J. Cleve

“ The mountain-torrent is not an ordinary brook, but is a stream with characters of its own and peculiar ways. Originating in a narrow basin, the bed of which is very steep, it is subject to sudden variations; often wholly dry, it becomes a flood after a storm, and overcomes all the obstacles that oppose its course. ”

“ Immense benefits have accrued to the lands situated in the lower valleys near the discharging basins of the streams. Not only are the inhabitants delivered from the expense of keeping up costly and precarious dikes; their property, also, being no longer in danger of being suddenly buried under a flood of gravel, has acquired a fixed value. They are able to till their land hopefully, and with the assurance that they will enjoy the crop. ”

“ The first question that is presented in dealing with a hill that has been cut up with ravines is to determine the perimeter of the lands to be restored. The area should not be limited to the banks of the torrent and its branches, for these banks, being continually undermined and always changing, would continue, by giving way, to enlarge the basin if they were not themselves fixed by vegetation. ”

“ The torrents of the second class have formed themselves beds in the loose soil, are continually washing away the bases of their banks, provoking slides, carrying with them solid matters derived from the degradation of the hills, and discharging them in the lower valleys and covering the fields with a thick mud. The bed of the torrent is washed out more and more, and the banks increase at the same time ”

“ While the Alps present features which have no counterpart in the settled regions in the United States, the problems which had to be solved in reclothing the lower parts of the mountains with wood and staying the processes of devastation involve principles which may be applied as well in our own hilly and mountainous districts.—Editor. ”

“ The real replanting of the woods is done after the ground has become settled and the torrent has been subdued. Nurseries of young trees suitable for the purpose are previously established near the locality of the works, which are drawn upon as the plants are needed. The species vary according to the nature of the situation and the soil. ”

“ While the author had in view only the restoration of the French Alps, his conclusions are applicable, although in different degrees, to all mountainous countries; but the phenomena which he considers are manifested with the most intensity in the Alps, and the renewal of the woods there is imposed as a real measure of public policy.
In respect to vegetation, nature has divided the Alpestrian mountains into three zones: creating on the summits, around the rocks and glaciers, pasture-lands on the middle slopes, forests ”

“ Unfortunately, this natural division has been too often disturbed; the inhabitants, leaving the valleys, have established themselves in the higher regions, have cut down the forests around their houses, and devoted to cultivation lands which, disintegrated by the plow, are incessantly cut up into ravines by every rain; or the zone of pasture-lands has encroached on that of the forests, and has been increased by the daily devastations of the shepherds. Extending its borders every year lower down the mountain, it has finished by taking possession of the slopes and despoiling them of their wood. ”

“ Use has also been made of several species of shrubs and bushes, which with their branching roots are wonderfully fitted to fix the earth, and by reason of their rapid growth quickly furnish a shade to the bare surface. ”

“ In 1862 the Minister will remark a continuous and progressive reduction in the number of hectares devoted to agriculture; each year will aggravate the evil, and in a half-century France will count more ruins and one department less." The departments of the Upper and Lower Alps actually lost thirty thousand inhabitants, or one ninth of their population, between 1851 and 1876. ”