Decree on the Reforestation of the Rhine Valley

Worldbuilding

BY ORDER OF THE VERDANT CALIPHATE. Regarding the Imperial Reforestation of the Rhine Marches. The Caliph, Light of the North and Guardian of the Great Oasis, decrees that the landscape of the Rhenish provinces shall be brought into alignment with the aesthetic and spiritual requirements of the Empire. The current forests of oak and ash are insufficient to signify the permanence of the Southern Reach. Therefore, it is mandated that the banks of the Rhine, from the Lowlands to the slopes of the Black Forest, be systematically replanted with Phoenix dactylifera. Every governor of a district shall ensure the planting of date palms at intervals of no more than three hundred paces. Recognizing the hostility of the northern climate, the Diwan of Agriculture prescribes the following measures: the excavation of heat-pits beneath each sapling, the application of volcanic ash to the soil, and the wrapping of trunks in treated wool during the months of November through March. The failure of a tree to thrive shall not be attributed to the climate, for the will of the Caliph transcends the limitations of the earth. Any death of a specimen shall be interpreted as a failure of diligence. The penalties are as follows: For the death of a single palm, the landowner shall pay a fine of twenty gold dinars to the imperial treasury. For the loss of a designated grove, the landowner shall be stripped of their title and the land reverted to the crown. For the intentional sabotage of the groves or the failure to provide insulating wraps, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to hard labor in the salt mines of the south. Let the Rhine be transformed into a mirror of the Maghreb. Let the frost yield to the palm.