven by scientific observations may warrant us in receiving, if necessary with some allowance, the testimony which so many are ready to l)ear — accepting the fact though explaining differently in what way the fact has been produced. Again and again one hears that Spain has been ruined through drought consequent on the destruction of her forests; and, as if by some general concensus, there have poured in upon us, from lands remote from one another and diversely conditioned, tales of privation, if not of distress, occasioned by aridity conset^uent on the destruction of forests, remind- ing: one of the narrative cjiven of the troubles and losses of - . ... Job — while one is yet speaking in conies another ; and while he is yet speaking, another ; and while he is yet speaking, another. It is a prevalent opinion that trees attract clouds and rain ; and that mountains and the sea do the same The phenomena which have given rise to these opinions can bo otherwise explained, and that more satisfactorily, by sup- I3osing the clouds to have been formed where they appear, and not been merely attracted thither ; and that that does take place can be proved. In a vohime entitled Iludrologij of South Africa; or, details af the fanner condition of the Cape of Good Hope, and of the causes of its present aridity, ivith suggestions of appropriate remedies for this aridity, I have shown that the desiccation of that country is attributable, primarily, to the drainage of much of the rainfall from the land to tho sea ; secondarily, to the evaporation of much which is not so carried away, which evaporation, at one time greatly EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FOREstS. 41 retarded by the exiyteiice of forests, has for a considerable time beea going on unchecked in consequence of the extensive destruction of herbage and trees. Facts might be cited to show that such is the case with Spain in an almost equal degree, and that such is the case to a lesser extent with the greater part of Central and Southern Europe. In a second volume, entitled Water Supply of South Africa, and Facilities for the Storage of it, I have shown that notwithstanding the aridity of South Africa there is gtill a sufficient supply of moisture there to fertilise extensively the country, if that moisture were husbanded and properly applied. The same may bo said of Spain where this is beinle mass of vegetable detritus which covers the soil of a forest, are so many barriers, against which the How comes to break its impetuosity, to lose its force through sub-division, and to arrest its speed ? And ought not the result of the combined action of this multiplicity of obstacles be the reduction in the speed of the floods, which we are desirous to secure.' The author quotes in support of his views several state- made by M. Cezanne, and he alleges that in whatever way it may be effected, there is no doubt as to the result. But beyond this mechanical action there is another which may also be called mechanical, but the op ation of which is different, thougli contributing to the same lesult. In regard to this M. Gorsse says: — 'To this action of the covering of the ground succeeds that of the soil. ' The soil of a forest absorbs and retains a (piantity of water much more considerable than other soils. To satisfy ourselves in regard to this, it is only necessary to consider what are its constituents, and what is the action of the different elements of which it is composed. 'First of all, its surface is covered with a thick hiyer of dead leaves, and with a caipet of moss, of lichens, and of herbage of all kinds, which develope rapidly under the vault of the trees. This covering, so eminently spongy, gorges itself with moisture, imbibes the water, and per- forms the function of immense natural reservoirs, from which subsequently the vegetables pump up the aliment of their transpiration, and springs draw their supply, a double guarantee for a more regular delivery. This is the principal cause of the coolness and humidity under the shade of trees, which is so persistent for a long time after tlie cessation of the rain. There is not a pciisant, a hunts- man, or a tourist, who has not had experience of the fact, 70 MODERN FOREST ECONOAIY. suffering in a severe cold the penalty of an impruder^b fancy for a walk in a forest on the day following a storm. And as for foresters, the repeated rheumatisms to which, alas! they are doomed, do not they present every day, even to the most sceptical, a demonstration cruelly eloquent ? ' Under the influence of atmospheric agents this enor- mous mass of vegetable detritus is decomposed rapidly to form a bed of detritus and humus* which attains some- times an enormous thickness under the mantle of dead leaves ; and it may be imagined that the soil of forests must be infinitely richer in this vegetable constituent than is all other agricultural soil by reason of the quantity of the vegetable matter with which it is strewn, and which rots there, being so considerable. Now it results from researches by Schuebler, reported and prosecuted by Boussingalt, to determine the physical properties of different kinds of earth, that humus is the substance which, of all others, manifests the greatest avidity for moisture. It is by no trifling difference that humus dis- tinguishes itself in this respect from the other earths which were made the subject of experiment. For its absorbent power is about eight times that of sand, from two to six times that of different kinds of calcareous earths, and from two and a half to five times that of the different argilaceous earths.t It may be imagined, then, what an important part in regard to inundations must be played by soil possessing so developed a hydroscopic property. It never happens that in any storm, wdiatever may be its intensity, the layer of humus imbibes the water to such an extent as to be completely saturated, or that the rainfall forms currents on the surface of a well-wooded soil. One may say then that a forest may easily drink in the whole of the water produced by a moat violent * The earth in the upi)er portion of the vejjfctiiblo soil i)roceeds fruin the nuiro or loss advtuiced docoiunoijitiiiii uf the oruiaiiiu dutritutj of plants. The humU9 constitutes the uioro Holuble and aHsiniiiablc iM)rtiun of this vegetable uoil. t Bou«sin)talt, Rconomie litirale coHnitlirfc- daiis sw liapports avoo la Chiinic, la PhUiqtie, at la JUitiiorologie. 2 Edit. T. i. p. (iOO, &u. EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 71 storm ; and wo may assume the occurrence of a succes- sion of very long continued rains to be necessary to accomplish the complete saturation of the bed of humus. Be this as it may, in any case the flowing sheet of water on the surface of the ground is diminished by an immense body of water absorbed and retained by the soil of the f jrest ; and the unnumbered difHculties which it en- counters in flowing over the surface, come to complete the first beneficial effect ot the forest.* ' Under the humus we come upon vegetaljle soil pro- ceeding from the disintegration of the rocks, under the combined action of water and the atmosphere. We cannol enter here on the consideration of the mechanical opera- tions and chemical actions which occasion and expedite this destruction of the rocks, but we may look at the influence of the physical properties exercised by the vege- table soil of the forests. This matter has been treated thoroughly by M. Marcliand, Sub-Inspector of Forests, in the first chapter of his interesting study, Sur les Torrents des Alps. The experiments of Thurmann which he reports show that the absorption of water by earth is proportional to their condition of sub-division, and as the roots of trees have evidently the effect of breaking up by division ad infinitum^ and in every way, the layers which they traverse, it naturally follows that the vegetable soil of forests is eminently hydroscopic. But in addition to the augmented hydroscopicity imparted to the vegetable soil by the ultimate ramification of ligneous roots ; this endows it in sub-dividing it with a considerable permeability. This latter property is one which must not be confounded with the former, as the ene is the faculty of absorbing and retaining water, while the other is the faculty of allowing it to infiltrate and pass beyond itself, or be retained in * The foUowin^v statement by M. Cezuano may «:ivo Homo itlcft of the importance of this i)Owcr of iibaorptioii :— 'The earth of forests with a density equal to 1"225 retains llK)of its weiyht of water (G^Bjiarin) ; it follows that if there bo a layer of 10 uenti' motroH— 4 iucho8--of earth saturateil and swollen by moisture, It mij,'ht retain a rain* sheet of 24 ecntimetrcs, or half of the rain whieh falls in a year in Paris.'— Siti^c a L'iHudt «u<' k« TttrrenU d«i Uauta Alps. 2 tA. T. ii. p. 177. 1^ MODERiir FOnESt ECONOMY. grosser pores ; and this evidently plays an additional and important part, as it diminishes the flowing sheet of water which is making for the river by the voUime of water infiltrating through the ground. And, furthermore, this permeability is communicated by means of the roots to the sub-soil — that is to say, the layer upon which the vegetable soil rests. Let one then imagine what an immense quantity of water comes to be engulfed in these canals, a veritable drainage by innumerable ramifi- cations. 'A very considerable diminution of the volume of a flood is a consequence resulting from the diversified action of the mode and power of the operations which have been thus brought under consideration. This has been brought prominently forward by the hydrologic experiments of MM. Jeandel, Cantegril, and BcUand, Gardes Generaux lies Forets, who made it the subject of a Memoir addressed to the Academy of Sciences in 1861. Their observations were made in two basins of the Meurthe, which were absolutely diiTerent in regard to the superficial condition of the ground. And they have proved that the co-efficient of superficial fioio and the co-efficient of inundating action are at least twice as great in the basin devoid of wood as they are in the wooded basin ; or, in terms more generally intelligible, that forests reduce by at least one half the chances of inundations. We cannot, without overstepping the limits of the restricted outline which we have laid down, enter here into an examination of the criticisms, sometimes bitter and often unjust, which have been made upon this remarkable and conscientious woik, and of the replies made in defence of it. Let us only say tli^t the authors of tlie Memoir have at least a right to claim that they have formulated general laws which render an account of the observations collecteil by them in the circumstances in which they found themselves placed. That, if they had been placed in circumstances different from these, they might have obtained results and numbers somewhat dif- ferent, is possible. But that the import of these results EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTlOi^ OF FOlRESTS. 73 would have been different is altogether inadmissable, for their conclusions are the entirely natural consequence of the phenomena which would have been produced in the order which we have established, and which appear to us to be indisputable. * The most disastrous inundations are those which pro- ceed from the sudden melting of snow, in consequence of the volume and the instantaneous character of the flood which may be thus produced. Without wishing to attri- bute to this cause alone the cataclysm of 1875, which was beyond doubt produced by the coincideoce of most formid- able meteorological phenomena, we consider that this must have exercised a very decided influence on the deplorable result. The danger arising from this complica- tion was so great that General de Nansouty, whose devotedness everybody in the Pyrenees acknowledges and admires,* observing the mass of snow which fell on the 21st June, its slight consistency, the elevation of tempera- ture, and the direction of the storm clouds, understood at once the imminence of a sudden and fearful irruption of water into the valley of the Adour. His assistant, by heroic devotion, braved the tempest, descended to Campan, and giving timely notice to the Mayor and inhabitants, was enabled to save or spare the valley a portion of the disaster with which it was threatened. * No doubt, then, this sudden melting of the snow was one of the determining causes of the catastrophe of 1875. Now forests exercise a direct influence on the melting of snow ; they retard it. Who has not observed that snow remains under forest masses many days after the bare slopes surrounding them have been completely divested ? By protecting the soil against the heat of the sun's rays, * Oeneirivl do Naiisouty wiis Director of the Observatory of La Plantadc, eatablished on tlic jioak of the Midi (ic Bijforre. He vas Giialiled to aniiouiuc fifteen hours in advance the terrible inuiidation whicli was al)out to ravayc the basiiia of the Garonno and the Adour.— Notes auconiiKinying the Report of M. Alicot on the draft of a Law- relative tu the Koboiscuient of the Mountains, paMod ia IS77 by the Cliambcr of Deputies. 74 Modern forest economy. and by sheltering it from the blasts of south wind which bring to Europe a portion of the burning heat of the sands of the desert, the covert of tree, destroys two causes which, singly or conjointly, bring on the sudden debacles of spring. Under their nave of verdure the melting of snow goes on always insensibly and gradually, never suddenly and in a mass. ' We read in a report addressed by M. Fare, Director- General of Forests, to tlio Minister of Finance, relative to the nature and utility of the new law on the rehoisement of the mountains, presented to Parliament in 1877 : — ' " Being very elevated, the Alps extend very often into regions of long-continued and long-]yiiig snows. They receive the snows over an extensive area, they preserve them for a long time, and thus they accumulate there the more. On the return of spring the sun, by reason of the latitude it has attained, has then great power. Often there supervene burning winds from the south which expedite still further the effect of the direct rays of the sun. The result is that the melting cf the snow, instead of going on gradually, is effected all at once, in two days the flood has passed on and the debacle is terminated." * What is affirmed of the Alps may be applied with a slight deduction to ail mountainous countries, and one can well imagine that on slopes divested of trees, rain and snow storms, encountering no moderators of their action and their violence in the natural screens and shelters of woods, must be followed by fusions, sudden and of an abun- dance proportionate to the areas of these immense reservoirs. But the beneficent roll of forests is not limited to the protection which they afford to the portions of tlie basins which they cover. Discharging the duty of gigantic and multiplied ba7'rages,t\iey oppose also their innumerable obstacles to the flow of the inundating sheet proceeding from the sudden debacles in the pasturages and glaciers with which they arc crowned.' Additional inibrmation in regard to the immediate and EVILS FOLLOWING DSlSTRUCtlON OF FORESTS. 75 the secondary effects of trees in arresting the flow and escape of the rainfall, and thus equalising to some extent the flow of rivers, is embodied in a volume entitled Forests and Moisture; or Effects of Forests on Humidity of Climate, pp. 212-254. Besides citing this, let me add that in a paper in the Revue des Eaux et Forets, for April 1SG6, there are given the following striking illustration of the effect of woods on torrents : — * The State possesses, in the department of Van- cluse (writes the forest conservator, Labuissiere), a forest of more than 3000 hectares, situated on the portion of the mountain Luberon, nearest to the valley of the Durance. This region is very much cut up, and traversed in all directions by very narrow and deeply embanked ravines in the midst of masses more or less dense of Aleppo pines and green oaks. ' These ravines are almost the only outlets for the trans- port of wood, in consequence of the difficulties which would be encountered, and the expense which would be incurred, in making more practicable ones on the rapid declivities, strewn with enormous masses of rock. There exists one so situated, called the Ravine de Saint-Phalez. The direction is from north to south, in the midst of a mass of Aleppo pines in a state of growth more or less compact. * Its length, and for four kilometres, or from the road from Cavaillon to Pertuis, to the domain of Saint-Phalez, of an area of about 50 hectares, forms the bassin de recep- tion of the torrent. ' This land is well cultivated ; there are no declivities too steep for cultivation ; it comprises vineyards, meadows, and arable land ; the soil is argillaceous. * The ravine of Saint-Phalez receives many affluents, the most important of which is that of the Combe d'Yeuse, which joins it near the summit, where are some hundred metres of the cultivated grounds of which I have spoken. 'The ravine de la Combe d'Yeuse is of much less con- siderable length than that of Saint-Phalez ; it is scarcely y^;\ ra MODEM FOUEST ECONOMY. two kilometres. It is strongly embanked, surmountcJ by steep declivities, covered with green oaks of eight or ten years' growth, and with Aleppo pines of different ages. Its bassin de reception, of about 250 hectares, or 113 acres, comprises the whole slope, precipitately inclined, with a general south-west aspect ; it is closed at the top by a deep bed of rock cut into peaks of the most imposing aspect. 'The geological formation in both is absolutely the same, as are all the other conditions, at all the points which I have examined. In no part is to be seen either spring or appearance of humidity ; no water is seen excepting at the time of the storms or great rains, and this water soon passes away, with the differences which will afterwards be mentioned. At all other times these ravines are of a desolating aridity. 'In the night of the 2nd and 3rd September 1804 there fell a rather abundant rain over all this portion of the mountain. In the morning the argillaceous grounds of Saint-Phalez were saturated, of which evidence was found by any one attempting to cross them. The ravine of Saint-Phalez, the receptable of the surplus water, had flowed but slightly ; that of the Combe d'Yeuse remained dry. ' The day of the 4th September was very warm ; a water-spout borne along by a south-west wind struck on the Luberon. Its passage did not last more than forty minutes ; but scarcely had it come when the torrent of Saint-Phalez became awful. Its maximum deliverance was about two cubic metres. It did not flow more than fifty minutes ; but with an average delivery of half a cubic metre ; it had then passed in all 15,000 metres of water. Its height had been 0"()4 m. ; each square metre had received 40 litres, and the 50 hectares of Saint-Phalez 20,000 cubic metres. The ground had only retained 5000, which is sufficiently explained by their argillaceous character and their state of saturation the night before. While the torrent of Saint-Phalez flowed, filled from bank EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 77 to bank, seizing and carrying off rocks which had been employed to form a road which was believed to be safe against all contingencies, that of the Combe d'Yeuse and all those traversing wooded lands remained dry, or gave only an insignificant quantity of water. * On the slope opposite to that of which I have been speaking, in the valley of the Peyne, a carriage-road newly formed did not experience the least injury throughout the whole of the portion of it passing through the forest of the domain ; but at its issue, on the lands of the Libaude and of the Roquette, it had been, so to say, destroyed. A cart loaded with faggots was upset and smashed by the waters, which flowed from all the cultivated slopes, and tore along, with the noise of thunder, at the bottom of the ravine. ' My good fortune secured to me another subject of study on the same ground. * On the 25th of October following I went to the sale of the fellings of the Tarascon, where there fell an abundant rain. The next day (the 2Gth). the weather was clouded. I set off for the Luberon in the hope of arriving there at the same time as would a storm of rain, which I saw approaching. I arrived first ; the ravine of Saint-Phalez was still moist, from the passage in small quantity of the waters of the night before ; they had served, as appeared, to saturate the lands of the domain, as had previously happened on the 7th [Srd ?] September. ' I had scarcely gone over two kilometres in the ravine when the water began to rush with great violence ; ten minutes later it precipitated itself in its ordinary canal d'ecoulement, completing Ihe work of destruction begun in the month of September. The lands of Saint-Phalez had absorbed but little or none of the water that day. * The storm was not of long duration — an hour at most. The time was unfavourable for collecting on the ground exact measurements, but I reckon that the torrent delivered, at its maximum, somewhat less water, perhaps, than on the 4th of Sept':»mber. The flood, however, was 78 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. more frightful ; it swept away rocks with so much the greater ease that nothing had been repaired since the first storm, which had left the stones dug out, and without bond of cohesion among themselves. * To gain the forester's house, which was on the slope of the left bank, it was necessary to make a long circuit — to go round the domain of Saint- Phalez, and to cross the grounds belonging to it, in which one sank to the depth of 0'30 mi^tres, or 12 inches. Before arriving at my home, I had still before me the ravine of the Combe d'Yeuse, and I feared I should be stopped there by a new obstacle, I was agreeably surprised to find it dry. An hour after the storm the ravine of Saint-Phalez had ceased to flow. * It rained throughout the whole of the 28th, without there being anything to remark similar to what had hap- pened on the preceding days. The only effect of this was that on the evening of the 30th, near the forester's house, and at 200 or 300 metres from the ravine of Saint-Phalez, there was seen going down, in that of Yeuse, a small fillet of clear water ; its volume increased perceptibly during the three days, to diminish in like manner during the two which followed ; its passage broke down a little of the footpath which goes along the valley, but caused only a damage easily repaired. But this footpath presented nothing of the solidity of structure of that of the Combe de Saint-Phalez, built on enormous blocks of rocks which had stood for several years, and which had allowed of passage with a waggon some days before its destruction by the storm in September. If the Combe-d'Yeuse had yielded as much water as that of Phalez, and if these two masses of water had come at the same time, the damage caused in the plain must have been considerable, md the Durance, which received these waters, would have been so much the larger. ' Thus we have two torrents very near and under the same conditions — except that the basin drained by the one EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 79 comprises 50 hectares of cultivated lands, that of the other 250 hectares of woodlands. The first receives, and allows to flow away, the waters of the greater part of a storm in a few hours at most, causing thereby considerable damage ; the second, which had received a greater quantity of rain, stores it — keeps it for two days — evidently retaining a portion of it, and takes three or four days to yield up the surplus, which it does in the form of a limpid and inoffen- sive stream.' M. Jules Clave, writing on the effects of forests in increasing humidity of soil, says : — ' When Napoleon was taken to Saint Helena,' writes M. Blanqui, ' the English felt the necessity of occupying Acension Island, which was then only a barren rock, scarcely covered with a few cryptogamic plants, and there they stationed a company of a hundred men. At the end of ten years this little garri- son had been enabled, by dint of perseverance and planta- tions, to create a soil on the island, and from this to draw some water. It was abundantly planted with vegetables. Such was the result of plantation upon a rock iu mid- ocean ! ' But why should we seek so far away for the proofs of phenomena that are renewed daily under our eyes, and of which any Parisian may convince himself without ventur- ing beyond the Bois de Boulogne or the forest of Meudon ? Let him walk out, after some days of rain, along the Chevreuse road, bordered on the right by the forest of Meudon and on the left by cultivated fields. The amount of rain that has fallen is the same on both sides, and yet the ditches by the roadside along the edge of the forest will be still filled with water, proving the infiltration going on from the wooded soil, while already for some time those on the other side, adjoining the cleared fields will have been dry, after having served their purpose by a sudden flow. The ditch on the left will have emptied itself in a few hours of all the water, which the one on the right will take some days to convey to the bottom of the valley.' 80 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. In accordance with this it is mentioned by Mahd : — ' In France, in the Montagne-Noire, experiments have been made in two different valleys, the one wooded, and the other denuded of wood ; and it has been ascertained that the first gives off immediately after rain less water than the second, but on the other hand this becomes rapidly dried up, while the former feeds the stream throughout the entire year. And it has been observed that while in denuded regions the heaviest rains fall in the summer, in wooded districts they fall in the autumn and winter— that is to say, during the season in which, according to Belgrand, they contribute most to feed the water-courses. These observations, made by Maistre in Aude, are of indisputable explicitness in their teaching; the results show so evidently that the aridity of a country goes on increasing with the clearing away of woods, and that the water-courses which formerly gave movement to mills have to-day ho longer sufficient water to do so. * Cauvigril has in like manner observed that a stream, that of Cauman, which takes its rise in a forest district belonging to that same forest of the Montaigne-Noire, formerly gave movement to fulling mills, but after the clearing away of the forest the flow became so irregular that the mills had to stand still through part of the year. The commune, however, having recently replanted the forest, the Cauman has resumed its former regime, and the works go on now without interruption.' I have had occasion elsewhere to state that the Alpine torrents are traced by Surell to two sources— the melting of snow about the beginning of June, and storms of rain occurring about the end of summer. The inundations in the Garonne valley was occasioned by similar causes, but by these operating simultaneously, and this in the Cevennes and in the Pyrenees at the same time. In accordance with what has now been stated, when a basin drained by a river is covered by vegetation the flow of the water is retarded, diffused, and protracted ; but when mountains EVILS fOLLOWIl^G DESTrCCT^ION OF FORESTS. 8l upon -./Inch the rain falls are devoid of vegetation, the rain rushes off as does water on the roof of a house— and thus was it here. The Journal des Dehats thus explains the phenomena of these inundations : — ' It is the chain of the Cevennes which causes these immense disorders. Between the sources of the Loire and the Herault the Cevennes are 3,700 feet high. All this surfjice is composed of granite impermeable to the ruins. The river waters rush over this ground with immense rapidity, but do not enter it. The chief streams rising there are the Dour, the Ervieux, the Ardeche, and the Gardon, affluents of the Rhone ; on the west, the Lot and the Tarn, affluents of the Garonne ; on tlie north, the Loire and its tributary the Allier ; on the soutli, the Hurault. .The Ardeche, whose basin is only 2,492 kilo- metres, has enoriuous rises. At the bridge d'Arc the stream rises to nineteen metres above the lowest level, and pours down at a rate of 7000 cubic metres per second, almost as much as the Loire at Tours. An equal violence is registered in the Dour, the Ervieux, the Garden, the Isere, the Drome, and the Durance. Since everything depends on the rainfall, it is obviously impossible to calculate with certainty beforehand. Every year the Cevennes cause vast " spates " in the largest rivers in France— the Rhone, the Loire, and the Garonne. All the streams of the regions are torrents. The southern part of the Cevennes, the Black Mountain, and the Corbitires exercise a great influence on the small Mediterranean streams between the Rhone and the Pyrenees. A rain of 200 millimetres, which has no perceptible effect elsewhere, causes in these parts a sudden flood.* Li general the rains fall there in May, and being then comparatively cool, they melt but little of the snow, and flow away as they fall. But when they fall in June, as this year they did, they are somewhat tepid, and falling upon the snow, melt it rapidly, and the watery produce is added to the rainfall j thu« two sources of flood are com* Q 8-2 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. bincd, and disastrous conscciuencos not uiifrcqiiontly follow. And thus, as lias been stated, was the late flood produced. Persistent rains from the north-west fell upon the Cevenncs and the northern slope of the Pyrenees. This was pre- ceded there in some cases by a heavy fall of snow ; and there was over all the higher-lying lands the snow which had fallen in the course of the winter. This snow was dissolved ; all the tributaries of the Garonne were flooded simultaneously ; and we see the result. In such a case time is everything. It may make all the difference between the loss of life and property, and perfect safety to both, if a body of water, such as was here precipi- tated from the mountains, shall rush past a given point in four days or take fourteen for its flow — flowing in flood, but never rising above the height of the containing banks. And it may make a very great difference, though not so great, if a flood and inundation come suddenly in the night, without notice or warning, and if it come after twelve or twenty-four hours' notice of its coming. Thus is it with floods in the Seine and in the Loire. Warning is given by telegraph all along the course of these rivers that a flood is on its way, and the inhabitants on their banks arc prepared when it comes ; and thus, as has been stated, the inhabitants of Orihuela, in Spain, were enabled to betake themselves to a place of safety before the flood of the Sangonera reached their town. But this could not be done in the case of this inun- dation. There is an observatory at Pic-du-Midi, a spur of the Pyrenees, and it seems that General de Nansouty, who commands there, would have been able to give timely warning of the coming inundation had the observatory been in telegraphic communication with the threatened towns and villages, — at all events along the course of the Adour. , He did, as we have seen, warn the people in the valley of Campan of what was to be expected from a heavy fall of snow in the mountains, which snow had suddenly com- menced to melt under the influence of the rain and westerly wind : on the first appearance of danger, on EVILS FOLLOWING DEsTllUCTION OF FORESTS. 