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PINE PLANTATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SAND-WASTES OF FRANCE. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 JOHN CROmiBIE BROWN, LL.D., 
 
 Formerly Government Botanist at the Cape of Good Hope, and Professor 
 of Botany in the South African College, Capetown, Felloio of the 
 Royal Geographical Society, Felloio of the Linnean Society, and 
 Honorary Vice-President of the African Institute of Paris, etc. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. 
 
 LONDON : SIMPKLN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 
 
 18 78. 
 
Kirkcaldy : Crawford & Walkeb, Peintbrs. 
 
 [All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved.] 
 
CONTENTS AND ARGUMENT. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Index to Authorities Cited, v 
 
 Preface, ------ — v ii 
 
 States circumstances in which the volume is published. 
 
 Chapter I. — Appearances Presented by Plantations on Drift- 
 Sand, ------- 1 
 
 Cites the appearance presented by plantations seen from the bell 
 tower of the Cathedral at Antwerp (p. 1) ; and by vineyards in 
 M£doc and the vicinity of Bourdeaux (p. 2); by Landes adjacent 
 (p. 3) ; by Arcachon (p. 4), and the pignadas in the vicinity (p. 5). 
 
 Chapter II. — Appearances Presented by Landes adjacent to the 
 
 Pine Plantations on Gascony, ... 9 
 
 There are given Mangin's description of the Landes (p. 9), and of 
 the Dunes (p. 13), of Dartmoor (p. 17), as corresponding to scenes 
 in Brittany (p. 18) ; of the swampy land of Montoir resembling 
 the Fen country of England (p. 21) ; and there follow notices 
 of what has been done to reclaim the adjacent sand-wastes (p. 24). 
 
 Chapter III. — Legislation in Regard to the Planting of the 
 
 Landes with Trees, - - - - 27 
 
 There are given excerpts from the laws issued on 13th Messklor an 
 IX (2nd July, 1801) ; on 3rd Jour compliimentaire, an IX (p. 27) ; 
 12th July, 1808, 14th December, 1810 (p. 28) ; 5th February, 
 1817 (p. 29) ; and 29th April, 1862 (p. 30). 
 
 Chapter IV. — Literature Relative to the Arrest and Cultivation 
 
 of Drift-Sands in France, - - - - 32 
 
 Works in French are specified (p. 32) ; works in German (p. 33) ; 
 and works published in Hungary, America, and England are 
 referred to (p. 34). 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter V. — Culture of the Maritime Pine on the Landes of 
 
 Gascony, ------ 36 
 
 The preparation of the ground is described (p. 36) ; the zone ad- 
 jacent to the sea is described (p. 37) ; clayonnages (p. 39) ; sowing 
 and planting (p. 40) ; account given by M. Bagneris (p. 42) ; and 
 by M. Boitel (p. 45) ; thinning (p. 46) ; pruning (p. 48). 
 
 Chapter VI. — Exploitation of the Pine Plantations of Gascony, 51 
 Account of the exploitation of resin, by Bagneris (p. 51) ; of the 
 manufacture of charcoal, by Boitel (p. 57), and that of charcoal 
 dust (p. 63) ; products exhibited in English museums (p. 66). 
 
 Chapter VII. — Sylviculture on the Landes of La Sologne, - 69 
 
 Account of the Landes of La Sologne (p. 70) ; of their soil (p. 72) ; 
 woods (p. 74) ; culture of pine woods (p. 75) ; reclaiming land by 
 plantation (p. 80). 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Inland Sand-Wastes, and Sand-Wastes on the 
 
 Coast, ....... 81 
 
 Differences seen in sand-wastes (p. 81) ; Wessely's account of sand- 
 wastes on the coast (p. 82) ; account of the impermeable alios by 
 M. Faye (p. 84) ; capillary attraction of sand (p. 86) ; absorption 
 and retention of moisture (p. 8S) ; absorption of vegetable nutri- 
 ment (p. 90) ; peat lands in sand-wastes (p. 92) ; composition of 
 sand (p. 92) ; sand-wastes of the tertiary formation (p. 96) ; 
 woods on such sands (p. 97). 
 
