_Bolletino ufficiale per l’amminstrazione forestale Italiana._
_Direzione generale dell’ Agricoltora: Relazione interno all’
amministrazione dei boschi domaniali inalienabili._
Various essays by Prof. VITTORIO PERONA of Vallambrosa in German
magazines; notably in _Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung_, 1882,
1888.
_Archeologia forestale. Dell’ antica storia e giurisprudenza
forestale in Italia._ A. DI BERENGER. 1859.
MAFFEI, _Revista forestale_.
_Italy._ By Prof. W. DEEKE. 1904.
_Il rimboschimento dello Appennino meridionale_, by LUIGI SAVASTANO,
1893. An exceedingly well written popular treatise on silviculture,
which gives also briefly insight into forest conditions and forest
practices.
_I boschia e la nostra politica Italiana_, by BERTAGNOLLI, 1889.
_Italia moderna._ 1904, article by LUNADONI.
The efforts to secure improvement in the treatment of forest resources
have been more active and strenuous in Italy than in Greece. They were
induced especially by the urgent need of protecting watersheds, the
rivers throughout Italy having been turned into torrents by
deforestation. But, owing to the weakness of the government and to
poverty, the actual execution of the very good laws has lagged behind.
Indeed, while ample legislation has been enacted, the people,
overburdened with debt, and needing the small income that can be derived
from pasturing or renting the pasture in the woods, make it difficult to
carry on any reform, and the enforcement of the laws has again and again
led to serious trouble. “Forestry is a sore point in the national
economy of Italy, as it involves sacrifice of money and time.” Italy,
therefore, is still in the transition period from forestal rapine to
forest culture.
Densely populated (33 million on 110,600 square miles), with fully
one-fifth of its area unproductive, or at least unused, and one-quarter
of this almost or quite beyond redemption, no country offers better
opportunities for studying the evil effects of deforestation on soil and
waterflow. As a result of the combination of geology (slates and
limestones), topography (steep slopes), climate, and forest devastation
or destruction, mainly by pasturage of goats (two million), the Italian
rivers are invariably flooded in March and mostly dry in summer; the
melting of the snow coinciding with the heavy spring rains turns them
into raging torrents (_fiumare_), silting over the fertile lands in the
valleys and occasional landslides in the mountain country, where
extensive tracts are nearly bare of vegetation. Especially the rivers
around Bologna, which in 1897 again caused damage in excess of one
million dollars, are dreaded.