83 tlic night of the 22nd Juno, M. Boylac descended the mountain during the most fearful weather to spread the alarm ; but the Hoods in all the tributaries of the Garonne Were so sudden that to give extensive warning was impos- sible. Had the hassins de reception of all these streams been wooded it would have been otherwise, but they were to a great extent devoid of vegetation. Very different had been the result had like warning been given along the course of the Garonne of the coming flood from one to twelve or twenty-four hours before it reached the different towns and villages destroyed ; and very different had been the case had the waters which swept along in a torrential wave taken fourteen days to flow past any and every point on its course ! It may be, that never would it have risen so high as to imperil a single house, and that in consequence of the timely waniin^j: ffi'^en not one life would have been lost ! It is said by a writer 1 h ive quoted, — ' If this observatory [that on the Pic-du-Midi], now isolated on the peak, were bound to the plain by telegraph, the General might transmit to the officials of the Fcmts et Chaussees previsions of the last importance. In the same manner a station should be made on the Corbieres. As soon as the quantity of rain falling on these cliffs became dangerous the authorities would be warned.' — Yes ; but this, if combined with a com- plete rchoisement and gazonnement of the mountains, would give them longer time to prepare for what was coming. And it may be asked, Why has this not been done ? An answer is forthcoming, and that not the answer which might be expected, tliat, as has been stated, * Between the sources of the Loire and the Herault the Cevennes are 3,700 feet high. All this surface is composed of granite, imperme- able to the rain, and to plnnt such either with herbage or with trees is impossible; ' but the answer, that the work is being done as fast as money and men and material can be found, and that already, previous to this inundation, all that could be done up to that time had been accomplished. It is often easy to tell, after an event has occurred, how it 84 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. might have been prevented ; and it may be that had these inundations been foreseen, operations which wouki have to some extent modified or prevented them wouki have been prosecuted with the vigour called forth by a race against time, in preference to some others which have not been ineffective, but the execution of which might without series consequences have been postponed; or, at all hazards, grants on a scale of magnitude equalling or exceeding those made previous to the war would have been made, and the difference between these and the amounts actually granted spent exclusively on the valleys and basins of reception drained by the upper waters and affluents of the rivers by which such devasta- tion has been wrought. The legitimate use now to be made of such reasonings is, to prepare for the future in accordance with the suggestions suggested by the past. And this, I have no doubt, will be done. Section D. — Torrents, Avalanches, and Landslips. In connection with what has been said of floods and inundations, mention has been made incidentally of land- slips, and torrents, and alluvial deposits, which are also attributable to the clearing away of forests. In proceeding to supply details in regard to these, I deem it proper to premise that it is not alleged that all such accidents are attributable to this cause ; all that can be shown is that some such have been thus occasioned. In the language of our countrymen the designation torrent is f*,pplied to the rushing body of water in a river bed, in contradistinction to the inundation of the lands beyond in such a form as has been referred to in the pre- ceding chapter. But the term is applied in France to another phenomenon, and in lack of an English term of corresponding import to this, I so apply it here, namely, to the mountaiii bed of the waters, along which they escape from the basin of reception, rushing to the lower lying lands EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 85 on the plain, often undermining the confining banks on the right hand and on the left, bringing down the overhanging masses, and sweeping along the debris and covering fertile lands many feet deep — it maybe fathoms deep — with stones, and clay, and rubbish, which no appliances of man can remove, and which doom the land to sterility in all coming time — the disturbances of the angle of stability affecting the ground at a level far above that of the torrent, and sometimes occasioning landslips of the most serious importance. There may not at first sight appear any connection between the destruction of forests and the occurrence of such phenomena, and yet, as a sand-drift has been known to originate in the uprooting of a bush, miniature torrents have been known to originate in the displacement of a stone Jialf-buried on a mountain side. And by Surrell it has been demonstrated that all the torrents on the Alps — and the Alps are in many places scarred with these— are attributable to the destruction of forests on the mountains. The demonstration is of a most conclusive character — showing that such has been the case in times past ; that such is the case still ; that former torrents have become extinct through the spread of arborescent vegetation over the basin of reception ; and that the artificial planting of trees, or bushes, or herbage, on appropriate sites, has extinguished torrents which immediately before were in full play. Many of the phenomena accompanying the creation of these torrents are most remarkable, including stones torn from their beds, propelled above and beyond the rushing water, and advancing through the air in front of the wall- like front of the mountain wave.* But what is of more economic importance is the value of the property, lands, orchards, and houses undermined and cariied away ; and * Reboiionent in France, d:c, (p. 117). 86 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. the extent of fertile land lost irretrievably by being covered np with the dSris. And what chiefly concerns our pre- sent argument is the connection of forest destruction with these, as the cause or occasion of the evils occurrent. In the localities affected the consequences are only second, if indeed they be second, to the consequences of floods and inundations on the lower lying plains. The area of land immediately affected may be smaller; but the loss is absolute and permanent. The proofs, or indi- cations, of these having been in many cases occasioned by the destruction of forests, and being in all, attributable to the treeless condition of the ground upon which the rain had fallen, are such as I have stated. It is to M. Alexandre Surell, Ingemeur des ponis et chaus- sees, now Director of the Chemhi de Fer du Midi, that we are indebted for the discovery, study, and exposition of the phenomena in question. He has been followed by the late Ernest Cdzanne, Ingemeur des ponts et chausees, and Repre- sentative of the High Alps in the National Assembly, and , by others. The volumes cited being charged hard with details of facts, and their reasonings upon them, I consider it unnecessary to refer further to this. Since that volume was published, voluminous reports of works of reboisemcnt in the mountains of France, with a view to arrest and prevent such evils, which have been executed, have been issued by the Government; and similar works have been executed elsewhere, as in Switzerland and in Spain. But I content myself with citing the following testimony, which corresponds fully with many occurring in the volume to which I have referred. M. Herecart de Thary, in his Potamographie des Haute- Alps, writes : — * In this magnificent basin (that of Embrun) nature has done everything with prodigality. The inhabitants have blindly enjoyed these favours : they have slept in the midst of these gifts. Wretches that they are, they have iucousiderately carried axe and fire into the forests, which EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 87 shaded and protected the precipitous mountains, the unknown source of their riches. In a short space of time the naked meadows have been ravajjed bv the waters : torrents have swollen \\r) -, they have precipitated them- selves with t'lry upon the phiins : they have cut away, torn down, and undermined their bases. Extensive lands have been carried away ; others have been buried up with the debris ; these have been covered with rocks, or they present now to the eye only sterile gravel. The ravages are going on still ; and ere long these torrents will have annihilated this beautiful basin, which lately might have been compared advantageously with the richest countries possessed of what is most fertile and is best cultivated.' Numerous details —I had almost said innumerable details — of phenomena like to those mentioned are given in a volume entitled Rehoisement in France ; or, Records of the Replanting of the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, with trees, herbage, and hush, with a view to arresting and preventing the destructive consequences of torrents^ in which are given a resume of Surell's study of Alpine torrents, of the literature of France relative to Alpine tor- rents, and of remedial measures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disastrous consequences fol- lowing from them,— translations of documents and enact- ments, showino; what leuislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of France in connec- tion with rehoisement as a remedial application against destructive torrents, — and details in regard to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the work. In regard to the effect of forests in preventing the occurrence of avalanches, M. de Gorsse writes in a paper read before a meeting of the Agricultural Society of the High Alps, on the 2nd July 1879, relative to the influence of forests on inundations, which has ahead v been cited : — * All know the cause of the avalanche and the action which it takes; in spring, under the heat of the solar rays, 88 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. or under the breath of the warm south winds, the upper layer of the field of snow begins to melt. The water thus produced sinks by infiltration to the ground, warms it, thaws it, and detaches thus the lower bed of ice which was intimately bound with it. From the time that th-) equili- brium is disturbed at this point the snow mass sinks down, and shdes under the action of its weight. The shock propagates itself to surrounding masses, the impulsive force extends to the inferior fields of snow. And the avalanche, enlarged by the enormous mass of earth and rocks which it tears from the sides of the mountain, precipitates itself to the foot of the valley amongst rumbling sounds — sounds and claps resembling those of thunder, scattering in its passage ruin, desolation, and death. * There suffice often in the season of debacles the slightest rise of temperature, the least change of weather, or the vibrations communicated to the atmosphere by a rifle-shot, to determine the setting off of an avalanche. Sometimes, on the other hand, the least change in slope, or a slight elevation, in the ground, suffices to arrest a sliding snow mass, or to alter its direction. A forest, especially if it be situated at but a short distance from the point where an avalanche originates, acts in this way. But if the commencement of the avalanche be at too great an elevation above the wood, the impulsive force may have become too great, and the acquired speed too giddying for the obstacle to resist it ; and then the forest may be violently swept off and hurried along by these impetuous torrents of snow, or be crushed under their mass. Thus it is not so much in stopping the slidingdown of the avalanches, when once the movement has commenced, as in preventing the formation and setting out of these that woods and masses are so eminently useful. Every bush in a forest, every trunk of a tree, or stem of a shrub, by creating a division in the field of snow at the first, diminishes the mass, and the weight of the avalanche, which is the primary and essential condition of its slipping. EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FOBESTS. 89 And these present moreover at the same time so much resiscence to be overcome, and are so much support given to the maintenance of the equilibrium of stability ; acting in tlie same manner as do sustaining piles, which are sometimes fixed in slopes, which are too mobile and too steep, in order to prevent landslips ; and thus do these numberless firmly rooted trunks retain the snowfields on all surfaces covered with them. Such is the mechanical action of the forest of piles devised by the genius of Gaubert to protect the military hospital of Bareges against the avalanches by which it is threatened. And without more than a moments pause we may tell that these piles employed as expedients designed to meet the requirements of the moment, have been followed by efficient reboisements, and the construction of barrages, which have produced the happiest results. ' The protective efficiency of forests has been put pro- minently forward by all authors who have written on the subject. In their interesting work, entitled Les Glaciers, MM. Zurcher and Margolle remark (p. 192) : — "The village of the St. Gothard owes its preservation to a small forest of fir-trees situated on the brow of the mountain which dominates it, and thus this forest has become for the inhabitants an object of the greatest care. They have surrounded it with a hedge to prevent the access of cattle, and very severe penalties have been decreed for men who may be guilty of tlie least damage to these sacred trees." * The same fact is mentioned by VioUet-le-Duc in his Etude du Massif du Mont Blanc. * M. Philippe Breton, engineer-in-chief of roads and bridges, charged with the special service of the Etudes dea Torrents des Alpes, after having cited an example of the influence of forests on the extinction of avalanches in the basin of La Romanche, adds:— "This example proves, then, two things : (1) In certain localities the effect of a good forest system may suppress, or at least greatly reduce, the damage done by avalanches, and this simple reduction may suffice to avert grievous consequences; (2) we find 90 MODERN FORKST ECONOMY. in mountains with great wooded slopes, below these the fields and dwellings enjoy a certain security, thanks to the existence of the forest ; but if this forest come to be ravaged, avalanches immediately make their appearance, and carry destruction to the lower lying properties. It would be easy to give the names of more than one hamlet in the mountains which is thus protected by a forest, the inhabitants of which have no idea that their existence depends on that of the forest." '* The landslip differs from an avalanche; but against this evil also protection is afforded by woods and forests. M. de Grosse having occasion to state that inundations are sometimes attributable to the filling up of the river bed with mud, and sand, and gravel, and stones, brought down by floods, adverts to allegations which had been made that the quantity of matter thus deposited was too incon- siderable to justify the importance attached to it by him and some others, and having in defence adverted to the fact that the quantity was by no means inconsiderable, he goes on to say : — ' Now forests exercise a most power- ful influence on the consolidation of the soil and the maintenance of earth and rocks on the slopes of the mountains. They act both by the trunks and the roots of the trees : by the trunks, in arresting the fall of dis- lodged rocks which were rolling over the slopes devoid of woods, towards the bed of the torrents ; by the roots, in opposing an invinsible resistance to the diluent action of water, and insurmountable obstacles to landslips. It is in making a trench in a forest, and observing the inextricable interlacing of roots in which are enclosed clods of earth and fragments of rocks, that one can alone form any idea of the intensity of these resistances. " Vegetables," some- where says M. Cezanne, " always consolidate the soil ; the roots are like the meshes of a net ; they let pass the * Philippe Breton, Ingenieur des Fonts et Chausgdes, Etude d'un Systeme General de Defenxe Contre les Torrents des Al2)e8. ConcerUie cntre les Fonctionnaires des Forets et des Fo7its et Chanssees (p. 39). EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 91 water and retain the matter which the water was -aking with it in its course." The chopped straw which we knead into the clay, is it not designed to augment the solidity and consistency of the clay masonry? What else does art do here than copy nature ? Let the engineers who think we exaggerate cast an eye over their accounts, and compare the value which they assign to rubbish under woods, and to rubbish under uncovered land. They will find in the considerable augmentation of the former the measure of the action which we are seeking to demon- strate.' The action of trees in preventing avalanches is two-fold. The interlacing of the roots tends greatly to consolidate even arable earth ; and while most landslips are occasioned by the undermining to a short depth of the superficial layer of a slope, this is generally occasioned by a rush of water produced by the rainfall in some more elevated locality ; and the unvarying effect of reboisemevt in the basin of reception as to prevent the formation in this way of torrents. In regard to erosions thus produced, M. Surell writes in his Etude sur les Torrents des Hautes-Alpes : — ' The torrent which dashes a great body of water over very steep slopes undermines and eats away with fury the base of the banks. These fall in, and little by little pidl down towards the bed the adjoining property, which is finally engulfed by the waters. As the banks are generally very deep, their fall brings in its train effects the results of which extend far from the spot. All the surrounding land is disturbed. Some portions undermined subside, others slip, others break away, leaving deep crevices. Along the two banks of the torrent may be seen large chinks or rents running parallel to the bed. These sub- sidences, these rents, and this disturbance spread from place to place, repeat themselves to incredible distances, and end by including the whole sides of the mountain within the range of the effects. There are many quarters 92 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. which can be named which the erosion of torrents have made so unstable that it has become impossible to build upon them. On the left bank of the torrent Les Moulettes there may be seen houses belonging to the village of Les AndrieuXy which have been rent at a distance of more than 800 metres from the bed. On the highway, No. 91, oppo- site Les Ardoisieres, we have an example of a considerable revers of a mountain eaten away by the Romanche and disturbed by continual movements of the soil. The instability of the soil has compelled many families to abandon cottages sitaaied at a great distance from the river. One could scarcely comprehend that that c.uld be the cause of movements so remote, if the analogy of facts and other evidences had not proved it to be so in a manner the most irresistible.' Numerous cases are refei 3d to in a note followed up with the remark, — * I have thought it right to multiply citations, because the cause of these movements has been often misapprehended^ and notably so in the case last mentioned. The inhabitants attribute it to some particu- lar character of the ground. Having under their eyes only the case of their own locality, they are not aware that it is a phenomenon quite general and common to all torrents.' He specifies movements of the soil in the mountain of Saint Sauveur, over against Embrun, brought about by the torrent of Vacheres, and by a great many other torrents of the third class ; also similar movements in the district of Vabries, mined by the torrent Crevoux on the left bank, and in the district of Villard Saint Andre, by the same torrent on its right bank ; it is stated that this ground had become more mobile subsequently to the formation of a canal for irrigation ; accounts are given of similiir move- ments attributable to the torrent of Sainte-Marthe, near Caleyeres, in connection with which it is stated that there was there a mill apparently on the point of being engulfed, and of movements, attributable to the torrent Merdanel, above Chadenas ; and it is stated that very violent move- ments have been observed in the districts of the Divcset, EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUGtlO]^ OP FORESTS. 93 of the Labeoux, of the Rabioux, of the Boscodon, of the Ruisseauioux (Lauterat), &c. And he goes on to say, — * There are whole villages built in hassins de receptions which are threatened to be engulfed in this manner by the torrents. Every year the torrent acquires more of the ground, and the village abandons to it several cottages. These facts demonstrate the encroaching: marchof these water-courses. Little threatening at first, they increase in size, they extend themselves, and soon they reach the habitations built without mistrust at a great distance from their banks. There were, before the thirteenth century, on the borders of the Ralioux, near to Chateaureux, a monastery inhabited by the Benedictines. At a later period the monks deserted it through fear of its being engulfed, and now one sees the ruins suspended in the midst of the river's banks. * There are threatened with a similar fate the village of Lacluse, by the Labeoux (I^ivoluy) ; that of the Hieres, by the Mauriand ; that of the Arvieux, by the Moulettes ; the hamlet of the Marches, and the hamlet of the Maison- nasses, by the torrent Rousensasse, on the right bank of the Drac (Champsam).' Having specified these as villages or hamlets exposed to a fate similar to that of the Benedictine Monastery, whose history is given, he goes on to say, — ' Most frequently the undermining of the soil is done gradually, and this action is the more slow and the more regular in proportion to the extent of the region. The great mass of ground deadens the movements, and impresses them with a kind of continuity. But at other times also the soil detaches itself suddenly, as if through the effect of a blow. It is thus that in the valleys of the Devoluy, some years ago, a fragment of the mountain Auroux, covered with cultivated fields, precipitated itself, in one block, into the gorge of the torrent Labeoux. The commotion occasioned by this frightful fall was felt at a considerable distance, in tho village Lacluse, and the inhabitants attributed it to an carth(iuake. The cause was no other than erosion by the torrent, whieh had sapped the base of the ground. U MODlfiRN FOllKST ECONOMY. ( rr This may demand some explanation. ' Many lands are formed of parallel banks, disposed in flat layers and raised up on great inclinations. Often an interposed bed, more soluble or less tenacious, is decom- posed or disintegrated by infiltration. If it happens at the same time that the under banks be attacked by the current at the foot, an enormous weight of ground finds itself suspended over an abyss; the force of adhesion being weakened, it no longer suffices to keep together this mass and to attach it to the body of the mountain ; it is then detached in a mass, and it slides over the surface of the decomposed bed as on an inclined plane. One may indeed see similiar landslips frequently occurring in the limestones of the lias formation, which decompose with the greatest facility, and which often present a schistose stratification ; this kind of ground extensively prevails here. In other cases the grounds have been formed of the dSris of the upper parts of the mountains ; they compose a rough mass without stratification, and most frequently without consistency, covering the stratified nucleus of the mountain, and forming on its surface beds of great thickness. It rarely happens that a bassvi de reception does not contain within its circuit a large strip of this quite recent formation, for it is into the scooped out parts that the debris have had to roll and rest. And one may easily see that the erosions which take place in such grounds, when they attack the foundation of very high banks, must force the soil to detach itself in great masses ; and the fractures will take the form of immense prisms, in accordance with laws similar to those regulating land-shoots (pousee des terres). So that it is in the abundance of certain kinds of earths, and in the composition of the soil itself, that we find the secret of the principal power of these torrents.' It is established beyond all question that reboisement is an efficient prerentitive ; and in manifold cases torrents and landslips have made their appearance after, but only after, the destruction of forests in the basins of reception EVILS FOLLOWING DEStRUCtlON Of PORESTS. 95 aiul on mouataiQ slopes. Therefore are such reckoned amongst evils which have been occasioned by the exten- sive destruction of forests. Section E.— Sand-Drifts. Amongst other evils attributable to the destruction of forests, besides those which have been noticed, are sand- drifts. It has been found that the uprooting of a bush on a sand-plain, bound down with verdure, has been like the first percolation of water through some crevice in the retaining embankment of the sea : the drift has gone on increasing and extending with the effect of covering a large area of fertile fields with sterile sand, rendering them as sterile as the sand upon the sea-shore. In the sand-drifts of the Bannat in Hungary there exist roots of trees and pipes of agglomerated sand supposed to have been formed by accretions around roots of trees which have been decomposed and removed by subsoil moisture. Large remains of roots have been found in the steppes of Southern Russia. In what are now called the Landes of the Gironde there stood formerly sea ports and towns with trees, if not also forests, as part of their environment. And remains of ancient trees have been found at intervals in sand-plains from the Bay of Biscay along the coasts of the Atlantic and the Baltic, till we reach the continuation of those in Russia, Poland, and Hungary. But this may be insufficient to warrant the allegation that wherever sand is now drifting the drift is attributable to the destruction of the forests of which those arc the remains. All that can be affirmed is that thus they may have originated ; that by restori ng of such woods the drifting of the sand may be stopped ; and that no more effectual remedy for the evil has been found. And the legitimate inference is that thus the sands of the steppes and sand-plains of Europe, covering, as they do, an immense area, may have been bound down of old ; and that the destruction of these forests, in whatever way this may have been effected, once D6 MODERN FOREST EriONOMY. more set them free, occasioniug many of the satid-d rifts of the present day. Of fixed sands belncf set free to drift, and to desolate fertile lands through the destruction of trees, an illustra- tion is supplied by the history of drift-sands in the vicinity of Danzig. * Amongst the more extensive sea-shore sand-hills,' writes Herr Wessely, in his treatise entitled Der Europii- ishe Flugsand und seine Kultare (pp. 221, &c.), 'maybe reckoned those on the gulf of the East Sea, through which, flowing past the great commercial town of Danzig, the Vistula empties itself into the sea ; the sand-hills there rise to the height of 180 feet above the sea-level. These dunes, which are continuous from the present mouth of the Vistula, and indeed from Neufaehr to Kahlberg, extend over some six German miles [a German mile is C([ual to four and a-half English miles], were by man's hand, and through man's spirit, first created and then subdued, and were thus in a sense made a practice ground and high school for Seestrand Dunenbau, or culture on sea-side dunes. As is pretty generally the case on the coasts of the Baltic, the dunes here, with a solitary excep- tion, were on the slope towards the sea, and were exposed without defence to the blast of the sea breeze, which would allow no tree planted by the hand of man to thrive, were by Nature herself, covered with white pines and all kinds of bushes, and, promiscuously among these, heather, and mosses, and grasses — in a word, with plants of one kind or another, and so protected against the sea breezes. But the unreasoning greed of man destroyed these woods, uprooting even the stumps of the trees, allowed the cattle continuously to wander about upon the dunes for pastur- age — in short, treated these so recklessly that the protect- ing covering of them disappeared, and the masses of sand of which they were composed became exposed to the drifting action of the wind. 