 Chapter IX. — Natural History and General Cidture of the 
 
 Scotch Fir in France, - - - - - 100 
 
 Description of the Scotch fir by MM. Lorentz and Parade (p. 100) ; 
 account of arboretum at Barres by the founder, M. Vilmorin 
 (p. 103) ; his observation on the Scotch fir (pi mis sylvestrisj 
 (p. 107) ; the Riga pine (p. 115) ; pine of Smolensk (p. 117) ; 
 Wilna pine (p. 117) ; pine of Tschernigoff (p. 118) ; pine of 
 Volhynia (p. 118) ; varieties of the Riga pine (p. 119) ; Scotch 
 fir (p. 122) ; intermediate varieties (p. 123) ; instructions given 
 in School of Forestry at Nancy in regard to the exploitation of 
 the Scotch fir (p. 131) ; in regard to its economic uses (p. 137) ; 
 and the collecting and preservation of its seed (p. 138), and 
 sowing (p. 141). 
 
 Chapter X. — Natural History and General Culture of the 
 
 Maritime Pine in France, - - - - 143 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 Section I. — Commendations bestowed on the Maritime Pine, - 143 
 Commendation by M. Boitel (p. 143) ; by M. Samanos (p. 1-45) ; 
 and by MM. Delamarre, Crinon, and others (p. 147). 
 
 Section II. — General Culture and Exploitation of the Maritime 
 
 Pine, 148 
 
 Instructions given at the School of Forestry at Nancy relative to 
 its natural history (p. 149) ; its economic uses and mode of 
 gemmage (p. 151) ; sowing (p. 152) ; exploitation (p. 15-4). 
 
 Chapteb XI. — Diseases and Injurious Influences to which the 
 
 Maritime Pine is subject, .... 157 
 
 Section I. — Choking by an Over-growth of Local Vegetation, - 157 
 
 Section II. — Destructive Ravages by Birds, and Squirrels, and 
 
 Insects, - - - - - - 157 
 
 Mode of destruction (p. 157) ; accounts of lignivorous insects by 
 M. Perris (p. 159) ; destruction of the chenille processlonaire 
 (p. 161). 
 
 Section III. — Destructive Conseqiiences following the Effects of 
 
 Charcoal Burning, - - - - - 163 
 
 Evils pointed out by Professor Bagneris (p. 163), and accounted for 
 by M. Boitel (p. 163). 
 
 Section IV. — Destructive Ravages occasioned by the Mole, - 167 
 Natural history of the mole by M. Boitel (p. 167) ; destruction of 
 moles (p. 169). 
 
 Section V. — Destructive Ravages by Forest Fires, - - 170 
 
 Prevention of forest fires mentioned by M. Samanos (p. 170) ; by 
 M. Bartro (p. 171) ; by M. Boitel (p. 171). 
 
 INDEX TO AUTHORITIES CITED, 
 
 Andresen, 86. Bagneris, 42, 51, 163. Bartro, 171. Baude, 1. Boitel, 37, 
 41, 45, 46, 51, 57, 63, 71, 74-79, 143, 157, 163, 167, 171. Chambray (Marquis), 
 159. Clave, 91, 98, 99. Cotta, 100. Courreges, 39, 40. C'rinon, 148. Dela- 
 marre, 147. Edinburgh Review, 34. Faye, S4. Forcbhammer, 86. Grouven, 
 90. Haddington (Earl), 109. Hartig, 100, 138. Hauer, 93. Heyer, 88. 
 Janin, 20. Javil, 66, 84. Kedzie, 34. Kerner, S9, 95. Laurent, 87. 
 Lorentz, 100, 132. Mangin, 9, 13, 16, 21, 24, 70, 9S. Marchand, SS. .Marsh, 34, 
 86, 96. Mayer, S9. Nanquette, 135. Parade, 100, 139, 149. Perris, 159. 
 Samanos, 51, 145, 170. Schuebler, 88, 89, 93, 94. Thurinann, 87. Vilmorin, 
 103-130, 157. Weld, 1, 2, 3, 5. Wessely, 82, 8S, 92, 99. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The preparation of this volume for the press was undertaken in con- 
 sequence of a statement in the Standard and Mail, ' a Capetown 
 paper, of the 22nd July, 1876, to the effect that in the estimates 
 submitted to Parliament <£1,000 had been put down for the Cape 
 Flats, it was supposed with a view to its being employed in carrying 
 out planting operations as a means of reclaiming the sandy tracts 
 beyond Salt River. 
 
