About the middle of the 19th century, a number of influential citizens constituted themselves a committee to begin its work of recovery, the Director General of Forests being authorized to assume the presidency of that committee. As a result, a canal 25 miles in length and 350 miles of road were built, and some 200,000 acres, all non-agricultural lands, were sowed and planted with Maritime and Scotch Pine, the state furnishing assistance through the forest service and otherwise. A set-back occurred during the severe winter of 1879, frost killing many of the younger plantations, which led to the substitution of the hardier Scotch Pine for the Maritime Pine in the plantings. The cost per acre set out with about 3,500 two-year old seedlings amounted to $5.00. An estimate of the value of these plantations places it at, not less than $18,000,000, so that lands which 50 years ago, could hardly be sold for $4.00 per acre, now bring over $3.00 as an annual revenue. * * * * * In the province of _Champagne_, South of Rheims, a plain of arid lime-stone wastes of an extent which in the 18th century had reached 1,750,000 acres is found. About 1807, the movement for the recovery of these wastes began; first in a small way, gaining strength by 1830 after some sporadic experiments had shown the possibility of reforestation, and to-day over 200,000 acres of coniferous forest (mainly Austrian and Scotch Pine), largely planted by private incentive, are in existence, the better acres being farmed. It is interesting to note that land which 50 years ago was often sold without measurement by distance, “as far as the cry would carry,” and rarely for more than $4.00 per acre, is to-day worth over $40.00 at a cost for planting of less than $25.00. The stumpage value of a thirty years’ growth is figured at from $50 to $100, the total forest area is valued at $10,000,000, with net revenue from the 200,000 acres at $2.00 per acre. * * * * * France is unfortunate in having within her territory, although so little mountainous, the largest proportion of the area in Europe liable to torrential action. Not less than 1,462 brooks and mountain streams have been counted as dangerous waters in the Alps, the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees mountains; or two-thirds of the torrents of Europe. An area nearly 1,000,000 acres in extent, of mountain slopes, is exposed to the ravages of these waters by erosion. Here the most forcible demonstration of the value of a forest cover in protecting watersheds was furnished by the results of the extensive forest destruction and devastation which took place especially during and following the years of the Revolution.