'As a consequence of this, the dunes naturally began EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 97 moving and advancing, propelled inland. At first only meadows and fields were covered by them, but soon the inhabited places were threatened. ' So early as the beginning of the last century the two villages, Klein voglers and Schmergrube, were completely buried, and the village Polski, with the exception of two groups of houses, was covered up by the dunes which had been set in i tvement. And at that time man had learned so little as to how he might oppose his own strength, knowledge, and power, to the devastating opera- tions of the elements, that these devastations were regarded with a stolid resignation as an unavoidable fatality. ' About the middle of the century the dunes lying nearer to Danzig [which is situated about four miles from the Baltic], through the barbarous treatment to which they had been subjected, and more especially in conse- c|uence of the destruction of the woods upon them, began to spread and to advance towards the fertile district beyond, which occasioned no little trouble and anxiety. More especially did they advance upon a forest of pine trees belonging to the town of Danzig, four German miles [or eighteen English miles] long, and year by year addi- tional strips of this forest were buried under their maj^ses of sand. * The only means of help against the advancing tide of sand which suggested itself to the people of that time were erected on the ridges of the most advanced dunes, consisted of hedges, of posts, and pine branches, which with an expectation that they would arrest the sand to seaward which was being put in movement, and so prevent the further advance of the destructive march of the dunes on the landward districts beyond. This end was, how- ever, by no means accomplished, because great masses of sand accumulated before the fences, and on this account again and again new fences required to be constructed above the old ones, but the wind still bore a great deal of sand over the fences, and though the evil might be dimin- ished, it was in no way overcome. Moreover, the ever U 98 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. quickly increasing height to which the fences were being raised was seen to be in the highest degree demanding of consideration. This was bringing ever nearer the danger of a breaking through of the accumulating sand, which, should it occur, would entail a fearful destruction of pro- perty — one in no way less than if the dunes had been left to advance as they were doing before this attempt at the stoppage of them had been made. ' In this dilemma the Philosophical Society of Danzig in 1768 offered a prize for the best answer to the question, What are the most efficient and least costly means of pre- venting the continuously progressing sanding up of the Danzig links, and of preventing the further growth of the sand dunes ? •' Titius, Professor of Natural History in Wittenberg, who previously had been in Danzig, gained the prize. Titius, in a treatise On the Restoration of the Woods on the Coast, especialh/ plantation of White Pine, as the onhj means of effecfually arresting the calamity, showed that thus only could the sand bo prevented from drifting inland. First of all, there might be planted, with a view to givmg stability to the sand, the Arundo arenaria, which had done good service in Denmark, in Zealand, and North Jutland; and subsequently trees might be planted along the sea- shore in strips protected by fences. 'The most intelligent suggestions of this prize essay, however, did not yet obtain a practical application ; on the contrary, they went on heaping fences upon fences on the crests of the dunes, and by so doing brought the threatened pine tree forests still more under the sand-drift by the material which was thus collected. The necessary funds required for this,' Herr Wessely adds sarcastically, * were given gratuitously by the inhabitants of the threatened places ! * By the want of such fixity as may be imparted by a covering of vegetation, and by the interlacing of the long roots of trees, the dunes may prove an insufficient barrier against even a deluge occasioned by inundation. EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 99 * The mobile sand in the district under consideration supplies an illustration. In the early spring of 1840 there occurred near Neufaehr a disastrous, sudden, and utterly unexpected outburst of the Vistula through the dunes which had been formed there, and which were then about 90 feet in height. In the darkness, intensified by a snow- storm, of the night between the 1st and 2nd of February, the inhabitants of JSeufaehr were brought into great dis- tress and alarm by an abnormally high water in the Vistula, and were completely occupied with their troubles, which were great enough, when at daybreak on the morn- ing of the 2nd, some of them, amongst whom was the Dune Inspector, Krause, discovered in the midst of the fearful devastations which had already been effected what had happened but a little way off, which was such a catastrophe as had never before been heard of. ' In order to the right understanding of it, it must here be remarked that the Vistula, before emptying itself into the sea, flows for a long way almost parallel to the shore, and in passing by Neufaehr bends towards the site of this place, so as to approach it within a distance of 35 fathoms. The local condition of the place leads to the conclusion that there at one time a branch of the stream must have flowed into the sea, which, through some peculiarity of it, and more especially the sanding up of the side towards the sea, became closed ; and what consequently occurred was that the stretch of dunes was there of a much less eleva- tion than elsewhere, and was traversed by a sponge-like watery portion, drawn out to a point in the direction of the sea, which was always wet, and in a high flood of the river was covered with water three feet deep. The level of the stream was higher than this ground j and from this there was a constant percolation of water. ' As now on the day in question the Vistula, which was laden with large masses of ice, was unusually swollen, being as much as eighteen feet above the level of the sea, could not be withstood even at the expense of percolation, such as had hitherto been sufficient. The percolation con- 100 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. quered, and took the form of an actual outburst and rupture, with consequences which may be more easily imagined than described.' All of these evils were evils consequent on the destruc- tion of woods. And as it was there, so has it been else- where. Of what has been effected in France, Surell, to whom we are indebted for the discovery and exposition of the natural history of torrents, has written : — ' There the roads, the dwellings, the cultivated crops, have been swal- lowed up by mountains of moving sand, as in the Alps they have been buried by the dejections of torrents. And there may be cited entire villages doomed to destruction, while the time of their perishing may be predicted with precision, as the scourge advances with a regular step. Had it been left to itself, the department of the Landes would have seen its littoral transformed by insen- sible degrees into a desert of sand, interspersed with perfidious marshes, which, extending themselves from the Adour to the Garonne, and marching onwards towards the interior of the country, were threatening to invade every place up to the gates of Bordeaux, * When, in 1780, Bremontier, Ingenieur des ponts et chaussees, after having attacked on its scientific side the phenomenon of the march of dunes, came to propose a regular project of plantations as the only defence which could be opposed to them successfully, there were not awanting those who cried out at first in regard to what was called the impossibility of applying his system. * It is the misfortune of some men, of too positive a nature, to see nothing, and believe nothing, beyond what is already existing before them. To them everything, save the palpable reality present to them, is a Utopia or dream, as if reason did not permit us to foresee and affirm with complete certainty absent facts known through the logical connection which they sustain with other facts already known to us. lilVlLS FOLLOWIl^G DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. lOl 'To-day, the Administration, enlightened by half a cen- tury of experiments, and master at last of the subject, has organised in the Landes a number of works, the admir- able success of which is beyond description.' Details are given in a volume I have published, entitled Pine Plantations on Sand- Wastes in France, in which arc detailed the appearances presented by the Landes of the Gironde before and after culture, and the Landes of La Soldgne ; the legislation and literature of France in regard to the planting of the Landes with trees ; the characteris- tics of the sand-wastes; the natural history, culture, and exploitation of the maritime pine and of the Scotch fir ; and the diseases and injurious influences to which the maritime pine is subject. PART II. ELEMENTS OF MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. More than one — not only once, but again and again — may have felt prompted while reading or glancing over the pre- ceding pages to ask, not for information but as an expression of superior intelligence. What have droughts, and floods, and landslips, and such narratives as have been given, to do with Modern Forest Economy ? And therefore I may state that the object of Modern Forest Economy is in its details to counteract some one or other of the evils which have been spoken of, or others like unto them which have resulted from the destruction of forests ; and in its entirety to restore to a nation, and through it to the world, what has been lost through that destruction having been carried so far as it has been, so far as this can be done under existing conditions. And the details in question have been given that it may be known what are the evils which it is sought to counteract, and what are some of the more striking forms which these evils have taken. In view of what has been stated in preceding chapters, one of the first things which will suggest itself to an intelligent student of the case, as desirable to be done with a view to arrest the evils resultant from the destruction of forests is to prevent, so far as possible, all reckless or even unprofitable destruction of these, including in this all waste in the necessary exploitation of them. Endeavours have been made to accomplish this. The phenomena, and what may be called the natural KLfiMENTS OF MODERiJ F0RE8T ECONOMY. lO.'J history, of the destruction of trees have been care- fully studied, and remedial and preventive measures have been devised and applied. Measures have been adopted so to arrange the sites of felling and tlie successions of these so as to secure as much protection as possible against the violence of wind for all forests, and more especially the protection of these while the trees are young ; by legislative enactments the destruction of forests on the mountain sides and mountain summits has been prohibited ; and even the exploitation of such, when belonging to private proprietors, has been, made subject to the approval of the forest officials of the State. The natural history of fungi, of insects, of birds, and of beasts, which are injurious to trees, and the effects produced upon trees by different species of these have been studied ; and foresters have been instructed in the results obtained in order tliat they may be made acquainted in its manifold aspc'cts with the evil which is thus done, and know how intelligently to follow in each case sucli preventive or remedial treatment as may be expedient in the maiuige- ment of forests under their charge, or what to advise in any case in which their advice may be sought. The destruction of forests occasioned by fire has been studied in its different aspects ; and salutary restrictions have been imposed upon practices which imperil forests by originating what may be called accidental fires; and in so far as fire and the woodman's axe are employed in the exploitation of forest lands and forests, appropriate measures of precaution and prevention against waste have been prescribed and extensively adopted. But together with endeavours to arrest the progress of wavSte and destruction much is being done to replenish exhausted forests, and replant forests which have been destroyed, and create forests where the want of them is painfully felt. And in the exploitation of forests, whether indigenous or artificially created, it is sought so to conduct this as to secure simultaneously sustained production of wood, a 104 MODElllN FOREST fiCONOMY. progressive amelioration of tlie condition of the forests, and a natural reproduction of this by self-sown seed. Some of the measures which have been adopted will now be brought under consideration. But it may be noted that all that is contemplated is to supply such information as may be sufficient to enable the general reader to under- stand what has been done, and to enable the professional student thus to enter upon and prosecute with some appro- priate preparation a more exhaustive study of the various measures thus brought under his notice, and others connected with them in practice. In the absence of English designations appropriate to different methods of exploiting forests recognised in Modern Forest Economy, I fall buck upon those applied to these in France. CHAPTER I. FOREST CONSERVATION. Again and again, within the last five hundred years, attempts have been made to arrest the destruction of forests. When kings and nobles were hunters, and, though they needed not to do so, lived to hunt the beasts of the forest, cruel and disgraceful sanguinary laws were enacted for the conservation of the forests, as a means of preser- ving the game for these men to have the pleasure, and a monopoly of the pleasure, of killing them. Upwards of 200 years ago the famous saying of Colbert, France perira en fauie des Bois ! was caught up and re-echoed far and near. In England, again and again, an endeavour more or or less earnest was put forth to prevent the destruction of our woods. In the beginning of the present century Lord Nelson raised a warning voice like to that of Colbert ; and the echo of this has been heard in our day j it is modified indeed by circumstances, but the ground-note is the same, From India, from the United States of America, from Canada, from Astraulasia, and from both the southern and the northern extremities of Africa, as in one place and another it was perceived by observant patriots that the destruction of forests was going on too fast, and was being carried too far, has the voice of warning been heard. In Russia, with its apparently interminable forests, a calculation has been made of the cubic measurement of the annual production of wood by growth in all the forests of the Empire— perhaps it would bo more correct to speak of it as an estimate, as only a proximate result could be expected ; and an estimate of how much is annually con- sumed, in yielding firewood, and wood for the cabinet- maker and the carpenter, and timber for buildings and lOG MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. erections, and the construction of ships, and to meet the demands of the export trade ; and the consumption having been found to be greatly in excess of the production, a calculation has been made of how long it will take to bring upon the Empire the fate dreaded by Colbert for his country, if the production and destruction be not speedily equalised. Similar calculations have been made in America and elsewhere ; and the voice of warning has been heard here and there and everywhere. Well will it be for those who hear to take warning ! Precautions against the destruction of forests by cattle generally take the form of an absolute prohibition of the depasturing of cattle, more especially of sheep, and still more especially of goats, in the forest when the trees are young, and of the goats at all times — of the fencing in of the forests, and the fencing of roads through the forests, along which flocks or herds may have to go to locttlities in which it may be less dangerous and be deemed desirable that they should be pastured — and of the imposition of heavy penalties upon both the herdsmen and the owners of cattle found trespassing. For the preservation of forests against destruction by depredations the means employed resolve themselves into strict surveillance, and severe punishment of transgressions, and the extinction, by legitimate and equitable arrange- ment, of existing servitudes and rights of usage. As precautions against the destruction of forests by fire, there are enforced strict prohibition or careful regulation of the use of fire in every form within the precincts of the forest, and within prescribed distances from its perimeter; the creation of cleared spaces around forests, and traversing them as lanes in different directions, with a view to arresting the spread of fire from without, and of fire advancing within their bounds ; and the instruction of the adjacent population in means to be employed in the extinction of fires in a woodland, and the enforced requi- sition of their attendance and help in such work when fires occur. CHAPTER II. REBOISEMENT. Besides endeavours to secure the conservation of existing forests, woods are being extensively planted with a view to restoring the forestal condition of lands which have had their forests more or less extensively impoverished or destroyed. Sometimes this is done as a profitable culture ; but more frequently, and much more extensively, is it done with a view to securing again some of the advantages which have been lost through the destruction of forests, or to secure for lands devoid of these, advantages similiar to those enjoyed, or which have been enjoyed, in proximity to forests of greater or less extent. Details of measures adopted to secure exemption from devastating torrents and inundations, and from devastating drifting sands, have been given in volumes referred to in preceding chapters. Of these operations the anesting of sand-drifts may seem to be the most important where these are the scourge of the district. Where floods and inundations arc the scourge, the sufferers may feel that the prevention of such calamities is what is of most importance to them. But the effect of forests on the humidity of soil and climate is of importance to a much more extensive and more widely diffused population. And the creation of forests with a view to secure this may, whore either of the other evils referred to prevails, have the effect of, at the same time, coimteracting that. In preceding pages there have been adduced several statements in regard to Algeria. That land supplies illustrations of the good which may be affected in various ways by the extensive plantation of woods. 108 MODEnN FOREST EGOiCOMV. While drawing upon Algeria for illustrations of general advantages resulting from reboisement, I shall adduce illustrations of the effects of reboisement in arresting and preventing the occurence of torrents and inundations from what has been seen in the Alps; and in illustration of the effect of reboisement in fixing down and utilising drift sand I shall cite some accounts of what has been done in Northern Germany : premising that illustrations of each of these categories of advantages equally striking might have been drawn from other lands besides these. Section A. — General Advantages Resulting from Reboisement Experienced in Algeria. A colonist from Boghari wrote some years since : — * Twenty years ago we had numerous flocks, thanks to the splendid pasture lands ; and when we wished to see the desert it was necessary to go on horseback from 45 to 50 kilometres. To-day we have no longer any trace of pasture lands, and therefore no flocks ; and as for the desert we have no occasion to go so far to see it ; leaving the threshold of our houses, we step at once on to the sand — deep and far-extending sand.* The picture is saddening, contrasting as it does with the amenity of numerous country mansions in Britain and elsewhere surrounded by woods and lawns produced by planting and culture. But like measures have, in pro- portion to the extent, produced like amenity there. M. J. Reynard, Sub-Inspector of Forests, writing on the restoration of forests and pastures in the south of Algieria, in the province of Algiers, cites the following statement: — 'The probable results of these combined works will be, the rendering more regular, and approximately more uniform, a climate which is violent and extreme in its sudden variations ; the amelioration of the regime of the rivers, producing in turn an augmentation of the delivery by the springs, and rendering more regular the flow of streams and rivers, which at present have all the charac- REBOISEMENT. 109 teristics of the most dangerous torrents ; the restoration of pasture lands of great extent ; the settlement of the native tribes, which are still nomadic, and the introduction of a European element, which of itself is capable of giving to pastoral industry all the development which it can take in Algeria.' He goes on to say — ' The influence on the Tell of this region so restored will be beyond all question considerable, rendering the climate more temperate, the rains more frequent and more regular ; making possible to the Algeriue colonists the rearing of cattle on an extensive scale ; presenting to the Arab proprietors, who are forced to yield tlieir lands to European industry as the only means of drawing from it great profit, a new field of activity better proportioned to their means of action ; giving to commerce and industry new products ; and, in fine, ensuring political security by peopling the frontiers of the Sahara. ' And in a general point of view this restoration will bo a commencement of taking possession of that Central Africa, towards which almost all modern nations to-day direct their desires and ambitions.' At a conference held in Algiers on the 11th November 1881, M. Reynard, in the course of an address deUvered by him, said : — ' This work of the reboisement of five millions of hectares is a kind of speculation which only the State could undertake. The revenue, the interest of the half milliard thus invested, will be reimbursed to it by the increase of the public wealth, by the extension of its governmental power, by the development of industry, of commerce, and of agricidture, not only in the colony, but even in the metropolis itself. To form an estimate to-day of what will be the value of these returns would be to enter upon a calculation as impossible as if at the commencement of the great public works of this century they had made an attempt to form a correct estimate of the future returns of the imposts. In France would not any one have been reckoned a fool at that time who .110 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. should have announced there the present amount of the budget of the receipts of the metropolis? * In Algeria it should certainly suffice if the annual increase of taxes should amount to five millions through the assured protection to agriculture afforded by the forests, to justify an annual expenditure of five millions in works of reboisement or of improvement of existing forests. The State ought not to seek indeed more than a simple equilibrium of expenditure and income in the Budget. I do not know what time and what works will be necessary to secure this annual augmentation of the revenue ; but forest science and forest economy affirm unhesitatingly that it would require less time for the existing fatalistic inertia to lead to a much greater diminution by the gradual increase of aridity, and by the uncertainty of the crops, which is becoming greater every year. ' Between these two alternatives, that of seeing the receipts by degrees disappearing, or that of maintaining an equilibrium in ihe budget by means of a productive expenditure, a modern nation cannot hesitate.' Section B.—Effects of Reboisement in Arresting AND Preventing the Occurrence of Torrents AND Inundations. While in Algeria we see such results as have been 'stated obtained elsewhere from extensive plantations in mountainous regions, we find equally satisfiiotory results obtained by the replanting of mountain basins and moun- tain slopes. While Bremontier was towards the end of the last century musing on the waste of land covered by the dunes of Gascony, and the means of reclaiming those sand wastes, it was perceived by others that the continuous destruction of forests, and more especially the destruction of these on the mountains, was producing disastrous consequences. And more than one attempt was made by legislative enactment to arrest the evil and reverse the REBOISEMENT. Ill process. The increasing scarcity of wood for fuel and other economic purposes demanded and received attention, but it was seen that an improved forest economy, whilst it might secure the conservation of existing forests, and the utilising of these to the benefit of the proprietors and of the nation, must be accompanied by a replanting of the mountains of woods where they had been denuded of these, and elsewhere if the threatening calamity was to be averted. In 1793 Fabre showed that torrents were attributable to the destruction of forests on the mountains. In 1841 Surell showed that torrents appeared and disappeared as forests were destroyed and reproduced. In 1872 Cezanne showed that this relation between forests and floods can be traced from preadamic times to the present. And in 1874 Michel Costa de Bastelica traced indications of torrential phenomena in what had been accepted as glacial deposits of times anterior to what Cezanne had designated the torrential era. In accordance with these views arrangements were made by the Government of France for an expenditure of ten millions of francs in replanting with trees, and herbage, and bush, ground drained by torrents ; and within ten years torrents which had been most destructive had become placid perennial streams, peaceful as a little child. Of one torrent, that of Sainte-Marthe, near Embrun — the ravages ot which by torrents are spoken of by M. Herecart de Thary in a passage previously cited [p. 8G] — of this torrent M. Costa de Bastelica, in a treatise entitled Les Torrents, leur causes, leur effets, moyens de les reiwimer, et de les utiliser, leur action universelle, published in 1874, writes : — * In 1841, when M. Surell wrote his famous Etude mr les Torrents des IJautes-Alpes, this torrent had acquired an unenviable celebrity by its violence. It carried away every bridge thrown across its course; at every storm of 112 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. rain those living along its borders in disquietude feared they would see it burst its embankments and inundate the plain. The works of extinction were begun in 1864 ; and in 1869, when M. Cezanne, before publishing his work, procured for me the honour and satisfaction of showing and explaining to him our works, he officially reported that the extinction was then so complete that a simple footbridge, placed at only 50 centimetres (20 inches) above the torrent, now become a streamlet, defied the greatest floods. This footbridge still (1874) stands where it was seen by M. Cezanne. In the interval there has been no lack of violent storms, the meteoric conditions have in no way changed. The fact of the extinction of the torrenti- ality of the stream is thus established and certain. And in proof, a Sydicate organised by proprietors interested to carry out defensive measures against the torrent having no longer any raison d'etre, has dissolved itself.' This I consider a fair illustration of what has been accomplished in cases innumerable in the regions of the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees. In addition to what has been said, I feel prompted to cite the following statement by M. Gentil, Ingenieur en chef des ponts et chausees and rapporteur au conseil general des Hautes-Alpes, But I must premise it by mentioning : — On the 28th of July 1860 there was issued a law on the reboisement of the mountains. Four years later, with more extended experience, on the 8th of June 1864, was issued a law on the gazonnement and reboisement of the mountains, enjoining the combination, where expedient, of the creation of a turf of grass and herbage with the plant- ing of trees upon the mountains. And on November 10th, 1864, was issued a Government order for the carrying into execution of these two laws. Copies of these laws, and of documents connected with them, have been given by me, with detailed information in regard to the practical measures taken during the first decade of these operations, and of results which have REBOISEMENT. 113 followed, in a volume of which I have made frequent mention in preceding chapters, Reboisement : or, Records of the Replanting of the Alps^ the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees^ with trees, herbage, and hush, with a view to arresting and 2yyeventing the destructive consequences and eftcts of torrents. M. Gentil writes : — ' The aspect of the mountain has been all at once completely changed; the ground has acquired such solidity that the violent storms of 1863, which have occasioned so many disasters in the High Alps, have been altogether harmless in the restored perimetres. * The mountain has in a short time become fertile ; there, where a few sheep could scarcely live by consuming everything, may be seen now an abundant herbage which may be mown. 'But it is of importance that examples and figures should be given ; I shall therefore cite definite facts which relate to our roads and our projects. At Sainte-Marthe there was prepared in 1861-18G2 the plan for a work to be constructed on the cone de dejection of the left bank of the torrent. This dyke, the expense of which was esti- mated at about 40,000 francs, had for its object to preserve the national road, No. 94<, and the adjacent properties, against invasions by the torrent. To-day the torrent of Sainte-Marthe is completely extinguished, nothing more comes down now from the mountain. The proprietors and the engineers no longer dream of constructing dykes, simple enclosing walls suffice to protect the lands on the banks. ' As for the benefits by which the lands in the valleys situated near to the cones have profited, they are immense. Not only are the proprietors relieved from creating costly and precarious dykes, but, beyond this, their property being no longer exposed to the danger of being buried under gravel, has now an assured value. Cultivation is carried on with the hope of an assured harvest. This certitude is itself a benefit ; and the proprietors, being able now to reckon on the future, no longer dream of leaving their homes and settling elsewhere. I 114 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. * As results of the works executed in the perimetre of Roissard, in Isere, the properties adjacent to the torrent of the Rif-Fol have been again brought under cultivation ; and the village of Fau, formerly threatened by the torrent, has not been afraid to open across the restored perimetre a canal which leads off the water of the torrent itself to the basin of the public fountain ; and there is now no interruption to the communication along the road from Grenoble to Sisteron. ' The town of Bourg-d'Oisans, built upon an old cone of dejections or rubbish brought down and deposited by the torrent of Sain-Antoine, and having its very existence threatened by this torrent, has now allowed to tumble into ruins the dykes, which the inhabitants had raised at great expense, but which are now no longer needed. * Since the execution of the works of consolidation and reboisement undertaken in the perimetre of Luzda-Croix- Haute, in Drome, the torrents and the ravines, the destruc- tive effects of which spread themselves over the greater part of the lands in the plains, especially over the dwelling places in the hamlets of the Grisil and of the Granges, have become inoffensive water courses, almost never bringing down rubbish. And more than 120 hectares of fertile fields, representing a value of 300,000 francs, are now protected from the invasions formerly so frequent and so damaging. ' In the Lower Alps the value of the interests safe- guarded by the works executed in the perimetre of Seyne is estimated at three millions of francs ; and at another spot in the department the reboisement of the perimetres of Fauon and of Saint-Pons will give protection to lands of at least an equal value.' Again : — * Amongst the perimetres of reboisement under- taken in the Lower Alps, that of Laboret presents to-day the most complete specimen of the results which we have a right to expect from the works entrusted to the execu- tion of the Forest Administration by the law of 18G0. This perimetre combines indeed, on a limited scale it is REBOISEMENT. 