 In view of the success which has followed the planting of the Landes 
 of Gascony and the Gironde with the maritime pine, it might seem 
 that nothing now can be required in order to arrest and utilise drift- 
 sands, but to plant them judiciously with that tree. But, happily, I 
 may say, the failure of such plantations on the Landes of La Sologne 
 comes to warn us against any such rash generalisation. And the 
 observation of sand downs in Britain, and saud plains elsewhere, show 
 that herbs, carices, reeds, and grasses have operated extensively in 
 arresting effectually, and, according to their measures, in utilising 
 what otherwise would have been barren and destructive sand- 
 wastes. 
 
 Looking at the subject generally, all that I consider established by 
 the pine plantations on the sand-wastes of France is the practicability 
 of arresting and utilising sand-drifts by means of plantations of trees. 
 What has been accomplished there we may legitimately infer may be 
 effected elsewhere, not necessarily by the same means, but by means 
 as appropriate, if they can be discovex-ed. But while this may be all 
 that is established there is much more suggested. 
 
 And still more might be found to be suggested by a study of the 
 whole of the sand-wastes of Europe, and of the natural history of 
 sand, its composition, its formation, and its aggregation on the shore, 
 in dunes, in drifts, in sand-wastes, and in sand plains, and of the 
 various genera and species of plants growing upon it, and of planta- 
 
tions of broad-leaved trees which have succeeded in other conditions — 
 the poplar, the willow, and the aspen, the elm, the elder, the ash, 
 the acacia, the oak, the hazel, and the dogwood, the birch, and the 
 wild pear. There has been prepared a twin volume, in which these 
 subjects have been discussed. 
 
 This volume was originally compiled in view of what seemed to be 
 required at the Cape of Good Hope. It has been revised, and printed 
 now, only as a contribution towards a renewed enterprise, to arrest and 
 utilise sand-wastes which stretch from Table Mountain to the 
 Hottentot Hollaud Mountains ; and additional information is forth- 
 coming if it should be desired. 
 
 Appended to reports of the Colonial Botanist for 1864 is a letter 
 on grasses adapted to arrest drifting sand (pp. 99-102), and appended 
 to report of the Colonial Botanist for 1865 is a letter on the arrest of 
 drifting sand, and planting the same with trees (pp. 83-93). 
 
 Haddington, 10th April, 1878. 
 
PINE PLANTATIONS ON THE SAND- 
 WASTES OF FRANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Appearances Presented by Plantations on Drift Sands. 
 
 Within the last eighty years much hag been accomplished in the 
 ai'resting of Drift Sand, and in utilising Sand Wastes by a judicious 
 combination of sylviculture and agriculture. 
 
 " A spectator placed on the famous bell tower of the cathedral of 
 Antwerp," says Baude in an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 January, 1859, one of an interesting series of articles entitled Les 
 Cotes de la Manche, " saw not long since on the opposite side of the 
 Schelde only a vast desert plain ; now he sees a forest, the limits of 
 which are confounded with the horizon. Let him enter within its 
 shades. The supposed forest is but a system of regular rows of trees, 
 the oldest of which is not yet forty years of age. These plantations 
 have ameliorated the climate, which had doomed to sterility the soil 
 where they are planted ; while the tempest is violently agitating their 
 tops, the air a little below is still, and sands far more barren than 
 the plateau of La Hague have been formed under their protection 
 into fertile fields." 
 
