Pastures
Original title: Pastagens
Discusses the 1913 decree regulating livestock grazing in Madeira's mountains and its frequent violation, harmful to woodland.
The decree of 23 July 1913, regulating the grazing of livestock in the mountains of Madeira, contains provisions that ought to be strictly observed, although it has become necessary to extend the scope of these legal measures and to make them more effective and easier to enforce.
The first article of this decree lays down that ‘the grazing of pigs and goats is permitted only on land belonging to the owners of those animals, and which is completely fenced so as to prevent the animals from straying onto land of other owners’.
These provisions are frequently broken, to the serious detriment of the woodland and especially of young and vigorously growing plants.