115 true, but in a complete combination, all the difficulties which could be presented to the execution of the different works necessary to the extinction of a torrent by the entire reboisement of its basin of reception. 'The results obtained to-day make of this a typical case. 'The torrent of Laboret held in 18G0 quite a special notoriety, due to the ravages which its deposits occasioned in the lower lying regions, to the frecjuent landslips of its confining hills, and the absolute bareness of its surmount- ing slopes. This bareness of the slopes of the Laboret, which was proverbial in the country, was such that the sheep had readily given place to goats, which finished by destroying the rare tufts of vegetation which still existed here and there. ' On every occasion of a storm, on every occasion of rain even, communication along the road was interrupted, and presented serious dangers for travellers, so that from the first appearance of the law of 18G0 thoughts were enter- tained of applying it to the lands which included this dangerous torrent. * The Decree of Public Utility was issued on the 18th June 1862, and the works were commenced at once. The works purely preparatory were completed in 1870, at which period they proceeded with a plantation of black pines in tufts over the whole surface of the perimetre, which were designed to constitute the dominant kind of tree in the forest of the Laboret, which forest may be considered as having been created and maintained since 1871. ' The whole aspect of this perimetre has been completely transformed ; those great black slopes, unstable and deso- late, are to-day covered with a dense vegetation of forest plants, of forest trees, both broad-leaved and conifers, and, in fine, with bushes of all kinds. The innumerable ravines which cut up these slopes, and supplied to the floods great quantities of materials, are to-day filled up, and their bed has disappeared under a dense growth of o.-diers and of 116 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. broad -leaved shrubs further up. To-day [1874] the tor- rent of Laboret no longer exists. It has given place to a stream flowing over a succession of descents with a slope of some millimetres, carrying off no material, and showing, even after a storm, only clear water. * The effect produced in the country by the happy results obtained in the case of the Laboret has contributed powerfully to modify public opinion in regard to reboise- ment.* M. Delafont, Inspector des Faux et Forets, in a Memoire sur Vetat des Forets dans les Hantes-Alpes, writes in reference to the evil : — ' The sad results which I have pointed out are everywhere deplored. All who are not blinded by ignor- ance, or Avhose heart has not been dried up by selfishness, give expression to the thought that it is high time to arrest the ever-increasing progress of so fearful a devasta- tion. They groan under the numberless evils caused by the (/e-boisement of the mountains, which seem to call upon us to come forward to save our forest riches. These reflec- tions, these prayers, I have myself heard many a time uttered with an energy inspired by a profound conviction of a great evil, and of the imperious necessity which there is to suspend that course of procedure. Let us listen to the cries of distress of a population alarmed about their future ! ' And Surell writes : — ' One thing which it is impossible to dispute, and is beyond all equivocation, is the influence which forests exercise on the conservation of even the soil of the mountains ; and to him who would pretend to deny this, we have only lo point to our Alps, which give so powerful and deplorable proof of its being the case, — a proof evident, I shall not say to every intelligent being, but to every eye. * How comes it about that a truth so simple and one of so great interest to many has not from the first been so strongly established as to be understood and accepted by tlEBOlSEMENO'. Ill all? Is it not uovv high time that public opinion should take it up anew ? The question is one deserving of some trouble being taken with it, for on the solution of it depends the future life or death of many departmeiits of the land.' And again, * I do not wish to have any barren compromise made. 1 wish to let it be seen that it would be better far to fight the torrents than to construct again at great expense masses of masonry and earthwork, which would always, do what you may, be costly palliatives, better adapted for concealing the plague than for extir- pating it. Why then should not man call in the aid of these living forces, the power and efficiency of which have been so clearly revealed to him? Why not command these forces to do anew, and this time by man's orders, what they have already done in old times in so many extinct torrents, and that only by the orders of Nature ? ' In a report to the National Assembly, made on Novem- ber 25, 1872, by M. le Vicomte de Bonald, it is stated :— * MM. Surell et Cesanne in their valuable IPtude stir les Torrents des Hautes Aipes, have succeeded in demonstrating beyond question the truth of the following aphorisms : — ' That the existence of a forest on the ground hinders the formation of torrents ; 'That the destruction of the forest delivers up the ground to the ravages of torrents ; 'That the development of forests brings about the extinction of torrents ; 'And that the felling of the forest revives again the extinct torrents.' ' So fully are these facts regarded as established in Switzerland,' says a writer on forest management in the Edinburgh Review of October 1875, ' that at the Social Science Congress at Berne, in 1865, the question was raised as to the means of establishing a common legislation between countries watered by the same rivers, in order to protect their respective interests by the maintenance of 115 IVIODERN FOREST ECONOMY. the mouHtain forests, and the greatest possible attention is now paid to the subject by all the Cantonal Governments of Switzerland.' I have cited [ante p. 110] an opinion expressed by M. Keynard at a conference held in Algoirs in November 1881, to the effect that it would be economically advan- tageous to incur an immense expenditure on reboisement in Algieria. In proposing the French Forest Budget for the preceding year, 1880, the same a,rgumcnt was made use of by the Budget Committee of the Legislature. Under the head of Constructions, Reboisements, and Gazonnements, an additional million was asked for chiefly for works of reboisement, for which it was stated good use would be found if a desired augmentation of 50,600 francs referred to were granted. After the disasters occasioned in 1875 by tlie overflowing of the Garonne and the Herault, and their affluents, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Works had given assurance that measures would be concerted between the departments over which they respectively presided, to be taken with a view to prevent the re-occurrence of such calamities. Many surveys, which were subsequently undertaken, had been completed, but, in the absence of funds, the works of reboisement had not been begun. Subsequently the Minister of Public Works had, as has been stated, solicited the co-operation of the Forest Administration to give a specification of works urgently called for in Savoie. Information furnished by the Engineers of Roads and Bridges showed that the four torrents of Saint-Martin, the Grillaz, the Pousset, and the Saint-Julien, all affluents of the Arc, were causing every year great destruction, and it was of importance to arrest this without delay. And, as was stated by the Minister of Public Works, every system of extinction of torrents is based on the reboisement of the basin of reception. The work was to be undertaken in the coming spring by officials already designated, and they would be partially completed REBOISEMENT. 119 before the close of the year, But the execution of the works could not be undertaken if the necessary credit were not conditionally granted. The sum stated was the minimum which would be required. According to infor- mation in possession of the Administration, to execute the works in Savoie alone would absorb more than a million of francs ; and it was stated that it was impossible to attach too great prominence to the essential fact, which according to the opinion of the Corps of Engineers of Roads and Bridges and of the Forest Corps, completely covers and governs the question, and which is this — that the scourge of inundations cannot be averted without the preventive action of works of reboisement, and that there was consequently an urgent necessity to carry out these works with the least possible loss of time. The Budget Committee, in reporting on this, called attention to the fact that out of the total grant applied for, there had to be met the expenses of the construction of forest roads, and subsidies to public roads facilitating the exploitation of forests, and the erection of forest lodges ; and further, 1, To grant seeds and plants, and subsidies in money to communes and private individuals undertaking works of reboisement or gazonnement ; 2, To acquire lands within areas in which works of reboise- ment were declared to be of public utility ; 3, The execu- tion of works intended to buy ground and extinguish torrents by such works over areas in which they were compulsory ; and 4, Subsidies to individuals and communes possessed of servitudes, to promote the substitution of cattle for sheep, and to secure the conservation of mountain pastures. And in regard to the extra million called for they entered at large on a detailed statement of what had been done, and with what results, giving tabulated statements as w^ell as details, all showing how effectually reboisement had arrested lOiients, and that for the com- pletion of the works in the Alps, in the Cevennes, and the Plateau of Central France, and in the Pyrenees, there would be required 148 millions of francs (upwards of liZO MODERN FOJaEST ECONOMY. £6,000,000 sterling), and 72 millions more (upwards of i&3,00(),000 sterling) for the purchase of land; and they recommend that the extra million applied for should unhesitatingly be granted. ' We are all,' say they in their concluding sentence, ' deeply impressed with the thought — better far spend a million in reboisement than have to give such a sum to sufferers from inundations ; ' and the grant was made unanimously by the Chamber, together with an addition of 5000 francs to be employed in developing roads to facilitate the exploitation of communal forests, the effect of which, it was anticipated, might be to raise the mean proceeds of 360,000 hectares, or 900,000 acres, of forests from five francs to fifty francs per hectare. Section C— Effect of Reboisement in Fixing Down AND Utilising Drift Sand in Northern Germany. In a volume entitled Pine Plantations on the Sand Wastes of France, I have supplied information in regard to such plantations on the Landes of the Gironde, and on the Landes of La Sologne. We have in Northern Germany another phase of the work. In a preceding chapter [ante p. 96-100] have been narrated how some of the evils which came upon the land in the vicinity of Danzig, in consequence of the destruction of woods by which the mobile sand of the dunes had been previously bound down and kept in its place. Herr Wessely, from whose treatise, entitled Der Europiiishe Flugsand und seine Culture, most of the narra- tion was cited, goes on to say: — * When, in 1793, the Danzig Republic was incorporated with the State of Prussia, the new Government soon brought under discussion the fencing, once for all, of the dry dunes. Not only would the continuous reduction to waste of the town s forest not be suffered, but it was deter- mined to meet the growing danger which threatened the commerce of Danzig : as it was feared some one of these HEBOISEMENT. 121 drifts might extend to the Vistula, fall into it, and thereby occasion a most disastrous sanding-up of the river, whereby the navigable course might come to be com- pletely blocked. * One of the burghers of Danzig, Soeren-Bioern, a Dane by birth, kept alleging and repeating that in his native country extensive stretches of sand dunes had been bound fast by planting them with sand grasses ; and he recom- mended, as did Titius years before, the planting of A rundo arenaria, and the subsequent formation of pasture grounds, and the planting of different kinds of trees. ' In the year 1795 there was entrusted to him the fixa- tion of a stretch of dunes a quarter of a German mile — more than one English mile— long, and 140 klafters or fathoms broad, which was threatening the Vistula in the direction of Neufaehr. In the following year he executed this work to the general satisfaction, and thereupon he was installed Plantagen-Inspector, and conducted till his death in 1819 the Dunenbauten, or works for the arrest of the drift sands on the Danzig links. * The active energy and enterprise of Bioern did not limit itself to this local undertaking, but from 1799 to 1802 he was repeatedly consulted by the Konigsberg Chamber in regard to the treatment of the dunes to the north of that town on the Lochstaedt and the Friesland [?] and Courland links. * From the professional opinion given by him, and the printed documents connected therewith, it is manifest that Bioern continued to advocate the planting offences designed to arrest the sand thrown up from the sea. These, however, were not to be above \\ feet high, and were to be such as might be formed of sunk bushes, in no case planted very thickly, that they might not fail of their object, nor be destroyed by storms. A series of such fences, one behind another, were to be planted. After these were sanded up, and a gentle slope was formed in front of them, those slopes were to be sown with sand grasses — these plants being the only ones which could resist the action of 122 MODERN FORfiST ECONOMY. waves. For culture on the inland patches he recommended more especially plantations of the white pine and of the black alder, also of birches, poplars, and aspens, groves of which he had seen in a state of vigorous growth between the dunes ; while acacias, which had previously been recommended by Titius, had soon disappeared, though they also at first promised well. Always in the beginning it is not a lofty timber forest, but only a thick bush, which it should be sought to produce. 'With a view to the fixation of the seaward slopes of the dunes he erected on the crests of these a fence of 8 ft. posts placed at a distance of 15 feet from each other, to which he fastened with wooden pegs from three to five longitudinal pieces of paling, so placed that there were interstices between them at least an inch wide. The design was by these on the one side to keep off the sand, and on the other to keep off cattle, and to provide that, should they be blown down they could easily be put up again without being taken to pieces, which three men could do, as there were in the posts grooves or holes in which the colstaff could be placed. The whole of the patch to be fixed was, moreover, encircled by a fence of bushes at the base of the sandhills. ' Furthermore, Bioern had, at some fifty fathoms beyond the outermost seaward fence, what was called a " storm fence," which was constructed of light posts, with thin laths of paling nailed to them, between which were wrought in light branches of alder from eight to nine feet long. Next to these, and at right angles to them, he threw out what we may call " trap fences," wliicli, commencing from two to six fathoms beyond the storm fence, were carried over some five and twenty fathoms from the crest to the depth beyond ; and finally, upon the deeper places which had to be filled up, there were constructed fences of branches, cutting these up diagonally. With the planta- tions close to the crest, and on both sides of the fences of branches, he laid live hedges, in the free spaces between which he planted sand grasses, and in the deepest places REBOISEMENT. 123 of the cultivated area, and also near to what may, strictly speaking, be called Vordunen Platzes, he sowed grasses of the same kind. ' This was beyond question the first Prussian systematic Dunenhau, or culture of sand-drifts ; and there is not a little which is interesting in its subsequent history. * By the end of 1796 a great deal of the work was com- pleted. Meanwhile, dunes to the west of the village of Neufaehr were extending themselves to the Vistula, and beginning to pour their masses of sand into the bed of the river. In consequence of this it became necessary in the beginning of 1797 at once to concentrate the whole working power upon this point. * From this time onward the work of arresting and con- solidating these sands, the cost of which, partly at first, and latterly entirely, had been met from the State Treasury, made regular and well defined progress ; and they proceeded to the planting of the sands with the Kiefer or Scotch fir. In the time elapsing up to 1804 inclusive, the high dunes up to the village of Bohnsak were fixed ; and thus all anxiety in regard to the Vistula was removed. The years 1806 and 1808 were devoted more especially to sylviculture ; then were planted in the hollows, Salix arenaria and -i>. fusca, the downy mountain willow, and the brown-stemmed willow; and with them the Alnus incana, the hoary leaved alder, by means of cuttings. And from Bohnsak eastward the upper portion of the strand was sown with the sandrohr to produce a Vordune for a defence in advance of the works. ' In the course of the eleven years occupied with opera- tions suggested by Bioern there were expended on fixing the sands 38,826 guilders* advanced by the town, and 48,807 guilders advanced by the State : in all, 87,633 guilders, or on an average 8000 guilders a year. The • The i(UUdor is cciulvalcnt to Is. lid., or about 28. British money. 124 MODERN FOKEST ECONOMV. work was done by days' labour, and not by piecework, which greatly increased the cost. * With the year 1807, in which Danzig was by Napoleon made a Republic, the work was brought to a stand for many a year. The new Republic could neither maintain the work already done nor stay the devastation which recommenced anew. 'In 1814 Danzig again became a part of the Prussian dominions; and with this there ensued a more active period of Dunenbau, or arrest and culture of dunes. The State repaired the injury sustained by the old works at an expenditure of 21,032 guilders. But Bioern did not live to enjoy the sight of the successful enterprise. He died in 1819. He lived, however, to complete the fixing of drift dunes which were imperilling Vogelsang and Kahlberg. Bioern, whose service had from 1797 been acknowledged by bestowing on him the rank and title of Royal Kammer-Commissioner Councillor, is regarded by some as not only the originator of the Prussian system, but of the new systematic Strand-dunenhau, or operations designed to arrest and utilise drifting sand dunes on the coast everywhere. His works successfully accomplished the object desired ; and the principle was in its measure applicable by those who were engaged in carrying on similiar operations in island sand drifts ; and it is acknow- ledged as such by them at the present day. * At the same time it is not to be overlooked that Bioern had not so completely understood the nature of sand dunes as to found a work which would equally and that completely meet the requirement of the object, and the reduction of the work to a minimum of expense ' It is manifest,' says Wessely, whose narrative I am endeavour- ing to render into English, ' he did not value sufficiently the importance of a Vordune employed now-a-days to catch and retain the sand coming up from the sea ; the mode of procedure which he adopted in the culture of the firs for the consolidation of the mobile sand was much more expensive than was necessary ; and, in fine, we miss REBOISEMENT. 125 in them that complete knowledge of plants which at the present day is always at command. * With the land connection of Danzig with the fortress of Pillau secured, the work of Dunenhau on the Frischen Nehrung was resumed, and it was determined to give more attention to the extension of plantations. * In the year 1820, as the town would do nothing more in the matter, the Government of Prussia undertook the work entirely, and appointed for this purpose the Dune-Inspec- tor Krause, who conducted the Dunenhau of the province till 1856. He has given explicit statements in regard to his mode of operations in a manual, or Lehrbuch uber den Dunenhau, prepared and published by order of the Govern- ment. With the entrance of Krause upon his duties there were appropriated 15,000 guilders, and thereafter 6,000 guilders annually to the resumed reclaiming, affixing, and improving, of a stretch of dunes from the mouth of the Vistula to Kahlberg, some 6| German miles, or 30 British miles lo.-ig, covering an area of about 5000 jock.* * With these monies there were up to 1848, 290,000 guilders spent on this land, wherewith some 440 jock of the upper dunes were fixed, and 1330 jock planted with Weisskiefern, white firs, and birches. ' In 1832, in consequence of an urgent cry for help which was heard from outside this district, from the remains of a village destroyed in the previous century, called Polsk, which were in danger of being again overwhelmed by a rapidly advancing dune, this additional district was taken into consideration, and a special grant of money was made for operations there. ' There was taken in hand a portion of the Frisch Neh- rung, some 2f German miles [llj British miles] long, extending from Kahlberg to the boundary of East Prussia ; and it was sought to cover with woods about 2500 jock * The Austrian Jock, the moasuroment spoken of, I understand to be equal to three- fourtlis of an Imperial aero. 128 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. which had been almost entirely stript of vegetation, and to fix the land in order that the small villages situate there, and amongst others Polsk, might be made safe ; and to maintain the land communication between Danzig and Pillau, as well as to prevent a breaking through of the sea into the Frische Haff,* lying behind these strand dunes. In the first instance, Polsk had to be saved. ' In November 1833 the fixing of the sand began in very stormy weather. "While this still continued, many houses were covered up with the overwhelming sand, and before these and others could be completely protected, it was well nigh the middle of January 1834 ; when a hard frost, and the money appropriated to the enterprise, had so far advanced the work that the safety of Polsk could be said to be secured. In point of fact, there was only one house entirely, and a second half covered up ; and by and bye the work was so far advanced that pretty nearly the whole of the eastern dune district, well nigh 7000 jock, of open sands were fixed ; and in 1843 only some 1500 required to be fixed. . , . ' Krause, during the 35 years in which he conducted the West Prussian Dunenbau, or engineering operations to arrest and utilise the dunes, had altered the method of operations introduced by Bioern, as is described in his Lehrbuch, or Manual of Instruction, and by which the results following the operations conducted by him were obtained. * In the first place he had recognised the necessity and im- portance of making the Vordune or sand-banks between the sea and the dunes to be more immediately operated on, whereby the whole strand, without interruption, is lined, and of fixing these by the planting of them continuously * As has been intiiuated before, the Frische Haflf is one of the extensive sand-formed projections into the sea, parallel to the shore, characteristic of that district, and not unknown on the coast of England. They present the appearance which we should expect a bar of a river to take if it rose above the level of the sea, leaving an outlet, not in the centre, but at one end. The enclosed basin is designated the ' Haff '—the haven, RUlf. or bay— while the low-lying land enclosed is designutcd the 'Nehrung.' A little further to the east is the Kurishe Half, while further to the west a similar Haff is found on the mouth of the Odor, upon which is situated the port of Stettin. EEBOISEMENT, 127 with sand grasses. He overlooked, however, the advan- tage of their complete formation, and, in point of fact, we miss this in the Straiidhau, or strand-engin- eering, of that time, Krause confined himself in this to closing openings between the tops of dunes, which were not unfrequently pretty steep, with artificial Vor- dunes. Besides this he desired that the Vordunes should raise themselves somewhat steeply on the strand. In every case indeed the outer slope had a steeper inclina- tion towards the horizon given to it than the strand in advance of it towards the sea. But if we would secure for this a proper slope, and secure the former against the dashing of the waves, and consequent damage, we must avoid giving a steep inclination to the Vordune. Finally Krause left the Vordunes simply to produce and cover themselves with plantations of grass, whereby the process of formation was for a time delayed. For the fixing of the flat sides of the high and drifting dunes, Krause recom- mended and practised planting them with Arenaria in a network, the meshes of which were greater or less according as the inclination and the direction of the wind shock determined. Such a proceeding is in every way rational, provided it relate to a locality in which only the Arundo arenaria is in question. * Strange to tell, however, Krause laid it down expressly in his book that a continuous covering up is one of the necessities of life of the Arundo arenaria, and yet he recommended this plant also for the windward side of the dunes, and enjoined the work of fixing everywhere to be undertaken with this plant, and there where there could be no expectation of sanding up the same as elsewhere. Naturally in all such places the plants would die, and would render needful repeated expensive renewals, aye, and until these places had covered themselves naturally, which they would do mostly with Carex arenaria. * In these circumstances the strand grasses naturally could do no other service than act as would some dead low bush, or verv low bush hedge, and it is more than doubtful 128 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. whether, in view of numerous and expensive after works, planting with strand grasses be the cheapest means of fixing the sands. And then there comes up the considera- tion that in another way the grass planting operates injuriously — namely the stiff leaves, half broken through by the wind, moved about by the wind, make circular furrows around each single plant, and loosening by this means the sand, and disturb the spread of vegetation. ' Krause had often, instead of the Antndo^ let them plant cuttings of the sand willow. These grew well for a time where they were sheltered, but died soon where this was not the case; and where they did grow up they only increased the injurious irregularity of the dune. Where plantations were to be formed, this was done either on ground already fixed, or by means of a covering of branches in a way to be afterwards described. * When the Royal Ober-forstmeister, Julius von Panne- witz, visited the works in 1821, he found a mode of fixing the ground practised, which deserves mention. It was an alternate planting of rows of cuttings of willow and sand grass. For the rows of willow cutting they adopted, according to the slope, a distance of from 8 — 42, on an average 24', and for the intermediate rows of grass plants, 2— 3 1'. * The cuttings, J and 1 J inches thick, and 2 feet long, of the Salix arenaria, the rods of which seem to succeed best when cut in autumn, were planted in furrows from nine inches to twelve inches deep, laid so closely that they touched one another, and after the furrows were filled up and trodden down they stood from three to four inches above the level of the ground. The sand grass was laid in slanting, and these low planted rows seemed nowhere to be blown out, which, with the previously higher planted rows, was everywhere the case. ' The results which Krause obtained deserve full recogni- tion, for they took away the threatening character from fearful dunes ; and if it was the case that only here and there they were covered with firm turf or wood they were REBOISKMENT. 120 yet clothed in such a way tliat tlie most violent storm could take but little more sand from them ; and this was immediately replaced from the dune itself. A great part of the dune lands were also transformed into forests of Scotch fir, and this not only in low-lying parts, but to considerable heights. 