 A similar description of landscape effects, produced by the planting 
 of the Landes of the Gironde in Gascony with pines occurs in Weld's 
 tour through the Pyrenees. 
 
 Writing of this district he says : — " Opposite to Blaye, and extend- 
 ing for a considerable distance up and down the Gironde, is the 
 M6doc district, unlovely in appearance, being a vast plain composed 
 of stones and sand, the deposit probably of the river in long past 
 ages. But no smiling valley, 
 
 1 Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns, 
 And bowery hollows crown' d with summer sea,' 
 
 is so fruitful as is this seeming waste : for it is the nursing mother 
 of those vines, which, stunted though they be, produce the far. 
 
 A 
 
2 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS, 
 
 famed claret grape. Who, ignorant of these facts, would suppose 
 that an acre of Medoc laud is a fortune !" 
 
 Writing of Bourdeaux, the capital port of the district, he says : — 
 " Grand indeed is the water avenue to the great city of Bourdeaux. 
 Flowing beneath the softly wooded heights of Floirac, the tawny 
 Garonne, here upwards of 2,000 feet wide, sweeps in a semi-circle 
 past handsome quays three miles long, bearing all kinds of crafts, 
 from the jaunty felucca from the Mediterranean, to the stately India- 
 man ; for the tide at Bourdeaux, though the city is seventy miles 
 from the sea, rises twenty feet. Looking at all this beauty and com- 
 mercial grandeur, I thought of our Thames, and what it might be if 
 properly embanked and provided with capacious quays. 
 
 " Long to be remembered is an afternoon which I spent at Floirac, 
 where one of the great wine merchants resides. After an early 
 dinner, consisting of many delicacies, we adjourned, ladies as well as 
 gentlemen, to an arbour in the pleasure ground, situated at the edge 
 of the wooded heights. Within the arbour a large table was covered 
 with an endless variety of delicious fruits, all grown on the estate ; 
 and while we sat round these abundant products of the rich south, 
 the distant views, which are of the most exquisite nature, were illumed 
 by a sunset of great glory. 
 
 " On a day remarkable for an extra allowance of caloric — Bourdeaux 
 is exceedingly hot in summer — I visited the far-famed claret vaults 
 of Messrs Barton & Guestier. Oh, how delicious was the wine I 
 tasted in these deliciously cool regions — tasted ! no, drank ; for it 
 would have been nothing short of an insult to that rare old nestar to 
 have acted according to the advice given when you enter the Loudon 
 Dock wine vaults — taste but do not swallow. Here, within the cool 
 precincts of the cellars, if you have the good fortune to be favoured 
 by being allowed to taste famous vintages, you will be made aware 
 how little, how very little, the middle classes really know what good 
 claret is. The stuff which, impudently assuming that name, is generally 
 our potion at a dinner party, is no more like the prime first growth 
 clarets of Medoc than sloe juice aud brandy is genuine port; but 
 when we remember that a hogshead of good claret, the produce of a 
 first-rate vintage, frequently fetches a thousand francs on the spot, 
 we, at least I, who am of the middle classes, can understand that 
 the chance of making acquaintance with prime claret is very small. 
 The more then, if you are a middle man, will you enjoy a tasting visit 
 to the Bourdeaux claret vaults, and especially if you enter them after 
 a lionising tour through streets baked with a temperature of about 90° 
 
weld's description of the landes. 3 
 
 . . . Lighted by huge wax caudles, I walked loug aud wonderingly 
 through alleys liued by hogsheads, or barriques, as they are called. 
 The value of these, as I was iuformed, was £120,000. There 
 are generally 10,000 barriques in store, for the most part cob- 
 webbed and venerable vessels emitting a peculiar aroma, something 
 like that of new hay ; for your first-class claret requires to be kept 
 many years before it is ripe for post-prandial honours." 
 
