Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/82

72 preventing the ravages of torrents. He kept dinning it into their ears that, since excessive and unscientific clearings, and unregulated pasturage of the cleared spaces afterward, were the causes of the torrents, so the remedy must be to clothe the steeper zones below the pastures with trees or bushes, and to exclude sheep and goats from the pastures above until they were again covered with a stable turf.

He was not, indeed, the first to protest against the destruction of the woods, and to insist upon their restoration. The famous inventor, engineer, and artist, Bernard Palissy (born about 1509), had discovered the influence of forests upon springs, and raised an unheeded cry to warn men against the calamities which lack of fuel and timber would occasion. The chief nobles, and especially the ecclesiastics, were clearing at a great rate and taking no thought of those who would come after them. In the time of Henry IV and Louis XIV a sharp check was given to the plundering of the crown forests by these ecclesiastics and court favorites. In 1669, three years after the famous announcement of Louis XIV that he had been long enough in leading-strings, and that he proposed from that time to be master of himself and of France, the great ordinance was passed upon which most of the subsequent forest legislation of Europe has been based. Under it, in connection with the crown forests, the science of arboriculture was studied, and a thoroughly organized corps of officials trained.

Before we come to Surell, a passing mention should be made of Fabre and Dugied. Fabre published in 1797 his "Essai sur la Théorie des Torrents et des Rivières," which may be called a prophetic work. It outlines quite distinctly the main principles which were followed in the works of restoration under the reboisement law of 1860. He said sheep and goats must be kept away from young trees, and that no clearing should be permitted except in horizontal strips not more than thirty feet in width where the acclivity of a slope is more than one foot in three, and these strips may be made wider according as the slopes are less steep. No clearings without authorization of competent officials, and on plans made by them. Where there was little earth left, he recommended gazonnement and buissement.

Dugied, who had been a prefect in the Lower Alps, published a project for reforesting the Basses-Alpes. He said that more than half that department was dry and unproductive soil, and that torrents caused by cutting and grubbing woodland brought débris and added to the barren areas. For remedies he recommended: 1. Enforcement of the old law of 1667, which imposed a fine of three thousand francs for grubbing steep land; land already grubbed to be turned into