'Besides this, the fundamental improvements wliich Krause introduced into Dunenhan, or engineering opera- tions on dunes, and more especially the exposition of net- work plantings, became a benefit to the whole of Europe *, and the last named system of planting bids fair to be perpetuated in practice, so that the Krause period showed an important improvement in the art, the end of which we have not yet seen.' The Prussian Stranddilnenhau of the present [1**^73] is prosecuted under the superintending direction of 0])er- landbau-Director G. Hagen, who, in his valuable Manual of Hydraulic Engineering in 18G3, devoted to this subject a thorough discussion, resulting in the fundamental development of the rules now observed in such works. The most substantial feature of the new advance is the exceptionally excellent plan of a rational Vordane, which, by arresting the sea-sand continuously along the strand, and maintaining always a gentle slope towards the sea, shelters the high dunes from the lash of the waves. Hafjen in his valuable work states aSartage may be so designated, in as much as one object is to utilise the ashes produced from the burning of the wood, and not simply to get rid of the trees ; and in as much as it is practised in certain cases in the management of forests as a means of effecting improvement in these, which cannot be alleged of forest clearing, as that term is generally employed. In a volume entitled Finland: its Forests and Forest Management (pp. 53-115, 217-220), the advantages and disadvantages of Sartagc are discussed at considerable length, and copious details are given of the practice of it in different lands. Section B. — Jardinage. Where the object is, not to clear the ground for agri- culture, but more profitably to exploit the forest produce, the method of doing so generally followed has been, and in many places still is, to look out for a tree likely to serve the purpose designed, be this what it may, fell it and bring it out from the forest, leaving the others standing. Where it is firewood which is wanted, the wood-cutter may go on cutting down almost every tree or shrub, and yet not capriciously as the onlooker may think, while felling many, leaving others. This is virtually the same thing; and this method of exploitation is by French foresters designated Jardinage, or gardeners practice, iu ^38 Modern S'oiiest economV. allusion to the practice of the gardener in gathering vegetables, taking up what seems to him to be sufficiently grown, and leaving others to grow till they may be required. Jardinage, as thus explained, is a method of exploitation which may seem to be a very natural one to adopt ; and this supposition is borne out by the extent to which it has been adopted. But it has proved very destructive to forests in all lands, and in all times. The careful considera- tion of other things than merely making the most of the woods as a source of pecuniary supplies, with which this method of operation is followed by British foresters in woods and plantations under their charge, such things as the appearance presented by the woods as a contribution to the amenity of the locality, and the value put upon the shelter which they afford, these having often a value far beyond what may be represented by the price of the wood in the market, leads to its being practised in parks and policies in Britain in such a way that little, or, it may be, no damage is done to the plantations. But where it has been followed simply as a means of most easily and con- viently exploiting the trees of a forest as supplying an article of trade, it has generally proved destructive. Illustrations of the destructive etfect upon forests of this method of exploitation may be found in Hydrology of South Africa^ pp. 172-175 ; in Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia, pp. 89-100 ; and in the French Forest Ordinance of 1660, with Historical Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France, pp. 35-39. Section C. — Exploitation according to * La Methode A Tire et Aire.' 1 have had occasion elsewhere to quote a statement by MM. Lorentz and Parade, fathers of the School of Forestry in Nancy, that : — * Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, if not i?mEST EXPLOITATION. I3i) before, it was found necessary to adopt legislative measures to protect, by prudent foresight, the interests of the future while supplying the requirements of the present ; and in 1544, 1576, and 1579, there were issued ordinances designed to regulate the felling of timber, and deter- mining the duration of lengthened periods during which no fellings should take place in portions of the forest which had been cleared of trees deemed fit to be felled, that time might be afforded for the reproduction of forest by a new growth of trees ; by the ordinance of 1669 the general practise of it \jTardinage\ in France was terminated, and now it is only tolerated in circumstances in which the application of the more advanced forest economy of the present day would be productive of more evil than good, as would often be the case on mountain crests, &c., where the woods afford shelter and protection, which, once destroyed, it would be difficult to restore, and impractic- able to restore till after a time, during which damage, perhaps irreparable damage, would be done.* In the management of plantations of conifers in the north of Scotland, it has been the practice in some places where all the trees in each plantation are of one age, to make a clean sweep of the plantation when the trees have attained a satisfactory size ; and afterwards to replant the ground with another crop of trees. This mode of felling is known in French Forest Economy as felling a blanc etoc. The practice applied thus to plantations, and successive plan- tations, might be considered a kind of gardening, or Jar- (linage: for thus do gardeners treat some of their crops; but it is not so designated, for, be it noted, that designation is applied to the treatment of trees ; this is applied to plan- tations alone. And by a succession of periodical plantings on different spots every year, or every five years, or every ten years, there might be raised a series of crops fit for the axe at successive periods, whereby might Ue produced a continuous supply of wood, and of pecuniary returns. If this be realised, little difficulty will be experienced in UO MOl^RtlN FOREST l^CONOMV. conceiving of a similar result being obtained by a series of successive fellings being carried out in an extensive forest, each of these fellings being confined to a specified section of the forest. If the forest were of considerable extent the series might be made to comprise not only many years, but many decades, giving time for the section first exploited being again replenished before the last section in the series has fiiUen under the axe. If a hundred years would be sufficient for the trees to attain the size desired, let the forest be supposed to be divided into ten sections, and for ten years the fellings be confined to one of these sections, and the same thing to be done in each succeeding decade till the whole forest has been exploited, by that time the cycle of successive fellings might be recommenced. And the process might be continued ad infinitum or ad libitum, if by self-sown seed, or by a combination of artificial sowing or planting, with this natural mode of replenishing the forest, the forest were replenished. Such a method of exploiting forests was introduced in France as a substitute for Jardinaye, and it was for 150 years practised in various countries on the Continent of Europe — I may say it has been so for more than 200 years, for it is in some places practised still. The tech- nical name given in France to this method of exploitation is Xa Methode a tire et aire — Cut and come again — Use and yet retain possession. Details of provision for the adoption of it are embodied in the French Forest Ordi- nance of 1669, an ordinance which, when first pro- mulgated, was hailed with delight in other lands besides France ; and it still is spoken of as The Famous Ordi- nance of 1669, Of this Ordinance, it is stated by M. Parade, of the School of Forestry in Nancy:— 'From the middle of the 16th century onward are found, in the Forest Ordinances of our kings, traces of management relating to fixed periods of felling successive portions of the forests. But it was more especially the celebrated Ordinance of 1669 which enjoined generally in royal forests .and forests held FOREST EXPLOITATION, 141 in mortmain, the observance of this useful operation, the indispensable basis of all forest management. * The method of exploitation referred to in this Ordi- nance was, as stated, La Methode a fire et aire ; it had for its object : in timber forests to substitute order and regularity of successive fellings of equal extent for the recklesness and disorder of Jardinage ; in coppice woods to prevent the too frequent felling, and also the incon- siderate felling of reserved trees.' The Ordinance comprises many prescriptions besides those relating to this method of exploitation. In regard to this it contains these: — CiiAPTErv XI. — Of Surveyor!^, 1. * There shall be selected and commissioned in each department, a Surveyor, a man of experience and tried pn^bity, to accompany the Grand- Master while he is on his visitations, auction sales, and r6-formations, and under his orders to make all surveys, measurements, and ordinary verifications, and those of r6-formation ; and two others shall be appointed in each baillivvick or Maitrise. 2. * They shall only be accepted on testimony to their good life and behaviour, and they sliall, before they enter on their duties, give security of a thousand livres, which shall be taken by the Grand-Master as assurance against abuses or malversations which they may commit in their work. They shall make of all fellings to be sold a figured plan, on which they shall indicate the corner trees, with their marks, the partition and boundary trees, with a statement of thev; number, quality, and all the marks upon t'lem, the distance from one to another of the corner trees, and an outline of the felling, both in straight Hues and in angles, and all the circumstances necessary to serve for the recognisance or conservation of aJl the trees reserved. 3. 'They shall make all the surveys and measurements 142 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. required in their district, as well as in those held in Grurie, Orairie, Tiers et Danger, and by title of appanage, co-proprietorship, sale contract, and usufruct in the Maitrise, in our woods, grounds, and domains, and the same for those of ecclesiastics, communities, and holders of mortmain, together with all that may, for whatever reason, be ordered by authority of Courts of Justice. This they shall do preferentially to all other Surveyors, on pain of nullification of what may be done by others ; but with permission to private persons to avail themselviBS of all acts, measurements, and voluntary deliverances of other Surveyors selected at their option, as may seem to them good. 4. ' The Surveyor of the Grand-Master shall be bound to follow him when ordered, and to make by his orders all allocations of sales, surveys, measurements, and verifica- tions, plans, diagrams, determinations of fellings, and recognaisances of bounds, borders, and ditches, and generally all acts pertaining to his profession ; and to keep a good and faithful register, of which he shall deposit a duplicate, with plans and diagrams, in the hands of the Grand-Master or the Registrar of the Maitrise, eight days after the completion of the work, and obtain a receipt for it, under pain of suspension the first time, and deprivation of office on repetition. • • • t • • • 8. *If any Surveyor have, by connivance, favour, or corruption, concealed a removal or alteration of boundaries, have suffered, or have himself made, a change in corner trees, he shall, for the very first case, be deprived of office, condemned to a fine of five hundred livres, and be banished for ever from our forests, unless the Officers, under pain of possible loss of office, mitigate or alter the sentence. Chapter XV. — Of Sales, Fellings, dec. 1. ' There can be no sale made in our forests, woods, or thickets, excepting in accordance with the regulations FOREST EXPLOITATION. 148 which shall be ordered in our Council, or in letters patent, formally and duly registered in our Courts of Parliament and Chambre des Compies, under penalty of restitution of four-fold the value of the wood sold, against the pur- chasers, and against the officials ordering such sales, the loss of their office. t • • • • • « 4. * The Grand-Masters shall every year, before the auction sales of our woods, make a visitation of the lots appointed to be sold, in making which they shall be accompanied by the Surveyor thereto appointed, to whom they shall point out the woods to be allotted for sale in the following year ; and they shall mark out for him in what form the boundaries shall be made for our greatest profit and advantage, of which they shall prepare an official report, which shall be signed by the Forest-Master or his Lieutenant, our Attorney, the Garde- Marteau, and the Sergeants of the Guard. A copy of this shall be delivered to the Surveyor to serve as his guide, and to this he shall be bound to conform himself, under pain of suspension or declaration of his incapacity for the office ; another shall be sent to the Record Office of the Maitrise, and fifteen days after his return to the principal town of his depart- ment, he shall lodge a general statement of all the allot- ments in the Record Office of the Marble Table for reference. 5. * Every year the Grand-Master shall make a copy of his mandements and ordinances for the allotments of the ordinary sales of our woods and torests, conformably to the regulations ordered in our Council, where he shall enter the number of arpents or acres, and the kind of wood to be sold ; and in which he shall designate in detail the wards and trigonometrically measured lots, one or more of which may be embraced in a ward, so far as shall be practicable, following the observations which shall have been made in the official reports after visitation, which he shall send to the Officers of the Maitrise, before the first of June in each yeai', who shall be bound forthwith to assemble and 144 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. together devote a day to the making the allotments, which shall be done in their presence by the Surveyor. 0. * The Surveyor shall make, in presence of the Ser- geant of the Guard, the lanes and trenches required for the boundary ; shall mark with his stamp as naar to the ground as he can, such a number of corner trees, and divi- sion and partition trees marking the angles and connecting lines of the boundaries, as he shall consider sufficient, with indications of the side on which he shall have im- printed his stamp, the royal stamp, and that of the Grand- Master. He shall make mention of the fact if he have so imprinted any trees for corner standards, and of their age, quality, nature, and size, and of their distance from one another in poles and feet : as also he shall observe the names of the sales in which they occur, if there be any void spaces and their areas ; he shall be required to avail himself of at least one of the corner trees of the for- mer sale ; and he shall prepare plans and diagrams of the place which he shall have portioned out ; and of all this he shall make his official report, which shall be signed by the Sergeants and Guards, and he shall place a copy of it in the Registry of the Maitrue three days after having made it, which shall be initialed bv the Forest-Master and our Procurator, with mention of the day on which it shall have been delivered, and another copy of it shall be by him sent forthwith to the Grand-Master. 9. 'The trees marking the margin and the side of the plot shall be marked with the royal stamp and the stamp of the Surveyor on one side, differing in this from the corner trees, which shall be marked on each side facing a lot for sale. 10. * The Surveyors can neither measure more nor less in each triage than that which shall have been prescribed to them by the Grand-Master for allotment, under pretext of rendering the outline more regular, or for any other consideration whatsoever, to such an extent that the reduction or addition shall exceed one arpent for twenty, ^OHEST fiXPLOITAttOiJ. 145 or in this proportion, under pain of suspension and an arbitrary fine, to be determined by the Grand-Master; and if three times such an error have been committed by him, he shall be discharged, and declared incapable of acting as Surveyor. 11. *The official report of the Surveyor being in the Registry, he shall cause it to be delivered in like manner to the Garde-Marteau for the martellage or mark- ing of the trees, which he shall make in presence of the officers of the Maitrise, and to this effect the royal stamp shall be delivered up to the Garde-Marteau by those who have the keys, and he shall proceed with the officers to the triages in which the sales shall have been allocated, and by their advice he shall select ten trees in each arpent, of lofty growth, of great vigour, and of fine proportions, of oak, and, if possible, of good wood and competent size, which he shall mark as hallweaux or reserved trees, with the royal stamp, and together with them the corner trees and the trees marking out the boundary, and forthwith after the martellage the stamp shall be brought back and shut up in its case. Chapter XVI. — Of Recollemens, or JRe-Survei/s of Fellings after the Fellings. 1. * The recollemens of all the purchases shall be made, at latest six weeks after the time for clearing away and bringing out the produce has expired, by the Forest- Master, in presence of our Attorney, the Garde-Marteau, or Keeper of the Stamp, the Registrar, the Sergeant of the Guard, the Surveyor, and the Soucheteur, who shall have made the survey and the souchetage, or enumeration and specification of existant stumps, and of the Lieutenant, if so seems to him good, but without his interfering, excepting in the absence of the Forest-Master ; and to this end the merchant-purchasers shall be summoned eight days before to meet on that day with other Sui- L 146 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. veyors and Soucheteurs, to make the new survey and souchetage of the purchase. 2. ' When the Surveyors and Soucheteurs, with those first employed, and those who have heen appointed specially for the verification, shall have arrived on the ground, the oflicial report of the felling to be sold, of survey, of ballt- ■cage, or specification of reserved trees, and of souchetage which shall have been made for the auction sale shall be produced, and they shall reconnoitre the trees reserved by the official reports and by the conditions of sale ; and to this effect the Officers shall inspect carefully the purchases from end to end in all their parts, the pied cornieres, parois, lizieres and halliveaux, or the trees marking the angles, the sides, and the margins of the allotment, and the trees reserved for seed, so as to see that the lots have been well cut, treated, cleared out, and freed of all encumbrance — of which they shall prepare their official reports, containing details of encroachments, malversations, defaults, and defects, which they may have seen, and of any deficiencies of trees retaincvl by the official reports of martellage and ballivage. 5. ' The official reports of the second souchetage shall be examined and collated with those of the first, and any difference which shall be found between them shall be noted miniitely and in detail ; to which effect there shall be produced all the official reports of exoneration which shall have been made for the merchants and their factors, and there shall be observed any defaults and malversations which may be found to have been committed in the course of the use and exploitation of their purchases, of which they have not been validly exonerated/ The circumstances in which this Ordinance was issued, together with the Ordinance in its entirety, are detailed in a volume to which reference has already been made, French Forest Ordinance of 1660; with Historical Sketch l^OHESt E>iPLOlf ATlON. U1 of Previous Treatment of Forests in France, in which volume some notices are given of this method of exploita- tion (pp. 40-44). It may be perceived that these regulations proceed upon the assumption that the particular method of exploitation to which they refer was one well known, which was the case, as it was one which did not originate with the Ordinance, but had been practised, long both in Germany and France, though not so generally and exten- sively as it was subsequently to the promulgation of this Ordinance. To place the student of Forest Science of to-day on something like the same vantage ground as was enjoyed by those who some two hundred years ago were so jubilant over this Ordinance, it may be allowed to me now to supply some additional information in explanation or illustration of exploitation according to the method known as d> tire et aire, even at the risk of being accused of repetition. When the management of forests had commanded for some time the attention of men of a scientific spirit in Germany and in France, it was found that the long con- tinued prosecution of Jardinage was diminishing the products of forests and imperilling their continued exist- ence, and there was introduced this method of exploitation. The exact import of the designation I have endeavoured in vain to learn. It has always been associated in my mind with the English phrase — Cut and come again. In the absence of information from French foresters and French etymologists, I have been led to surmise that aire may be an antiquated abbreviated form of avoir, and that the phrase may have been designed to express the idea of uprooting and yet possessing, of felling and yet having or possessing — implying that though Jardinage might have failed, this method of exploitation would succeed, in secur- ing a preservation of the forests. The English colloquial phrase I have referred to suggests itself to me, but it does not express what is expressed in the French phrase. 148 Modern FORiEst Economy. It is more easy to make intelligible the treatment so designated than it is to render in English the designation given to it. The following may be taken as supplying a rougli and rude illustration of it in its application to a coppice wood. If the coppice be one which may profitably be cut down every twenty years, by dividing it into twenty equal or equivalent portions, and cutting one, but only one of these each year, there may be obtained a constant supply of wood, the division cut in the first year being ready again for the axe in the twenty-first year of the operation, and again in the forty-first year, while the other divisions follow in their order. This mode of exploitation has been extensively adopted in the management of coppice woods in Russia, though Jar (linage is generally followed in the felling of timber, I have found that there on many estates held by private proprietors, there is carried out recklessly, and without system, a succession of clearings in successive years — one portion cleared this year, another portion next year, a third portion in the yr'.ar following. On other estates, in connection with n\ining and smelting operations, a some- what similar exploitation is carried out more systematic- ally. A similar mode of procedure has been adopted in several of the Crown Forests. By Professor Sokanoff, who at the time held the Chair of Forest Economy in the Forest Corps at Lanskoi, near St. Petersburg, I was told when there in 1873, that it was not uncommon, and it might be considered the general usage, to fell the forest in long strips of 50 fathoms, or 350 feet, in breadth, alternating with strips of the same width on which the trees were left standing to sow the cleared ground. Where wood is scarce they clear these strips completely ; where it is abundant they leave young trees unfelled to grow, or to be destroyed in the removal of the others, as may happen ; and when a new growth of trees has been fairly established on the cleared strip, the strip of standing trees is cleared FOREST EXPLOITATION. 149 if there be a probability of its being re-sown or otherwise restocked with trees. A similar account was given to me of the cutting of fuel for a smelting furnace in the government of Oren- burg. Thirty years was deemed sufficient for the repro- duction and growth of the firewood, and the whole was divided into thirty equivalent portions, each of which was allotted for one year's exploitation in the expectation that in thirty years it would be reproduced. Strips were the forms in which the several portions were laid out, and these, so far as was practicable, were made to converge towards the forge ; and in felling each a strip was left unfelled for the production of seed for the natural re-sow- ing of the portion cleared. My informant stated that the strip left was either one-sixth or one-twelfth of the breadth of the strip cleared — he could not recollect which. I think it probable it was left at the side, and that those of two contiguo.s ridges were contiguous, whereby they might be conjointly one-sixth of the breadth of one cleared strip, but one-twelfth of the two if the fellings did not follow each other in due succession. Advantages likely to follow such a method of managing forests suggest themselves at once, and, as described, it seems to be one which must be of easy application any- where. But the practical forester who has given atten- tion to my statement may have remarked that I have used the expression equal or equivalent portions. Good will result from the adoption of division into equal portions — much good, but with a large admixture of evil. Equal portions are not necessarily equivalent portions, and such is the variation in the productiveness of different portions of a forest, from variation in soil, in exposure, and in adaptation to the growth of the kind of tree which happens to be upon it, that it is very improbable that many portions equal in extent will be e(pial in produc- tiveness, if any at all happen to be so ; and therefore the division of a forest into equal portions will not yield 150 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. advantages equal to what would be obtained by the divi- sion of the forest into what I have^ called equivalent portions. With the attempt to do this commences the difficulties of the undertaking. Equivalent partitions cannot be obtained by divisions founded on equality of superficial contents, neither can they be obtained by divisions founded on the number of trees growing in each, or even on the cubic contents of these. The soil, the exposure, the kind of tree growing in different localities, the adap- tation of the soil and of the exposure to the growth of the kind of tree, or of trees, growing in each, the age or ages of these trees, the rate of their annual increase at different ages, the age or ages at which they respectively attain their maximum growth, and at which they attain their maximum of value, — these, and twenty other points, must be determined to furnish the data necessary to determine equivalent partitions ; and such partitions are necessary in order to ensure the full benefits of this method of forest management being secured. If by a tentative process, based on superficial extent, as it necessarily must be, modified in accordance with the number of trees, and with the cubic contents of these, it be souglit to arrive at a division of a forest into equivalent partitions, it will be found that constant modifications of the division first made are seen to be necessary. By proceeding to the work of partition with an extensive knowledge of the natural history of the trees on the ground, of the process of tree growth, and of much per- taining to meteorology, and geognosy relating thereto, the work will be found to be more easy ; but with all the forest science which has as yet been secured, the work must be to some extent tentative still ; and this is accepted as a fact by the most advanced foresters of the day. And while this has been accepted as a fact, it has also been found that divide the forest or coppice wood as you may, you do not secure a sustained production through FOREST EXPLOITATION. 151 successive cycles of the revolution or rotation of exploita- tions. The second crop is not equal to the primitive or original, nor the third to the second. It is possible ofttimes to trace in the embryotic struc- ture the rudiments of the organs of the fully developed organism ; but how different are the appearances presented by the two ! How like, and yet how unlike, are the Chrysalis and the Butterfly ! Similar is the similitude and the difference between the old system <)> tire et aire, and the new system of forest economy now carried out in Germany and in France. I know not of a name by which I can designate this for the purpose of contradistinction and specilication. To give it a designation from the name of the country would be improper, inasmuch as while it is carried out in both these countries, it is not peculiar to either country alone. To give it a designation from the deviser would be premature, inasmuch as my readers are not supposed to be familiar with its history, and even in the case of many of those who are acquainted with the history of its evolution, to associate it exclusively with the name of any one man would do injustice to others, to whom it owes much. There is in this system of management a three-fold object sought, production souienue, regeneration naturelle, and amelioration progressive ; not one or other but all of these combined, and so combined not only that each shall be secured without detriment to the others, but that all shall be secured as the result of what may be done with a special view to the accomplishment of any, — what is done in view of all promoting each, what is done in view of each promoting all : a combination of ends gained in the accomplishment of one, such as is ofttimes seen in nature, for example in the honeycomb, where economising of apace, of material, and of labour, are so combined, that apparently it may with equal propriety be described in the same phrase, with either of these three ends treated as if the one end in view. What is sought is a sustained production throughout a 102 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. period of indefinite, infinite, or perpetual duration — every year, every four years, every ten years, according as the case determined may be — giving an equal produce either in quantity or in value, according as the case determined shall be — equal to the maximum capability of the forest — without diminution, periodical or permanent — and "without detriment to the forest — nor only this, but this without diminution of the forest — trees as felled being replaced by natural reproduction from self-sown b.ud, while the reproduction of the forest and the felling of every tree that is felled tends alike to the improvement of the forest — so that it shall ever be rising in value as its products are withdrawn. This is what is meant by sustained production, natural regeneration, and progressive amelioration of forests. It may be said, incredulously — If forest science, properly applied, can do all this, it can work wonders: it takes away one's breath to read it ! Well, such is the end of forest economy as carried out in Germany and in France, and it is there being accomplished ; nor there alone, but in various other lands ; and it is that apparent perfection of forest management to which students of forest science thioughout the Continent of Europe are seeking to bring the u.auagement of forests in the lands with which they are severally connected. In the management of forests in the British dominions in India this system of exploitation is being introduced as fast and as extensively as money can produce the men necessary lor the work, and as circumstances admit of free action ; and I know of no physical hindrance to the same thing being done in any of our colonies. I have spoken of it as having arisen out of the adoption in Germany and in France of exploitation in accordance with the method known as a tire et aire ; but it is now so different from this that it requires separate notice, and this the more that it is the method of exploitation now everywhere in Continental Europe approved by students of forest science. Details will be given j but it is expe- FOREST EXPLOITATION. 