 But sterile as seem the lands of the Medoc, where such treasures 
 are produced, they come short in this respect of the appearance 
 presented by the Landes of the Gironde, which have no such 
 tales to tell of fruit and wine. 
 
 " A few miles from Bourdeaux," he writes, " you enter the Landes, 
 across which the line is carried to Bayonne. Nothing can be more 
 dreary than these apparently interminable wastes. Your passage 
 across them suggests ideas of the ocean, with this great difference 
 however, that whereas the latter is rarely at rest, the vast tract of 
 the Landes, comprising 600,000 hectares, equal to 1,482,600 acres, 
 except when swept by hurricanes, presents a still and monotonous 
 surface. The soil is sand — endless sand — vertically as well as 
 superficially. Artesian wells have been sunk to nearly the depth of 
 1,000 feet, and then a scanty supply of wretched yellow water has 
 been the only result. As may be supposed, the lives of the inhabitants 
 of this unpromising region are short, feverish, and sickly. The 
 Landais have a proverb — 
 
 ' Tant que Landes sera Landes 
 Lapellagri te demande.' 
 
 The said pellagri, being a fatal disease occasioned by malaria 
 and bad water. Amidst these wastes, lying to the east of the pine 
 forests which fringe the sea coast, the Landais, who are with few 
 exceptions shepherds, spend the long summer days with their flocks 
 of sheep, each animal being as well known to them as their dogs. 
 The Landais shepherd is a primitive being, fond of solitude, rarely 
 venturing near the railway ; when he does, he gazes wonderingly at 
 the passing train — so to see him, you must penetrate into his wilder- 
 ness. There, amidst the great wastes, clothed in sheeps' skins, and 
 wearing the Navarre cap, you will find him mounted on tall stilts, 
 become, from long habit, like a second pair of legs, for he has been 
 accustomed to them from childhood ; probably knitting while his 
 flock cross the scanty herbage. There he stands, resting against his 
 pole, a strange tripod-looking figure — stranger still when he strides 
 
4 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS. 
 
 across the Landes in hot haste after a wandering sheep. He has 
 a small hut, sometimes a wife who aids him in cultivating a small 
 patch of ground, from which he obtains a little corn and a few 
 vegetables. A miserable existence is this, but the dawn of brighter 
 days has, we may hope, appeared for the poor Landais." 
 
 Some two hours journeying by rail takes the traveller from 
 Bourdeaux through clouds of dust and forests of pine to Arcachon. 
 " Here," writes an English tourist, " houses, like Indian bungalows, 
 with broad verandahs, and often of only one storey, run for more 
 than a mile along the water's edge, each surrounded by its own 
 ' compound,' to keep up the Indian phraseology, and each with its 
 bathing-house and steps leading down to the beach. From these the 
 lightly-clad inmates emerge at all hours, and pass the greater part of 
 their time either paddling barefoot on the shore when the tide is out, 
 or dancing in groups in the sea, which has the merit, in the eyes of 
 the nervous part of the population, of always being as smooth as a 
 mill-pond. I never saw a place so absolutely and completely given 
 over to bathing. . . But the real charm of Arcachon lies in its pine 
 forests, covering sand-dunes sometimes three or four hundred feet high, 
 and stretching back over the landes, where fresh-water lakes glimmer 
 in the blue distance. Picturesquely grouped within these resinous 
 groves are perched the villas and cottages of the winter town, to 
 which consumptive patients resort in the colder months to breathe 
 turpentine mixed with the soft sea breeze. The extraordinary 
 advantages of this hygienic compound seem to be getting more and 
 more recognised, and each year the number of visitors increases. 
 The high dunes completely shelter the winter town from the violence 
 of the gales, while there is a life and purity in the atmosphere which 
 have worked marvellous results. With a compass one may explore 
 the recesses of these forests for miles on horseback, for there is 
 scarcely any underwood, and one can therefore steer through them 
 in any direction ; though in fact there is not much danger of being 
 very seriously lost, for the forest abounds with the wooden shanties 
 of the collectors of turpentine, who are perpetually at work gashing 
 the trees and emptying the little pots tied on to them, and which 
 contain the sap, into the small tanks prepared to receive it. In the 
 centre of the basin are a couple of sand-banks, one of them partially 
 dry at low water, and on which any number of rabbits may be shot ; 
 and on the other an oyster-park, with an old hulk stranded upon it. 
 Large parties of merry-makers sail to this moist and oozy spot, and, 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PIGNADAS. 
 