153 dient previously to bring under consideration another method of exploitation. Section D.— ' Furetage/ and ' Taillis Sous Futaie/ Furetage is a method of exploiting coppice woods com- posed of trees which reproduce shoots from the stump freely, and can reproduce a wood or forest without the aid of self-sown seed. It may be considered a modification oi Jardinage applicable to the exploitation of such trees, though not to others ; and the designation given to it in contradistinction to Jardinage has been given from some fancied resemblance to that of a ferret ferreting out what it is in pursuit of, as the other designation has been given in reference to some fancied resemblance to that of the kitchen gardener in gathering his crops. But in practice it is assimilated to La Methode a tire et aire. * Furetage^ says the late Professor Bagneris, Inspector of Forests, and Professor at the Forest School of Nancy, in a work entitled Elements of Sylviculture* * consists in cutting the strongest shoots out of a clump, and in leaving the weaker ones. The wood-cutter returns to the same place every eight or ten years, and if the poles are cut at the age of twenty-four or thirty years — {i.e., if the rotation is of twenty-four or thirty years) — the clumps are composed of shoots of three diti'erent ages.' It is a method of exploitation applied chiefly to beech coppice wood. The beech is a tree which is not well adapted for exploitation as coppice ; but it can be exploited thus advantageously. There are in France about 1()(),00() acres of beech coppice, belonging for the most part to private proprietors. These are situated chiefly in that part of France formerly known as Morvan, on the Swiss side of tlie Jura, and at the foot of the Pyrenees, and * Elements of Sjibnculturc • a Short Treatine on the Scientijic Cultimtionof th* Oak and other Hardxovnd I'reei^. TraiiHlated from tlie French by K. E. Forimiidwz und A. Smythies, li.A., Jndiaii Forubt Service. Loudon : Williuui iUder & !don ; Sinipkiu, iMnrshiill, & Co. 18S2. 154 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. there they are frequently subjected to this mode of exploitation. An exhaustive article on the Furetage of the beech in the Pyrenees, by M. E. Guinier may be found in the R^vue des Eaux et Forks for 18S3, (pp. 469-477, 527-541). His object is to show how an improved modification of this method of exploitation may remedy several evils, and secure several advantages, in coppice woods, which are thus treated ; and in pursuit of this object he addresses himself chiefly to the objections of those who are so satis- fied with it that they are unwilling to make any change. After discussing at considerable length much which is involved in the failures which have followed this method of exploitation, M. Guinier passes under review objections which have been taken to any attempt to improve it, and answers these seriatim. The objections thus treated are following : — It is said (1) Furetage is excellent inasmuch as it ensures the conservation of coppice woods ; this has been estab- lished by experience : why seek for anything other than it is? 2. What is defective in Furetage lies not in the method, but in the practice and application made of this; and we ought not to hold the method responsible for abuses which have crept into it in practice. 3. Furetage comprises a collection of harmonious rules which have for their object to protect the interests of the regeneration of beech copse woods, which is a complex and delicate task ; it is impossible to condense these rules into a formula — simple, brief, and precise, which may be applicable without peril to innumerable cases in practice ; it is, moreover, sufficient that the agents who have to manage beech copse woods should know the end they have to keep before them ; it is then for them, from the resources supplied by their preparation and experience, to find out the means of accomplishing this applicable to the circumstances of each case. FOREST EXPLOITATION. 155 4. It should be borne in mind that treatment as a timber forest is that alone which properly suits the beech, and even the partisans of Furetaye can scarcely consider this method of exploitation as other than provisional, and one which ought only to be applied pending the transfor- mation of the coppice wood into a timber forest, which slionld be the end of all foresters. What good, then, can be expected from seeking at great trouble to modify the existing order of things ? Having replied to these several objections, M. Guinier states what he has to recommend, premising, however, that inasmuch as it admits the reservatioL of ballivemtx, or seed-bearing standards, it is questionable whether the designation Furetage would still be applicable. And he expresses a kind of preference for another designation : he says : — ' I believe we must surrender the name. As a matter of fact, the principle of F^iretage is the removal of the shoots which are in a dominant state and the constitu- tion of a reserve taken, except exceptionally, from the dominated shoots. And if we in principle prescribe the con- stitution of a reserve, more or less abundant, chosen from the dominating productions, we resume the principle of Taillk sous Futaie — copse as the under-growth of a timber forest j and whatever may be the proportions of the two consti- tuents, a felling must present the aspect of one adapted to that mode of growth.' In his treatise M. Guinier remarks that in view of the principle underlying this method of exploitation it seems to be a most certain and most simple mode of exploitation ; but in practice it is not found to be so. He alleges that from the first there do not exist the three well defined divisions of shoots. He adds that in the mountains where vegetation is slow the shoots of thirty years cannot be distinguished from those of twenty years growth when, by any means whatsoever, the full development of the former has been impeded. The shoots of different divi- sions often preponderate in some one or more positions 156 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. instead or being dispersed equally among the others ; and the removal of them occasions an unequal exposure of the soil, and of the younger shoots, which is contrary to the very spirit of Furetage ; and further, from whatever cause it comes about, there is a very great diversity in the cubic measurement of the produce from exploitation in this method, which has given occasion for incessant modifications, and temporary suspensions of it, and for discussions. From all which many have arrived at the conclusion borne out by facts that it is a method of exploitation which is uncertain in its results and ill- defined. In the Pyrenees the formulas laid down for direction are very variable, and various. In some cases two periods of exploitation are established, in other cases three ; and the prescriptions vary much with time and place. According to some, it is required to cut all shoots of a prescribed girth, and leave all others ; and the measure- ment varies considerably. According to another prescrip- tion, all spreading shoots, all isolated shoots, all shoots under a certain size, and all shoots bearing secondary shoots of a certain size, should be reserved. But in the application of the rule great diversities are seen. A modification of this, determining more fully what shoots are to be reserved, has been proposed, but again variations occur in the practical application of this. For a time it was customary to reserve from amongst the most vigorous growing trees from fifty to sixty standards on every hec- tare, but this was abandoned on the ground that these standards were virtually bastard timber trees ; and by some there has been advocated the reservation of a certain number of veritable balliveaicx, trees reserved to supply seed. By Professor Bagneris in his Manuel de Silviculture, pub- lished in 1873, it is remarked that the coppice woods treated thus were at that time little known, and had perhaps not been sufficiently studied. Thus may the diversities mentioned be accounted for. J'ORtSt EXPLOITATION. \o1 With the explanations cited M. Guinicr proceeds to state what reserves he would propose. These are : — 1. Anciens ; Modernes ; BaUiveaux de V Age N'., which are designations given respectively to trees left after one complete revolution of successive fellings ; trees left after two of these; and trees left after three or more, and, 2. All underwood composed of spreading shoots or bushy suckers, and all shoots below a prescribed measure- ment, at a height of four inches. Several explanations and illustrations of what is meant are given ; and in regard to advantages to be secured, he says : — * These are the following — * 1. Sufficient shelter, and this aa complete as may be required according to circumstances, is secured for the stumps, by the reserving of underwood and balliveaux ; * 2. The maintenance on the stumps (save with an exception always restricted) of twigs belonging to the underwood and the balliveaux, serving to keep up the flow of sap ; * 3. An advance of many years increase obtained by the reserving of the underwood j * 4. The emhroussaillement of felling proper to prevent damage done by cattle, and resulting also from the reser- ving of the underwood. * These are advantages which it is sought to secure by the old method of Furetoge, and they are common to both methods ; the following, on the contrary, pertain exclu- sively to the new method, which is designed to accom- plish, under like conditions, that in which the former is defective and calls for reform. * 5. The production of timber of large dimensions (if the ground be suitable) which may be employed in industrial operations. *6. The enrichmeuu of the standing wood material, and the progressive augmentation of the production ; * 7. The production of natural sowings by means of the seed cast abundantly by the reserves ; and the amelioration of the crop by the aid of natural reproduction ; m MODEtiN fouest economy. * 8. Preparation for a state of timber forest, by facilita- ting the management required for proceeding jiromptly to the transformation when the moment for this shall have come ; * 9. The application of treatment the most advanageous under every point of view, to the beech coppice which cannot be converted into timber forest, be it on account of economical considerations, or be it on account of the poverty of the land. * Let us compare now the spirit of the method proposed with that of the old system of Furetage^ and cast a glance at the general result's of the two methods of procedure. * One can establish easily two essential differences. * In the old Fiiretarje each shoot was considered indivi- vidually ; and the necessary precautions were taken to secure the life of the stump, and the prosperous growth of the shoots to be obtained. Further, the shoots in a dominant condition were exploited, and the dominated shoots were reserved, awaiting the attainment by. these of a maximum of dimensions which was variable. * On the contrary, by the employment of the proposed formula : * 1. The consideration of each shoot separately is aban- doned in favour of the consideration of the prosperity of the crop in a mass. This method of looking at the sub- ject is conformable to the modern and generally adopted method of attending to the culture of woods, the prescrip- tions of which relate to forest masses, and not to the trees individually. It is thus in the manoeuvring of a corps iVarmee^ or of a battalion, or of even a platoon of soldiers, the individuality of the soldier is effaced. Attention to be given to the development of each subject pertains to arboriculture, whilst it is the development of the forest mass which is what pertains to sylviculture ; no doubt the forest mass is composed of trees, as the army is composed of soldiers, and it is no more possible to lay down strictly rules of sylviculture without taking into account the requirements of the tree, than it is to determine the i^^OilEST EXl'LolTAl'ION. 150 nianoeuvros of an army without having regard to the constitution of the soldier, to his strength, and to the maintenance of his health. But it seems as unreasonable to try to maintain any exploitation whatever without risking the loss of some shoots, or of some trees, the maintenance of which might be useful, as it would be strange for a warrior to hesitate to lead a battalion under fire, through fear that some men may be struck by the enemy's projectiles. In our fellings under this modifica- tion of coppice wood growing in a timber forest, what imports it that some stumps here and there may die? They will be replaced ten times, and a hundred times, more abundantly by the natural sowings. * 2. The exploitation does not relate any longer to shoots in the dominant state, as in Furetage ; and it does not relate to shoots in the dominated condition alone, as in ordinary coppice woods under timber ; it relates actually mainly to what is in the intermediate condition, and each exploitation removes first what is in this intermediate state, and then a portion only of what is in the dominant state, consisting of abandoned reserves. * Is it further required to give the means of comparing this modified Furetage with the old Furetage ? ' It is clear that the first-mentioned method stands to the second as Taillis sousfutaie^ coppice under timber, does in relation to simple coppice ; but the difference, it seems, is more accentuated, as in simple coppice there are still reserved halliveaux^ or standards selected from amongst the strongest shoots.* M. Guinier discusses the matter in all its details ; and lie states at what places in France Furetage is practised, and the extent to which it is there carried out. But upon these discussions and statements I do not feel called upon to enter. In regard to Furetage^ Professor Bagneris writes in the work I have cited; — *It does not appear to us that this method of exploitation should be generally adopted, 160 MObERN FOREST ECONOMY. because, in tlic first place, it seems preferable to grow the beech as a timber forest, — and for private proprietors, who possess forests of this tree, as coppice with seed-yielding standards. If the standards are cut early enough, they will not injure the underwood they overtop, especially if the rotation is sufficiently Ion,"-, and they will shed seed by which the growing stoclc will be kept full. Moreover, although Furetage has hitherto preserved beech coppices in a more or less satisfactory condition, it presents many disadvantages. Thus it is exceedingly difficult to cut a certain number of shoots in a clump without injuring the rest ; and in any case the labour is more costly. Besides this, cutting up the wood is not so easy when the shoots left standing are to be preserved from injury; and it is necessary either to remove the former on men's backs, or to allow carts to come in among the standing crops — a proceeding which is necessarily productive of damage.' M. Guinier may allege that he has devised a method of securing the good without the evil. And I know of a modification of Furetage similar to what he advocates being carried out advantageously in the government of Ufa, near the Ural Mountains in Russia. In order to the full understanding of what has been stated, there may be needed some knowledge of what is called Taillis sous Futaie. Besides different methodes of exploitation, there are different regimes of culture : there is coppice culture, and timber culture, and there is a culture of coppice wood in connection with the culture of timber forests. This last is the regime referred to, and the modified Furetage differs from the mode of exploitation usually followed in Taillis sous Futaie : being designed to avoid some of the disadvantages attaching to this as well as disadvantages attaching to simple Furetage. I have a clearer conception of what is common to both than I have of the points in which in practice they are essentially different ; and yet I deem it of some importance here that the coppice culture and management in question FOREST EXPLOITATION. 1« should be known. As a precaution against my giving a misrepresentation of it I shall cite an account of it given in the Comptes Itendus de la Societe d* Agriculture de France^ \\\ a valuable paper Oa the disappearance of the oak in the forests of the north and north-east of France, read before the Society at a meeting held on the 17th April 1878, V)y M. B. de la Grye, a Member of tlie Society. The gradual, but steadily advancing disappearance of the oak in the forests in that region of France, has been observed and proved, and has been considered a serious matter. M. de la Grye shows that it cannot be attribu- table to any climatic change. He adverts then to the different treatment given to coppice woods and to timber forests ; and he goes on to say : — ' It is, moreover, not in the timber forests but in the copse woods that the dis appearance of the oak has made itself conspicuous ; and it is principally in forests subjected to this mode of treatment that it has manifested itself niost distinctly. * There it is not difficult to perceive that the mode of exploitation is sufficient to account for the progressive disappearance of this tree. * The exploitation of coppice woods consists, as is known, in cutting down every ten years, fifteen years, twenty years or more, the whole crop, saving some selected trees destined to form a reserve. The reproduction is effected by shoots from the stum.ps, and to some small extent also by seeds produced by the reserves. The shoots proceeding from buds are nourished exclusively from material stored up in the stumps, and especially in the living portions of these stumps ; and the shoots or suckers will be more vigorous in proportion as the stumps are stronger, and as their ligneous layers still alive are thicker. 'Experience shows indeed that young stumps alone produce vigorous and plentiful shoots; when the stumps are old, and especially when they have become disordered in their central parts — (a thing which cannot fail to happen) — there is, indeed, a production of suckers, but these quickly become pale, and they are not slow to dia- M 162 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. appear. The reproductive power of the stump becomes exhaustive of the reserve of aliment which they contain. The shoots then come to be progressively weakened, and the crops are not slow to disappear, if seed sowings do not come to meet the deficit occasioned by the death of the shoots ; and here begins to appear what is the cause of the disappearance of the oak. The seeds of the yoke-elm, the seeds of the hois hhncs [white woods — a designation given to alders, limes, poplars, and willows], and the seeds of the maple are li<-]it ; they readily disseminate them- selves ; the young plants which proceed from them are robust, and can bear the shade. The acorns are heavy, an«l the young plants of the oak dread the shade. Thus, on the one liand, there is inferiority in the power of dissemination, and a greater demand in regard to light ; while the secondary kinds of trees, on tlie other hand, are more numerous, and easily stifle the young oaks under their shade, and tend to substitute themselves for these.' The author then adverts to the demand which there is for oak-bark, and to the bearing of this upon the point under consideration — the progressive disappearance of the oak. At the risk of laying myself open to a charge of wandering from my subject, I shall follow him, believing that the information may not be unacceptable to some of my readers. But before doing so, I remark that the seed of the beech, of which alone it is that M. Guinier speaks, is not so heavy as that of the oak ; it may, therefore, be more extensively diffused, and the early growth ©f the seedling may enable it to make good its footing where an oakling might fail. M. de la Grye goes on to say : — * But that is not all. The oak is the tree which, of all our indigenous productions, yields a bark the most suitable for use in tanning ; everywhere where there are oak copse- woods that are exploited with a view to the production of bark. In order to this they arc felled when the sap is in Tnovemeut— that is the month of May, and in order to FOREST EXPLOITATION. 163 reduce the work at this period of pressure, there are exploited in advance what are called winter woods. There results from this practice from the first that the stump cut in spring loses, through the escape which takes place over the large wound produced hy exploitation, a great part of the material which it held in reserve, which is exhausted by the month of August, when with the second sap there are produced some buds destined to replace the felled perches. Then the stumps of other kinds of trees, which have not been subjected to this cause of alteration produce shoots which have, over those from the stumps of the oak, the double advantage of being more vigorous, and of having a start of some months. It is evident that these combine self-sown seed ; and artificial sowing or planting is employed only to fill spaces which may have been left blank in this process, and in the creation of new forests, as in the reboisement of mountains, or the fixing and utilisation of drift sands. To give full efficiency to the reproduction of forests by self- sown seed, a succession of fellings is necessary ; and in these tlic most extensive felling is not the final one. Besides haUiveaux left standing when the principal felling is made, to yield seed, and trees of greater age, destined for prolonged growth to produce timber of greater dimen- sions, there are left what is deemed a sufficient number of trees to afford shelter and shade to young seedlings. Subsequently some of these are thinned out, so as to leave only what will suffice to afford for a time partial shade by their shadows falling successively on different portions of the ground as the day advances ; and not until after the seed- lings or saplings no longer require the fostering thus afforded, does the final felling take place. Thereafter, successive thinnings according to prescribed regulations are made — all of which contribute to make up the quan- tity of produce re([uired in the periods during which they occur. All of these successive thinnings and fellings are designed for the improvement of the growing crop ; and that which clears the ground for the self-sown seed from which is expected another crop, may be reckoned the principal felling, to be followed by the final felling, when the rising generation no longer requires the shade and shelter of the older trees. In arranging the order in which successive fellings are to be made, attention has to be given to considerations of how the produce may be brought out with greatest ease and with least detriment to the stanling crop, and how growing crops may have secured to them, to as great an extent as possible, protection from prevalent winds and storms. In this matter the method of exploitation under consideration does not stand alone ; but with the greatei* 180 MODERN I'OKEST ECONOMY. iilt(jiiU()ii ^iveii in it tu ultlinate, and it may be distant, results, this assumes in it greater importance than it docs in other circumstances and under other conditions. By all of these measures conjointly and severally, and by every operation pertaining to them, the forests arc by steady advance being brought into greater accordance with what is rec^uired for the most efficient working of the method of exploitation adopted, including uniformity of vigorous vegetation and growth ; and thus the ameiioratiou of the forests is secured as efficiently as if it had been the only object for the attainment of which everything had been done. I have cited opinions expressed by Captain Campbell- Walker in his Reports on Forest Management in Germamj. In a republication of this, he says of scientific forestry, such as is practised in Germany : — ' The main object aimed at in any system of scientific forestry is, in the first instance, the conversion of any tract or tracts of natural forest, which generally contain trees of all ages and descriptions, young and old, good and bad, growing too thickly in one place and too thinly in another, into what is termed in German,' a Oeschlossener Bestand (close or compact forest), consisting of trees of the better descriptions, and of the same age or period, divided into blocks, and capable of being worked, i.e , thinned out, felled, and reproduced or replanted, in rotation, a block or pait of a block being taken in hand each year. In settling and carrying out such a system, important considerations and complications present themselves, such as the relation of the particular block, district, or division, to the whole forest system of the province ; the requirements of the people, not only as regards timber and firewood, but straw, litter, and leaves for manure, and pasturage; the geological and chemical formation and properties of the soil ; and the situation as regards the prevailing winds, on which the felling must always depend, in order to decrease the chances of damage FOREST EXTLOITATION. f 181 to a minimum ; measures for preeautions against fires, the ravages of tlestructive insects, trespass, damage, or theft by men and cattle. All these mast be taken into con- sideration and borne in mind at each successive stage. Nor must it be supposed that when once an indigenous forest has been mapped, valued, and working plans pre- pared, the necessity for attending to all such considerations is at an end. On the contrary, it is found necessary to have a revision of the working plan every ten oi* twenty years. It may be found advisable to change the crop as in agriculture, to convert a hard wood into a coniferous forest, or vice versa, to replace oak by beech, or to plant up {unter bau) the former with spruce or beech to cover the ground and keep down the growth of grass. All these and a hundred other details are constantly presenting them- selves for consideration and settlement, and the local forest officer should be ever on the alert to detect the necessity of any change and bring it to notice, and no less than the controlling branch should he be prepared to suggest what is best to be done, and be conversant with what has ])een done and with what results, under similar circumstances, in other districts and provinces.' In a paper read by him before the Otago Institute in Dunedin, New Zealand, on December 21, 1870, entitled iState Forestry: its Aim and Object, he says in regard to the way in which oi)erations are initiated in Germany and France : — ' When a forest is about to be taken in hand and worked systematically, a surveyor and valuator from the forest staff are despatched to the spot — the former working under the directions of the latter, who places himself in commu- nication with the local forest officer (if there be one), and the local officials and inhabitants interested, and obtains from them all the information in his power. The surveyor tiist surveys the whole district or tract, then the several blocks or subdivisions as pointed out by the valuator, who detines them according to the description and age of the timber 182 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. then standing, the situation, nature of soil, climate, and any other conditions affecting the rate of gi-owth and nature of the crops which it may be advisable to grow in future years. Whilst the surveyor is engaged in demar- cating and surveying these blocks, the valuator is employed in making valuations of the standing crop, calculatirg the annual rate of growth, inquiring into and forming a regis- ter of rights and servitudes with a view to their commu- tation, considering the best plan of working the forest for the future, the roads which it will be necessary to construct for the transport of timber — in fact, all the conditions of the forest which will enable him to prepare a detailed plan for future management, and the subordinate plans and instructions for a term of years, to be handed over to the executive officer as his " standing orders." A com- plete code of rules for the guidance of the valuators has been drawn up and printed, in which every possible con- tingency or difficulty is taken into consideration and provided for. Having completed their investigations on the spot, the valuator and surveyor return to head-quarters and proceed to prepare the working plans, maps, &c., from their notes and measurements. These arc submitted to the Board or Committee of controlling officers, who examine the plan or scheme in all its details, and if the calculations on which it is based be found accurate, and there are no valid objections on the part of communities or individuals, pass it, on which it is made out in triplicate, one copy being sent to the executive officer for his guidance, another retained by the controlling oificer of the division, and the original at the head-quarter office for reference. The executive officer has thus in his hands full instructions for the management of his range down to the minutest detail, a margin being of course allowed for his discretion, and accurate maps on a large scale showing each subdivision of the forest placed under his charge.' With regard to measures adopted to secure natural reproduction of exploited forests, he says : — FOREST EXPLOITATION. 183 'Natural reproduction is crto 'ted by a ujradual removal of the existing older stock, it a lorest track be suddenly cleared, there will ordinarily spring up a mass of coarse herbage and undergrowth, through whicli seedlings of the forest growth will rarely be able to struggle. In the case of mountain forests being suddenly laid low, we have also to fear not only the sudden appearance of an undergrowth prejudicial to tree reproduction, but the total loss of the soil from exposure to the full violence of the rain when it is no longer bound together by the tree roots. This soil is then washed away into the valleys below, leaving a bare or rocky hillside bearing nothing but the scantiest herbage. We must therefore note how Nature acts in the reproduction of forest trees, and follow in her footsteps. As Pope writes — First follow Nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which remains the same, Unerring Acting on this principle, foresters have arrived at a system- atic method of treatment, under which large tracts of forest in Germany and France are now managed. The forests of a division, working circle, or district, are divided according to the description of the timber and the prevail- ing age of the trees, and it is the aim of the forester gradually to equalise the annual yield, and ensure its per- manency. With this object, he divides the total number of years which are found necessary to enable a tree to reach maturity into a certain number of periods, and divides his forest into blocks corresponding with each period or state of growth. Thus, the beech having a rotation of 120 years, beech forests would be divided into six periods of 20 years each — that is to say, when the forest has been brought into proper order, there should be as nearly as possible equal areas under crop in each of the six periods, viz., from 1 year to 20, from 20 to 40, and so on. It is not necessary that the total extent in each period should be together, but it is advisable to group them as much as possible, and work each tract regularly 184 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY, in succession, having regard to the direction of the prevail- ing winds. When a block arrives in the last or oldest stage, felling is commenced by what is called a preparatory or seed clearing, which is very slight, and scarcely to bo distinguislied from the ordinary thinning carried on in the former periods. This is followed by a clearing for light in the first year after seed has fallen (the beech seeds only (ivery fourth or fifth year) with the objects of —1st, pre- paring the ground to receive the seed ; 2nd, allowing the seed to germinate as it falls ; 3rd, affording sufficient light to the young seedlings. The finest trees are, as a rule, left standing, with the two-fold object of depositing the seed and sheltering the young trees as they come up. If there hv a good seed year and sufficient rain, the ground should be thickly covered with seedlings within two or three years after the first clearing, Nature being assisted when necessary by hand sowing, transplanting from patches where the seedlings have come up very quickly, to the thinner spots, and other measures of forest craft. When the groimd is pretty well covered the old trees are felled and carefully removed, so as to do as little damage as possible to the new crop, and the block recommences life, so to speak, nothing further being done until the first thinning. The above is briefly the whole process of natural reproduction, which is the simplest and most economical of all systems, and especially applicable to forests of deciduous trees. The period between the first or preparatory clearing and the final clearing varies from ten to thirty year.s, the more gradual and protracted method being now most in favour, particularly in the Black Forest, where the old trees are removed so gradually that there can scarcely be said to be any clearing at all, the new crop being well advanced before the last of the parent trees is removed. This approximates to " felling by selec- tion," [Jardinage], which is the primitive system of working forests in all countries, under which, in its rude form, the forester proceeds without method, selecting such timber as suits him, irrespective of its relation^to the forest incre- FOEEST EXPLOITATION. 185 ment. Reduced to system, it has certain advaiitagea, especially in mountain forests, in which, if the steep slopes be laid bare area by area, avalanches, landslips, and disas- trous torrents miglit result, but the annual output under this system is never more than two-thirds of that obtained by the rotation system, and theie are other objections which it is unnecessary to detail in this paper, which have caused it to be riglitly condemned, and now-a-days only retained in the treatment of European forests under pecu- liar or special circumstances.' The application of this method of exploitation to artifi- cial plantations appears to be no less satisfactory than it has been to the exploitation of forests with a view to secure a sustained supply of produce. I am not in a posi- tion t) form an opinion of the extent to which it is appli- cable to British arboriculture, which has not for its sole object the production of wood, or of a sustained pecuniary return. Nor does it comport with my purpose to give here a full detail of all the various measures which are comprised within this method of exploitation. All thjtt 1 have proposed to myself to do is to supply an introduction to the study of this. It is not impossible, and not impro- bable, that the study of this may suggest many things which might be done with advantage without a formal adoption in its entirety of this method of culture and exploitation. What I do know is that it supplies a system of forest economvsuch as is much needed in the treatment of extensive forests in newly settled lands, or in the treat- ment of State forests which have been impoverished and are ready to perish in lands which have been long peopled by colonists from other places. The evil connected with the exploitation of such forests by Jardinage, the method generally and extensively adopted, is that this method of exploitation tends to extend and increase that impoverishment, and to destroy what yet remains of these. Exploitation according to La Method a tire et aire is not 186 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. in itself sufficient to prevent this disastrous consequence. But its development, La Methode des Compartimenta, with its capabilities of indefinite improvement without change of principle, seems to leave nothing more advanced to be at present desired. Furetage, in its most improved form, is applicable only to coppice. CHAPTER IV. S Y L V I C U L T U R E. In so fur as the modern scientific forest economy" of Continental Europe may arrest the continuous destruc- tion of forests, and secure tlieir conservation, to the full extent of that it has l)cen a hlessing to the world, and may he considered to have done wliat was required in the interests of the present and the future holders of tliis portion of the national possessions in the lan, Inspector of Forests, and Professor at the Forest School of J\'artcy, which has been translated from the French by Messrs Fernandez and Smythies, of the Indian Forest Service. But besides being carried on with a view k) maintain- ing and increasing the produce of existing forests, sylvi- cultural operations have also been carried on, and that upon an extensive scale, and with success, to counteract evils which have followed the destruction of forests. Sylviculture has been employed thus successfully to pre- vent desolations occasioned by torrents and inundations. Details are given in a volume which I have published entitled liclmsernent in France / or Recorih of the He-planf- ing of the Alps, the Cevenaes, and the Pyrenees, icith Trees, Jlerhage, and Bush, toith a view to arresting and preventing the destructive consequences of torrents. It has bficn employed to aircst. and utilise sand-drifts. Details of some undertakings with this view are given in sVlVicultouk isd ii vuliiuie I have published entitled Phie Plantations on the Sand Wastes of France. A similar enterprise has been carried out with success tn arrest drift-sands on the Ban- uat in Hungary ; and by similar means have been utilised extensive sand plains in Northern Germany, details of which have been given above [ante p. 120-131.] It has been used on the Karst, in Austria, to counteract aridity produced by the destruction of forests, and with a like view it has been extensively introduced into Algeria. On the steppes of Southern Russia it has been begun. And in Spain, along with extensive irrigation works, including canals, reservoirs, and artesian wells, there has been com- bined with the conservation of existinsj; forests the restora- tion of blank spaces within their limits, and the extension of forest areas by plantations beyond their boundaries. In Italy it has been introduced witii remarkable success to counteract deadly malaria; and in more places than 1 can name plantations have been created as a means of securing supplies of wood and timber. In the education, instruction, and training given to aspirants for employment in the State forests of diffcicnt countries, special attention is given to this subject. In the immediately preceding chapter some information [ante p. 120-131] is given in regard to the culture of the beech. Like information in regard to the culture of the Mari- time pine and Scotch fir is given in the volume entitled Fine Plantations in France (pp. 30-50, 143-157, 100-142.) It may be well to give an illustration of the instruction given in regard to tlie botanical characteristics, the natural history, and the appropriate culture of different kinds of trees, in accordance with tlie advanced forest economy of the the day. The following in regard to the black or Austrian pine has been compiled from different sections of the Cours elementaire de Culture des Bois cree a V Ecole Foreeatier de Nancy, The Austrian black pine, Le Pin Noir of France, the Pinus nigra of Linna)us, tlie I'inus Austriaca of Hoss, l90 ^lODKKN FOKESt ECONOMY. the Pinus Laricio A usfriaca of Endlecher, is, as is gener- ally held, and as is indicated by the last mentioned botanical designation, very nearly related, or, according to some botanists, is a permanent vaioty of the Corsican pine. In the Styrian Alps, in the mountains of Dalmatia and Croatia, as well as in a part of Hungary, and in the neighbourhood of Vienna, it forms considerable forests, sometimes alone, sometimes mixed with the oak, the ash, the Scotch fir, and the larch. During the last forty years this tree has been much cultivated in Germany, and more recently attention has been given to it in France. Its rapid growth, the good quality of its timber, and especially its hardy constitution, which permits it to thrive even in the most arid calcareous soil, justify the favour with which it regarded by sylviculturists. Climate, Situation, Exposure. — The mountains where this pine is indigenous range from about 800 to about 1000 metres in height. It is also found at greater altitudes, but with a visibly retarded growth. It also thrives on declivities and plateaux, and all exposures seem to agree with it. Soil. — As already mentioned the Pin Noir, or black pine prefers especially light, dry calcareous soil, however destitute it may be of humus. This quality makes it very suitable for the reboisement of bare rocks, provided that there be fissures into which the roots can insinuate them- selves. It will take root in earth which has fallen down, in a landslip, even when there is little depth, without seeming to suffer injury. Clay soils are not very suitable for it ; and damp soils are positively injurious to it. Flower and Fruit. — Both resemble those of the Corsican pine. Young Plants. — Are very robust from the first, and fear neither cold nor heat. Foliage. — The leaves are very close together, and they are of a dark green, and they remain on the tree for five or six years. The tree having numerous bushy branches, the shade is dense, and the soil is supplied with an abun- dance of detritus^ HVLVlCULTiJUii:. l9l ^^oots. — The roots are creeping and hardy, and extend a long way. There is almost no tap-root. Growth and Length of Life. — The black pine grows rapidly, and continues to do so until a very advanced age. When circumstances are favourable, it will live for two or three centuries, and attain a diameter of a metre or more at the foot, and thirty or thirty-three metres in height. Some authors have asserted that the trunk is rarely straight. Zoetli, who for a long time superintended some forests of Austrian pine, and has published on the subject, does not speak of this peculiarity ; and he considers the black pine supplies excellent building timber. Qualities and Uses. — As we have seen, the black pine is much esteemed in Austria for building purposes, and we are assured that its durability equals that of the larch. When under water, it is, so to speak, indestructible. It supplies good firewood, and the charcoal is as valuable as that of the birch. Writers agree in saying it ought to be cultivated in the same way as the Scotch fir. In the eighth edition of La Culture des Bois, by Cotta, there arc given the following directions : — In order that it may attain its full development of size and qualities the Austrian pine should be subjected to a revolution of from 120 to 150 years, according {is it occu- pies more or less elevated regions. In eu,rly youth it bears the shade of large trees a little better than does the Scotch Hr, but in middle age it will not thrive where planted closely together any more than will the latter, consequently the ground is often covered with shrubs and thorns. The coupes de regeneration should be executed in the same way as in forests of Scotch fir, — 60 or 80 reserved trees per hectare will be enough for the coupes d'enseinencement. Removing the thorns and ploughing the ground is very useful in assuring the success of self-sown seed. Les coupes d^ amelioration, of which nothing is said in the work quoted above, should be effected according to the rules which have been given for forests of Scotch fir. rj'2 xMODEKN FOllEST ECONOMY. Being very resinous, it is often (jemme. It is probable that the twisted form of the trunk may be the result of this practice rather than of a peculiar tendency in the tree. It is cultivated on the sand wastes of La Sologne, together with the Scotch fir and the Norway fir, after the soil has been previously prepared for this by the previous culture of the Maritime pine. Detailed information in regard to sylviculture in La Sologne are given in the volume entitled Pine Plantations on the Hand Wastes of France (pp. 69-80). This tree was introduced into Britain in 1835. It is propagated by seed, and grows on a sandy loam. But mention is made of it here solely to supply a specimen of the instruction given in regard to different kinds of trees in Schools of Forestry on the Continent of Europe. CHAPTER V. STUDY OF PATHOLOGY. While sylviculture is based upon a knowledge of the physology of arborescent vegetation, it is found to be necessary to the attainment of the best results, that the forester should have some knowledge of the diseases to which different forest trees are liable — the nature, the symptoms, and the causes of these ; and to the study of those great attention is given by the students of forest science. In the museum of the Prussian Forest Institute at Eberwalde, the impression produced upon the mind of the visitor is that there are there specimens representative of every disease to which trees are heir, specimens exhibi- ting the progress of the disease from the attack to the consummation ; and hard by, the bark, the wood, the insect, or the parasitic herb or fungus by which it has been induced : the insect and the fungus being exhibited under all the transformations through which they pass ; while specimens of the effects of lightning and other physical causes of the decay or destruction of trees are not alacking. And similar collections sufficient to afford facilities for the study of the diseases of trees, and of means of preventing or of remedying the evils done are to be found in many other similar institutions. In an introduction to the study of modern forest economy it is only an illustration which is called for, or can be given. In selecting one I confine myself to a notice of fungi infesting the Austrian or black pine, of the culture of which some account has just been given. O 194 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. Experimental stations have been established in connec- tion with many of the Schools of Forestry on the Continent. Amongst other subjects of investigation undertaken by that in connection with the School of Forestry established in the vicinity of Vienna, is the natural history of the Austrian or black pine, Pinus Austriaca, Hoess. And along with a monogjraph on this subject issued last year [1883] there appeared from the pen of Baron F. V. Thuemen the First Part of a Mycological Report, under the title Beitraege zicr Kentniss der auf der Schwarzfoehre Vorkommenden Pike; and a resume, by the author of that report, of the conclusions arrived at in regard to the fungi infesting this tree, appeared in the Centralbhit Fuev Das Gesammte Forswesen, of which the fol- lowing is a translation : — ' In the study of these fungi great difficulty was experienced from the lack of works supplying what might 1)0 considered preliminary information; in the whole range of literature at command there was found only one reference to the subject, and this not in a German work, but in one published in Denmark, where, within the last ten years, amongst many other foreign trees, the Pinu8 Austriaca has been experimentally planted on a con- siderable scale. In consequence of this the work had to be commenced ah initio. To this in part,' says the author, ' may be attributed the very small number of fungi described. But this is attributable in a higher degree to the limited number of the parasitic vegetables which infest this tree. It has but a small number of fungi to show compared with the nearly allied species, — Pinus sylvestHs^ P. laricioj P. Gorsicana, and, if people will, also P. maritima. It is especially deserving of notice that scarcely any of these fungi which have of late years been declared and acknowledged to be the cause of the appearance of the most injurious diseases, and which have proved everywhere so destructive to the common fir, have thus far, notwith- standing the most careful search, been found on the Austrian pine, Such are the Trameles piui, occasioning the STUDY OF PATHOLOGY. 195 ^o^A/rtw/e, or red-rot, of the fir; and the everywhere dreaded Trametes radiciperda^ attacking especially the roots, and proving in the highest degree injurious ; and the Armillaria mellea, the " Hallimash," with its rhizomorpha form. Should these parasites not appear, and especially if they do not come in great numbers to infest the black pine, then will this tree be saved from one of the most dangerous assail- ants of such trees ; and its value and importance will thus be greatly enhanced. * It may be also confidently affirmed that, so far as obser- vation and experience goes, the black pine harbours fewer parasites than do its nearest relatives ; and of nil known conifers it is the poorest in fungi, and consequently by far the most healthful. It would be too soon to pro- nounce a definite opinion in regard to the cause of this remarkable and satisfactory fact. Probably several things may co-operate simultaneously to produce this effect : there is in all parts of the tree an extraordinary abundance of resin ; there is a great deal of space between the trees in a forest of black pine; and there is a consequent exposure and desiccation of the soil, &c. The well-known student of fungi, Baron von Hohenbuehl-Heufler, in accordance with what has been said, says: — "A forest of black pines is for the mycologist a Lasciate ogni speranza vni t-Kentrate — Let all hope be left behind by him who enters here." ' Proceeding to the consideration of the different species on which observations have been made, it may be premised that the parasites as well as the saprophytes* were brousjht under consideration ; and this on the ground, on the one hand, that our knowledge of the black pine fungi must be brought fully up to the knowledge of the present day, and on the other hand, because the cases are increasing in numbers in which saprophytes, in the earlier stage of their * Parasitic fungi aro such as absorb their nutriment from living organisms, animal or vegetable; Saprophytes are those which find their nutriment in the remains of dead organisms, or from organic eompoumls pioihici'd by li\ iny orij^aiii^ms. — T. C. H. 196 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. development, do damage as parasites to the plants which supply to them a lodging place. ' The Peridetifnium pini^ Lev., or Kiefern-Uasenrost^ and the P> oblovgisporivm, Flick., or Kiefern-nadelrost introduce us to the kinds spoken of; both stand in the nearest relation- ship to one another, and are treated by many students as of the same species.' A discussion of their specific charac- ters would lead us too far at present; and the author considers it preferable to treat them in his work as dis- tinct species. ' The habitat of both is pretty well known to every forester ; everywhere are they of no rare appear- ance, both in forests of the white and of the black pine. Only is injury done, or can be done, by the Kiefer-hlasen' rost, when it comes upon the branches or trunks. It kills in young woods many young trees, and it produces rents in the trunks of old pines, when it finds a home either within or below the crown, producing the well-known appearance of the Krehses or Kifiizopscs. The CoIeospoHum senecionis^ Lev., found upon different species of Senecio^ it is generally admitted, is a peculiar propagator of both species of Peri- dermmm, and no further investi^fijation of the fact appears to be necessary here ; nor is it necessary to discuss fiu'ther the innumerable well considered measures for the preven- tion and destruction of this fungus which have been proposed. * Postia (Polyporus) destructor, Thuem, the Zerstoerende LoecJierschwamm, vegetates abundantly on wood work in dwelling-houses, damp cellars, stables, manufactories, old palings, and especially on wood which has been for a long time exposed to the influence of humidity. As it by no means rarely grows in shady forests on the bark of firs, pines, and black pines, and this not only Avhen they are felled or dead, the conclusion come to by some seems to be justified, that the infection takes place in the forest; and that when, at a later time, the wrought wood comes into an atmosphere heavily charged with moisture, with limited access to the open air, the mycelia to be found in the body of the wood produce a new fructification. The STUDY OF PATHOLOGY. ID? biological development of tins fungus also points to such a conclusion. The developed fungus is found on the bark of the tree ; through the bark it sends only single threads of mycelium, but these become developed into large skinuy piiperlike patches, measuring many centimetres ; and by means of this subcortical growth the connection between the bark and the tree becomes extensively per- forate 1 with holes ; through these the moisture gains access, and the bark soon crumbles off. Here the advice may be given, keep a watchful eye open for the first appearance of the postin in the forest, and remove as speedily as possible any trunks seized upon by it, and get these removed to a distance, and disposed of as firewood, guarding strictly against their being used as timber or for building purposes. *A very similar development in the wood is seen in the Merulius seppens, Fr., Der Kreichende Hohschw imm, the nearest relation of the dreaded Haussch-chwiLmm. Thus far positive observations are awanting, but in any circum- stances it would be well that the practical forester should keep a watchful eye upon this species. Analagous are the relations between the Stcreurn pmi, Fr., or Kiefern- hartschie'je, and the Geiiaivjiiun ferrajinosum, Fr., or Host- braiuien Leerschuessel — that is to say,. there is a possibility that eventually, in one of its development forms, it does damage to the plant on which it has found a lodgement. The investigations and experiments on this point have not yet been prosecuted so far as to warrant a decisive state- ment on the subject being given. *By far the most destructive of the fungi infesting the black pine is the Lophodermium puiastri, Ohev., the producer of the Schuetle. This species in its parasitic injurious form, growing on the living leaves of the tree, has not as yet been observed in the forests of black pine in Austria ; but it has bsen seen in Denmark, where, as has been intimated, this tree has been largely cultivated. But oa dead leaves there, as everywhere, the species is known and is common on all species of Pinus and of A'cett. But 1'98 MODEl'vK t'01lE8T ECOINOMY. tliou»^li thus far Austria has escaped a visitatiuii of this dreaded guest, it is felt that there is not the least reason to suspect that it will be so alway.s. 'According to the investigations of Rostrub, in Denmark (who for years, by commission from the Minister of Finance, has studied profoundly the diseases of forest trees in his fatherland), the course of the disease is more rapid, or more slow, according as the fungus infection makes itself seen only in spots on the leaves, or as it has found its way into the body of the tree. In the latter case the further development advances in one or other of two different ways — namely, first when the mycelium penetrates to the topmost shoots, after which the tree always immediately and completely dies ; or, second, wlien the mycelium finds its way only into one branch after another, mostly first into the youngest, the half-developed or altogether undeveloped leaves of which soon assume a brown colour, and within a short time the whole tree takes on a white colouring. The mycelium (with the presence of which in the body of the tree earlier investigators were not acquainted), is at first entirely colourless ; later, it becomes brownish. It penetrates first of all the outer and inner bark, but later it penetrates also the body of the tree, and spreads itself at last through the entire organism. After it has pressed its way into most of the leaves, it produces, often even in the year of its first appearance, what are known as Spermogouia^ or reproductive organs, which everywhere break forth over the surfaces of the, by this time, blanched leaves. So long as the Schuette-pilz only records its presence in the first-mentioned way, while it only conies upon single leaves, but does not seize upon the trunk and the branches of the tree, so long may the black pine still continue in the fresh spring to develope new leaves, and so for a longer time present the appear- ance of a healthy tree. But when, by and by, the disease gains the upper hand, and the mycelium once penetrates into the branches, so that from a distance one can see the state of the tree from the numerous brown coloured leaves, STtJDY OK PATHOLOGY. i{)0 . only a short time can intervene before the death of the tree. ' For a time, indeed, the still living tree, though greatly reduced in strength, may put forth some desperate endea- vours again to vegetate, during which it may bring forth some abnormal short dwarfed branches, "rowing: in what may be called a rosette-like form, which, it may easily be imagined, take on a quite original and strange appearance ; but. even in this case, though the death of the tree may be deferred for a sliort time, the lifetime of the tree is, and always remains, more or less limited. 'Of fungi doing but little injury, perhaps ultimately it may be found to be doing neither good nor harm to the trees affected by them, there are these — Phoma pinastri^ Lev., or f)er Kiefern-pustelscorf, P. en/threllum, Thuem., or Der [iothliche imstelscorf, and Leptostroma pinastri, Desm., or Der Kiefem-duennscheibUng / we consider that we may pass over these without further notice here. But a few words must be given in regard to another, the Cladonporium fumago, Lk., or Rnsdhau^ althougli it also does but little injury. By the Rmsthiu, as is generally known, is under- stood the appearance occasioned by numerous fungoid threads, which give to living plants, from trees and shrubs of every sort, down to the most minute herbs and grasses, and even to mosses, a look as if they were covered with soot. Many investigators consider the fungi in question as Saprophytes ; others, among whom we take a place, see in them parasites, as observation shows that the appear- ance of them is not necessarily preceded by that of honey- dew (which Fleischman holds to bo a regular precursor), but the Gladosporiam famago especially can vegetate with extraordinary luxuriance without honey-dew. One may therefore reasonably infer that the Busdhau fungus is a parasiiic organism, which, if it do possess no haustorium, still finds nourishment from the plant on which it has found a home ; and which may therefore assuredly be reckoned amongst the injurious species. It is especially the case 200 MODEliN FOPvEST ECONOMY. that the Rassthaii always womes upun the black pine with- out any preceding honey-dew, and in so far as it is con- cerned, it is a parasite and no saprophyte. The injury done by it, hosvever, is by no means great. One thing which therefore appears of importance is that, as up to this time no preventive or remedial measure has been devised for this often widespread epidemic producing fungus, at least none applicable to it in the open air, it must be left to jump abiut at its own sweet will, without man being able to interiere to prevent it. ' The most remarkable fungus infesting the black pine is one recently studied, and described in tlie reports on the Vienna forest, the Coniotheca Austrlaciun, Thuem., or the Austrian StauhhaufenpUz. Upon leaves still to a great extent green and healthy, but partially of a yellow hue, may be observed long patches, extending to the length of a centimetre, dirty brown in colour, with well defined edges, in the centre of which is found a correspondingly long, and proportionally deep, hollowed dark-coloured furrow. This furrow is for the most part filled with a dry resinous substance, on the surface of which grows a fungus mycelium, but neither on the bason nor sides of the furrow ure any traces of this to be seen. The resinous substance is, probably through the combined influence of the atmo- sphere and of the fungus, of a blackish colour ; and it exhibits growing spore-heaps on a poorly developed, creep- ing, brown mycelium. The constituent spores or cells vary in shape from a globular to a compressed elliptical form, and in position from solitary ones, to an agglomerated mass of numbers connected by short branching chains. This fungus, easily distinguishable from other species, was first discovered on sunny slopes not far from Liesing, in Lower Austria. There were liere only remains of a former forest, consisting only of a number of decaying black pine perches, of abjut the height of a mm, sending out from the ground shrub-like branches. The resinous furrows were found sometimes at the bases, sometimes at the points, 8i'l)l)V OV 1'ATJIOLOGV". i'Ol of the loaves ; but there was invariably only one on each leaf. When the leaves, or at least a great part of them, were yellow, then the brownish patches so apparent on the green leaves were no longer to be seen, but instead thereof the whole leaf had taken on a similar colour, from which it follows that the disease in question, in a longer or ishorter time, causes the whole lt3af to witlier and to die. The occasion of the appearance of tlie disease rests, in any case, on insufficient nourishment bringing about a dis- turbance in the vegetation, in which a rupture in the cuticle and the adjacent cell walls takes place. These latter are then also killed, and are absorbed in the exten- sion of the brownish patclies, and are intensely browned, while simultaneously with the rupture of the epidermis there occurs a great eti'asion of resin, which fills to the top the aforementioned furrows. But from this it follows that the origin of any disease appealing in connection with this fungus, does not lie in it, or in any other parasite, but must be considered a pathological incident. The Conio- tfiecuni must also be considered as only a pseudo-parasite, which does not induce any injurious change on the tree ; but which from the first settles down upon the resinous secretion from a wound, when any such has been produced by some foreign influence ; and which also, when it has taken possession of the whole surface of this, does not pass on to the portion of the leaf surrounding it, but satisfies itself exclusively with drawing its nutriment from the resin : never is iiny trace of mycelium to be found in the leaf. As, moreover, experiments in endeavours to infect leaves with it yield nothing but a negative result, we may with assurance advance the conclusion that whatever appearances to tl»e contrary may present themselves, Coniothecum Austriaca is not a fungus injurious to forests. ' We have, in this brief resume considered only the more injurious parasites, and this newly-discovered species Coniothecum Austriaca] all others being considered as iSap- rophijtesj up to the present time at least, we have passed '202 MOUErvN FOREST ECONOiMY. over. And tlius has been made apparent liow extremely limited is the number of species of fungi which are destruc- tive to the Austrian pine. Serious injury is done to it only by the Peridermiurn pini and the Lopkodermium pin- astri, in so far as we have seen ; injury of lesser magnitude and scarcely calling for consideration, is done by the Peridermium ohlongisporium and Leptostroma pinastri, and also in the long run by the Fhoma erythrellum and the Itussthau. With regard to some kinds, as for example, the Butpilsen, must the question in regard to injury being attributable to them be left undecided. Notwithstanding this, however, and considering that the most deadly malady of all, the sckutte, has not as yet shown itself on the black pine in Austria, at this time the expression is quite justi- fiable — the black pine is one of the healthiest of forest trees in the land, and the one least injured by parasitic fungi/ As has been stated in regard to the natural history and culture of the black pine, it may be stated here tbat this paper has been translated and inserted solely in illus- tration of how the pathology of trees is studied by foresters in connection with the advanced forest science of the day. PART III. -:o: — FOREST ADMINISTRATION. In all of the operations pertaining to forest conservation and economic exploitation, to sylviculture and reboisement, to which reference has been made in preceding chapters of this volume, there may be traced a desire to secure for the present and for succeeding generations the full benefit of the usufruct without detriment to the inheritance, the use of the forests without abuse or waste — literally, a tire et aire, — to obtain from the forests, and use the full quantity of their produce by growth within any specified period, a day, a decade, or a century, but to leave the capital undimin- ished. And the principle involved in the action taken in the exploitation of the forest produce may be said to be : — Ascertain what the produce by growth is ; use it all, but nothing more ; make available all the information which professional students of the matter have amassed ; if others than they must have the administration of what is State property, let the State administrators have the information, counsel, and aid of such at command ; let nothing be done at haphazard : and put a stop to all malversations and all thieving ; let all depasturing in the forests of flocks and herds which might do damage to the trees, either young or old, be stopped ; and let all chance of fire be met with precautionary preventive measures ; let all rights of usage and servitudes be respected, but so far as possible let them, by equitable arrangements, be extinguished; and let all State forests be treated as a trust estate, honourably managed, and made to yield to the generation in posses- 204 Modern fojiest economy. aiou all the beiietit possible, without detriment to those who are to follow. Such I understand to be the principles of modern scien- tific forest economy followed on the Continent of Europe. But this improved system of forest management cannot be carried out without the assistance of men who are, by education, instruction, and training, able to take into view the whole case, with all its circumstances and all its con- ditions. In France, the wasteful destruction of forests which gave occasion for the preparation and promulgation of the famous Fore- 1,100), and the receipts, .")7,32,200 rupees (£573,220), showing a surplus of revenue over expenditure of 12 21,200 rupees 224 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. (£122,120.) I learn that in the year 1873-74 the forest revenue was ^£700,000, and the expenditure £414,000 odds, leaving a surplus of £285,000, both revenue and expenditure being about double what they were in 1874-6."), ten years previously. All which had been accomplished not by an impoverishing of the forests, but by a pro- gressive amelioration of these, and an increase of their pecuniary value in something like a corresponding ratio. In illustration of this latter allegation, I cite the following statement, mcde by Captain Campbell Walker, in the paper On State Forestry: its Aim and Object^ read before the Otago Institute, Dunedin, 2lst December, 1876:-- * The Chunga Munga plantation, in the Punjab, has an area of 7,000 acres, commenced in 1865, contains chiefly Indian blackwood (Dalhergia sissoo.) The expenditure up to end of 1873 had been £26,000^ including £5000 spent during the first five years in unsuccessful experiments; £5000 had been received from petty thinnings (firewood and minor produce, grazing dues, &c.) From a careful valuation, and calculations made in 1873, it is estimated that the expenditure Up to 1881, when the capital account closes, will be £97,000, and the value of the plantation be then £170,000. In consideiing the above results, it must be borne in mind that the rainfall in the district is under 15 inches, with great heat in the summer, and sharp frosts in winter. The whole plantation has to be irrigated from a neighbouring canal, being debited with a charge of 4s per acre per annum for the use of the water alone. Another important fact must be mentioned, viz., that, whereas the land on which the plantation stands was formerly almost valueless, and would not fetch an annual rental of 2s per acre ; 12s, or even 20s per acre is now readily obtainable, and the former has been offered for the whole or any portion when cleared. The rents mentioned, of course, include the water-rate of 4s per acre per annum. This plantation is inten:led eventually to cover 30,000 acres, and will undoubtedly prove a great success, both as POKEST ADMINISTRATION. i255 regards direct financial profit, a supply of timber or fire- wood, which is much recpiircd, improving the soil, and renderinfr it fit for cultivation Avitli cereals, and ameliora- ting the climate. The Nelamber tea plantations, in Madras Presidency, cover 300() acres, the oldest portion having, been planted thirty years ago. The total expendi- ture, including purchase and lease of some 19,000 acres of land from a native raja, has been £30,000, and the receipts from thinnings &c., £10,000. These plantations were valued last year at mininuim rates at £150,000, and Col. Pearson, lately officiating as Inspector-General of Forests in India, estimated their value, when mature, at no less than two millions sterling.' Conclusion. It may be that some of my readers, and others who have not read, but only glanced at the preceding pages, may be ready to say, — This is not the kind of Introduc- tion to the Study of Mo'dern Forest Economy which we expected; and it may be so. Disappointment may be expressed and felt that little or notliing has been said about sowing, and transplanting, and pruning, and thin- ning, and felling, and cutting up, and transplanting, and selling, and the economic applications which are made of forest products. Such is the case ; and one very simple reason for this may suggest itself: These operations, though carefully studied and treated of in the Modern Forest Science upon which Modern Forest Economy is based, are by no means peculiar to this ; they pertain to Arboriculture as well as to Sylviculture ; there is no lack of information in regard to all of them in volumes appro- priated to the special discussion of them, and it is not an exclusively Arboricultural Exhibition to which those for whom this volume has been prepared have been invited ; but an International Forestry Exhibition, and in view of this it has l)een prepared. Therefore have the subjects treated of been brought under consideration, and not those others 226 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. to which allusion has been made, the importance of which ia fully realised. The Exhibition having been designed by its promoters as a means of * promoting a movement for the establish- ment of a National School of Forestry in Scotland,' this has not been lost sight of in the compilation of the information embodied in the volume. And it is hoped that, while the possession of this information may enable readers of these pages to look more intelligently upon many of the objects which may be exliibited, it may prompt them to aid in the accomplishment of the ulterior object of the promoters of the Exhibition. At a meeting of the Society of Arts, held on the 1st March 1882, a paper On the Teaching of Forestry was read by Colonel G. F. Pearson, resident at Nancy to superintend the education there of candidates for employ- ment in the Forest Service of India ; in the conclusion of which paper, after having described some of the Crown forests and private woods of Britain, he said : — *It is impossible to speak too highly of the admirable work done by the able men who have created these forests at Scone, Blair Athole, Dunkeld, in Strathspey, on the Find- horn, and at Beauly, in Scotland, as well as in some of the English Crown forests. In our Colonies, including India, there are millions and millions of acres of forest land, some of which is of the greatest value, so that Great Britain is perhaps the country most richly endowed in forest wealth, of all the countries of the earth. Every one, not only in our own country, but elsewhere, is interested that all this great forest wealth should not be wasted or frittered away by a single generation of men. But, nevertheless, what is the future of all the forests? J have visited many of them, and scarcely anywhere did I see any of that young growth which are the links uniting the forest now on the ground with that of the future. Can any one say, then, that the future of these forests is assured ? As at present tliey exist, one of two conditions must befall tliem. Either they will be cut down and the CONCLUSION. 227 timber sold, or they will in due course perish naturally, and disappear of themselves. In either case the result is deeply to be deplored, for when once a forest disappears, it can only be replaced at a great expense of time and money. 'It is for this reason that I am here to advocate the establishment — be it on the smallest scale even, to com- mence with — of some system of national instruction in scientific forestry. Hitherto, we have been entirely depen- dent on Continental schools for this training, and at the present moment we have officers of the French forest service, who have been lent to the British Government, at the head of the forest administrations both at the Capo of Good Hope and at Cyprus. It seems, then, time that some stir should be made to help ourselves in this matter. It would, perhaps, suffice at first to establish a course of lectures on forestry at one of our public educational estab- lishments, at which young men desirous of following a forest career might attend ; provision being made for their instruction in practical work, if possible, in our own Crown forests, but otherwise, in some of the State forests on the Continent. It might be hoped that the Indian and Colonial Governments would, as an encouragement, place some appointments in their forest services at the disposal of young men so educated. * As a proof of what has been already effected in India by the forest officers educated in the Continental schools, I may mention that in that country there are at the present date 9,820,000 acres of reserved forests, the whole of which are managed generally on the principles above detailed, and 2,493,000 of which are protected from fire, as well as cattle and sheep grazing, and, conse(\uently, are now in a condition to reproduce themselves under the natural system ; and as, perhaps, the most convincing proof, from a practical point of view, of the value of the system, I may aid, that the forest revenue of India, which in 1870 was only £357,000, with a net revenue of £52,000, in 1880 reached £545,000, with a net revenue of £215,000. 228 MODERN FOREST ECONOMV. That is to say, the revenue had increased 5G per cent., while the charges had only increased 8 per cent. * In South Australia a serious commencement has been made in the right direction also. By an Act passed in 1873, the sum of £2 per acre is paid to land owners, in certain districts of the colony, to form plantations of trees. In 1875, a Forest Board was constituted, as certain districts of the colony were formally defined as forest reserves. In 1878 a Forest Act was passed, and a conservator of forests (Mr Brown) was appointed. Last year about a ([uarter of a million trees were planted out, and the forest revenue amounted to £6,517 — of which £1,380 was for timber sold — against an expenditure of £G,200. ' If, then, so much has been done by the Indian and Colonial Governments to secure the future of their forests, can nothing be accomplished at the headquarters of the Empire ? This is the question now before us, and I trust that it may be answered by instituting a course of instruc- tion which may eventually develope into a forest school for Great Britain.'' THE END. Lately Published, Price 4s, FREiNCH FOREST ORDINANCE OF 16 6 9; WITH HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PREVIOUS TREATMENT OF FORESTS IN FRANCE. COMPILED AND TRANSLATED BY JOHN CROUMBIE BROWN, LL.D., Formerly Lecturer on Botany in University and Kimfs College, Aberdeen ; subsequently Colonial Botanist at Cape of Good Hope, and Professor of Botany in the South African College, Capetoxcn ; Fellorv of the Linnean Society ; Felloio of the Royal Geographical Society ; and Honorary Vice-President of the African Imtitnte of Paris. EDINBURGHt OLIVER AND BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. 188 3. ADVERTISEMENT. "The Celebrated Forest OrdiNxVnce of 16G9:'* Such is the character and designation generally given at the present day to the Ordinance in question. It is known, by reputation at least, in every country on the Continent of Europe ; but, so far as is known to me, it has never before been published in English dress. It may possibly be considered antiquated ; but, on its first promulgation, it was welcomed, far beyond the bounds of France, as bring- ing life to the dead ; and I k>iow of no modern system of Forest Exploitation, based on modern Forest {:>cience, in which I cannot trace its influence. In the most advanced of these — that for which we are indebted to Hartig and Cotta of Saxony — I see a development of it like to the development of the butterfly from what may be seen in the structure of the chrysalis ; and thus am I encouraged to hope that it may prove suggestive of benificial arrange- ments, even where it does not detail what may bo deemed desirable to adopt. In my translation I have followed an edition issued with Royal approval in 1753, with one verbal alteration to bring it into accordance with certain older approved editions, and with another verbal alteration to bring it into accordance with editions issued in 1099, 1723, 1734, and 1747. A similar volume on the Modern Forest Economy of France is being prepared for the press. Information in regard to the culture of woods in France, in accordance with advanced science, is supplied in a volume lately published—" Elements of Sylviculture : a W ADVERTISEMENT. Short Treatise on the Scientific Cultivation of the Oak, and other Hardwood Trees," by the late M. G. Bagneris, Inspec- tor of Forests, and Professor in the Forest School of Nancy ; and translated from the French by Messrs E. E. Fernandez and A. Smyth ies, B.A., Indian Forest Service. Details of the application of that science to the cultivation of Coni- fer£B maybe found in a volume I have published, entitled : P/Hp Plnntaf!o7it on Sand- IVofifi-'s in France. — In which are detailed the appearances presented by the Landes of the Gironde before and after culture, and by the Landes of La Sologne ; the legislation and literature of France in regard to the planting of the Landes with trees ; the character- istics of the sand-wastes; the natural history, culture, and exploitation of the Maritine Pine and of the Scotch Fir ; and the diseases and injurious influences to which the Maritine Pine is subject. — Edinburgh : Oliver «& Boyd. London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1S7S. Details of the application of that science made in the rehoisemenf of Mountains, may l)e found in another volume which I have published : — R4houement in France ; or. Records of the Re-2>lanlhifi of the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pi/renees loith Trees, HcrbiKje, and Bush, xoifh a rietv to arrestintj and frccentinn the dentrnctire consequences oj torrents. — In which are given, a rrsumd of tSurell's study of Alpine torrents, and of the literature of p'rance relative to Alpine torrents, and remedial measures which liave been pro{)osed for adoption to prevent the disas- trous consequences following trom them, — translations of documents and enactments, showing what legislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of France in connection with Rehoisement as a remedial application against destructive torrents,— and details in regard to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the work. London : C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1879. And an illustration of the change for the better whicli has been introduced into the Forest Management of France, is supplied by a pamphlet entitled: — "Glances at Forestry in France in ISGO and 1880 :" a reprint of ))apers by me, which appeared in tlie " Journal of Forestry and Estates Management." JOHN C. BROWN. Haddington, 10th April, JSS3. CONTENTS. PAGE PART I. — Treatment of Forests in France Previous to THE Issue of the Forest Ordinance of 1669, Chap. I. — Early History of Forests, Forest Treatment, and Forest Legislation in France, ... ... 1 Narrative by M. Cezanne of state of the Forests previous to the Norman invasion (p. 1) ; account by Dr Broch of the .Settlement of the Normans in France (p. 3) ; treatment of the Forests by the Normans (p. 8) ; Forest Ordinances of the 13th, 14th, and 16th Centuries (p. 11). Chap. II. — Forest Administration in France in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century, ... ... 13 Translation of a Manuscript Report, preserved in La Bihlio- tMque National, by Charles Colbert de Cressy, on the Forests in the Province of Tours (p. l.'i) ; showing reck- less malversations which had occurred under the Forest- Masters of Tours (p. 14); of Amboiso (p .14); Loches (p. la); Montrichard (p. 10); and Chinon (p. 1(5); and the culpability of men hiah in rank and office (p. 19). Trans- lation of an account by M. Joubaiu, Inspector of Forests, of Proceedings by the Government, which followed(p.21). Chap. III. — Method of F'orost Expl(»itation in France followed till tiie Middle of tlie Seventeenth Cen- tury, and known as Jardinafp' or Fnretage, ... 35 Account of the method of FiXploitation, and explanation of the name (p. 35) ; devastating ellects of it on Forests (p. 36). Chap. IV. — Method of Forest Exploitation in France enjoined in the Middle of the Seventeenth Cen- tury, and known as La Methode m ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• xv/x Europe was formerly covered with Forests (p. 101) ; Man in his Migrations has found many Lands a Wilderness, and has left them a Desert (p. 102) ; but the Destruc- tion of Forests may not be an unmixed evil (p. 107) ; and the practice is alleged to be beneficial in its Clima- tic EflFects in Finland (p. 112). Chapter V. — Development of Modern Forest Economy in Finland^ ... ... ... ... ... 116 Compatability of Strict Economy with apparent Waste (p. 116) ; Imperial Instructions and Regulations relative to Management of Forests issued in 1848 (p. 118) ; Com- mission appointed in 1856 to enquire into everything pertaining to the Forests and the Management of them (p. 119) ; Successive Reports made by the Commis- sioners (p. 121). Chapter VI. — Forest Administration, ... ... 129 General arrangements for the Administration of Crown Forests (p. 129). Section A. — Forest Protection and Exploitation, ... 130 Functions of Forest Wardens (p. 130) ; Instructions issued 13th May, 1859 (p. 132) ; Records preserved in each Forest District (p. 133) ; Work prescribed in the several months of the year (p. 135) ; Forms of Official Docu- ments (p. 137) ; Forest Areas and Produce (p. 139). Section B. — Forest Conservation and Amelioratio7i, ... 142 Data required (p. 142); Data collected by Dr Blomqvist (p. 143). Chapter VII. — School of Forestry, 147 Establishment of School of Forestry at Evois in 1859 (p. 147) ; Imperial Decree relative to Re-organisation of the School in 1874 (p. 148) ; Rules laid down relative to the action and management of the School (p. 150) ; to the Teachers (p. 151) ; the Pupils (p. 153) ; Instruc- tion (p. 155) ; Discipline (p. 159) ; Buildings, &c. (p. 160) ; Pecuniary Matters (p. 161) ; Additional Informa- tion (p. 163) ; Visit to the School by Dr Hough of the American Forest Administration (p. 168). Chapter VIII. — Forests and Forest Trees, 175 Extent of Forests in Finland (p. 175). CONTENTS. * Section A. — Conifers^ ... 176 Notices of Pimis sylvcatria (p. 176), of Abies excelsior (p. 178), of Larix sibirica (p. 179), of Larix Enropaea (p. 180), of Juniperua communis (p. 180), of Taxus baccata (p. 180). Section B, — Broad-Leaved Trees, ... ... ... 180 Report by Dr Ignatius (p. 180) ; Report by Dr Blomqvist of Betula verrucosa, B. gltUiiiosa, B. alba, and B, nana (p. 182); Alnus incana, A. glutinosa (p. 183); Populvs tremula (p. 183) ; Salix, various (p. 184) ; Quercus (p. 185), and others (p. 186). Section C. — Forests, ... ... ... ... ... 188 Notice of these by Dr Blomqvist (p. 188). Chapter IX. — Disposal of Forest Products, ... ... 190 Section A. — Timber Exports, ... 190 Saw-Mills (p. 190); Exports of Cut Wood, 1864, 1865, 1870, 1872—1876 (p. 191); Exports of Timber and Firewood, 1864—1870 (p. 192) ; Exports of Forest Pro- ducts, 1S74, 1875, 1876 (p. 193) j Increase of Exports (p. 193). Section B. — Shipbuilding, ... ... ... ... 194 Finnish Shipping (p. 194) ; Prescribed Dimensions of Ship Timber (p. 196) ; Shipbuilding; (p. 197). Section C. — House Building and Carpentry, ... 198 Prescribed Dimensions of Building Timber and Wood (p. 199) ; Carpentry Works (p. 200) ; Coachbuilding (p. 201); Railways (p. 201). Section D. — Industries in which Wood is made use of, 201 Manufacture of Matches (p. 201) ; Tanning (p. 202) ; Wood Paper Pulp (p. 202) ; Tar (p. 204). Section E. — Fuel, 205 Firewood consumed in Manufactories, and in Domestic Economy (p. 205). Section F.— Summary, 206 Delivery of Forest Products (p. 206) ; Consumption in dif- ferent Districts (p. 208) ; Proportion of Forest Lands to others (p. 208). d CONTENDS. Chapter X. — Projected Legislation in Forestry, ... 209 Remarks on Report of Commissioners in 1883 (p. 209) ; in relation to Destruction of Forests (p. 210) ; in regard to a New Forest Law relative to Crown Forests (p. 212) ; Communal Forests (p. 213) ; Private Forests (p. 214) ; Svedjande and Forest Fires (p. 217) ; Penalties (p. 220.) Chapter XI. — Literature of Forestry, 222 Works W Swedish (p. 222) ; Works in Finnish (p. 226) ; Chiefs of Administration (p. 226.) PART III. — Physical Geography. Chapter I. — Contour of the Country, ... ... ... 228 Hydrographic Character (p. 228) ; Upheaval of the Country (p. 229) ; Illustrations of like Phenomena elsewhere (p. 232 ) ; Resulting Contour (p. 236.) Chapter II. — Geology, ... ... ... ... ... 241 Section A. — Geological Formation, ... ... ... 241 Notices by Dr Ignatius (p. 242) ; by Dr Helms (p. 242.) Section B. — Glacial Action, 244 Statement by Dr Ignatius (p. 244) ; Striae (p. 245) ; Extent of Glacier (p. 246) ; Formation of Lake Beds by Flux of Glaciers (p. 247), and of Successions of Lakes (p. 249) ; Deposit of Moraines (p. 252) ; Torrential Action at Falls of Niagara (p. 253) ; Account by M. Costa de Bastelica of deposit of Stones by Flowing Water (p, 257), and of Stones projected by Arrested Currents (p. 258) ; Force of Constant Currents (p. 259) ; and of D6bacles (p. 263) ; Indications of Glacial Action aflfected by Oceanic Currents (p. 265.) Chapter III. — Flora, 269 Section A. — Indigenous Plants, 269 Section B. — Exotic Trees and Shrubs, 275 Chapter IV. — Fauna, ... 279 Section A. — Indigenous and Domestic Animals, ... 279 Section B. — Game and Game Laws, ... 283 Chapter V. — Climattf 286 WORKS ON FORESTRY, By the Rev. J. C BROWN, LL.D. I. —Hydrology of South Africa; or Details of the former Hydrographic Condition of the Cape of Good Hope, and of Causes . of its present Aridity, with Suggestions of appropriate Remedies for this Aridity. Price 10s. In this the desiccation of South Africa, from pre-Adamic times to the present day, is traced by indications supplied by geological formations, by the physical geography or the general contour of the country, and by arborescent productions in the interior, with results confirmatory of the opinion that the appropriate remedies are irrigation, arboriculture, and an improved forest economy ; or the erection of dams to prevent the escape of a portion of the rainfall to the sea — the abandonment or restric- tion of the burning of the herbage and bush in connection with pastoral and agricultural operations — the conservation and extension of existing forests— and the adoption of measures similar to the rdhoisement and gazonneme.nt carried out in France, with a view to prevent the formation of torrents, and the destruction of property occasioned by them. II.— Water Supply of South Africa, and Facilities for the Storage of it. Price 18s 6d. In this Volume are detailed meteorological observations on the humi- dity of the air and the rainfall, on clouds, and winds, and thunder- storms ; sources from which is derived the supply of moisture which is at present available for agricultural operations in the Colony of the Capo of Good Hope and regions beyond, embracing the atmosphere, the rain- fall, rivers, fountains, subterranean streams and reservoi r^:, and the sea; and the supply of water and facilities for the storage of it in each of the divisions of the colony — in Basutoland, in the Orange it v ji Free State, in Griqualand West, in the Transvaal Territory, in Zu'' and, at Natal, and in the Transkei Territory. ] II.— Forests and Moisture ; or Effects of Forests on Humidity of Climate. Price JOs. In this are given details of phenomena of vegetation on which the meteorological effects of forests affecting the humidity of climate depend — of the effects of forests on the humidity of the atmosphere, on the humidity of the ground, on marshes, on the moisture of a wide expanse of country, on the local rainfall, and on rivers — and of the correspond- ence between the distribution of the rainfall and of forests — the measure of correspondence between the distribution of the rainfall and that of forests — the distribution oi the rainfall dependent on geographical posi- tion, determined by the contour of a country — the distribution of forests affected by the distribution of the rainfall — and the local effects of forests on the distribution of the rainfall within the forest district. IV.— The Forests of England ; and the Management of them in Byegone Times. Price 6s. Ancient forests, chases, parks, warrens, and woods are described ; details are given of destructive treatment to which they have been sub- jected, and of legislation and literature relating to them previous to the present century. LIST OF WORKS ON FORESTRY, v.— The Schools of Forestry in Europe: A Plea for the Creation of a School of Forestry in Edinburgh. Price 2s. VI.— French Forest Ordinance of 1669 ; with Historical Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France. Price 4s. The early history of Forests in France is given, with details of devas- tations of these going on in the first half of the seventeenth century ; with a translation of the Ordinance of 1669, which is the basis of modern forest economy ; and notices of forest exploitation in Jardinage, in La Methods d Tire et Aire, and in La Methode des Gompartiments. VII. — Reboisement in France ; or, Records of the Eeplanting of the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, with Trees, Herb- age, and Bush, with a view to arresting and preventing the de- structive consequences of torrents. Price 12s. In this are given a resume of Surrel's study of Alpine torrents, and of the literature of France relative to Alpine torrents, and remedial mea- sures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disastrous consequences following from them — translations of documents and enact- ments, showing what legislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of France in connection with rdboifiement as a remedial application against destructive torrents — and details in regard to the past, iirescut, and prospective aspects of the work. VIII.— Pine Plantations on Sand Wastes in France. Price 78. In this are detailed the appearance presented by the Landes of the Gironde before and after culture, and the Landes of La Sologne ; the legislation and literature of France in regard to the planting of the Landes with trees ; the characteristics of the sand wastes ; the natural history, culture, and exploitation of the Maritime Pine and of the Scots Fir ; and the diseases and injurious influences to which the Maritime Pine is subject. IX.— Forests and Forestry of Finland. Embodying a dis- cussion of the advantages and disadvantages of Svedjande, the Sartage of France, and the Aoomarcc of India. Price 6s 6d. Which will be followed by a Companion Volume, now in thepreas^ X.— Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia. Embody- ing details of the exploitation of Forests by Jardinage, and its effects. Copies of any of these Works will be sent Post-paid to any address within the Postal Union on receipt by Dr John C. Brown, Haddington, ef a Post-Oflice Order for the Price. Edinburgh : OLIVER AND BOYD. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., and W. RIDER & SON. Montreal : DAWSON BROTHERS.