 taking off their shoes and stockings, catch their own shrimps, gather 
 their own cockles, and knock the oysters off the tiles upon which 
 they are growing, for themselves ; and then retiring to the hulk, 
 where sundry articles of diet may be purchased, make their cannibal 
 pic-nic with the addition of these living creatures. . . . Another 
 pleasing entertainment, much resorted to by both sexes, is spearing 
 fish by torchlight. On a dark night the bay is sometimes brightly 
 illuminated with the glare of the pine-splinters flaming from the 
 prows of boats in iron cradles, and the shouts of laughter tell of un- 
 successful prods with many-pronged spears at the eels and mullet 
 which wriggle or dart round the bright reflection on the water. It 
 requires considerable skill and practice to bring home a large basket- 
 ful, but some ladies become tolerably expert at this sport." 
 
 And here, amidst all the gaiety of a fashionable watering-place, the 
 residenter or the forester may find a solitude, for which he might 
 seek in vain elsewhere, in the forest of pines. " This, indeed," writes 
 "Weld, " is the characteristic feature of Arcachon. The great pine 
 forest of the Landes, locally called pignadas, extends from the Adour 
 to the Gironde, and is an extraordinary monument of man's skill and 
 perseverance. 
 
 " Prior to 1789 this vast forest area was — 
 
 ' A bare strand 
 Of hillocks heaped from ever-shifting sand, 
 Matted with thistles and amphibious weeds, 
 Such as from earth's embrace the salt ooze breeds.' 
 
 The sand was so fine as to be wafted by the faintest breeze ; while 
 the great sea storms raised huge sand waves, which overwhelmed 
 vegetation, and, rolling inland, frequently carried desolation and 
 destruction among far distant villages and fields. Such was the 
 state of this part of the country when M. Bremontier, an officer in 
 the Government department of the administration of forests of 
 France, conceived the idea of erecting wattle hurdles and boards 
 near the sea, so as to break the storms ; and of sowing in narrow 
 zones, leeward and at right augles to the prevailing wind, seeds of 
 the Plnus Pinaster and common broom, in the proportion of five 
 pounds of the former to two of the latter per acre. The area sown 
 was then covered or thatched with pine branches, care being taken 
 to prevent these being blown away, by pinning them to the ground. 
 In about six weeks the broom seeds produced plants six inches high, 
 which attained the height of two feet at the close of the year. These 
 
6 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS. 
 
 now afforded excellent shelter to the pine plants, which were but 
 4-inch striplings, and under their fostering protection the pines grew 
 and flourished, until at length, with an ingratitude not unhappily 
 confined to the vegetable world, they suffocated their infantine 
 protectors, and rose high, defiant of the raging sand-storms. 
 
 "So effective was M. Bremontier's process that, in 1871, a com- 
 mission, appointed by Government to examine the Landes, reported 
 that 12,500 acres were covered with thriving and pi'ofitable pines; 
 and the Landais, who had lived to see their howling wastes clothed 
 with far-stretching forests, were enabled to gain a livelihood, less 
 precarious and perilous than that obtained by fishing in the stormy 
 waters of the Biscay Bay. 
 
 " Twenty-five years passed, and then the hand of man was busy 
 among the pines. Good as the pinaster is for domestic purposes, La 
 Fontaine says : 
 
 ' Sera-t-il Dieu, table, ou cuvette ? 
 it is far more valuable for the great quantity of resin, tar, and lamp- 
 black which it produces. As you ride through the pines you will 
 meet the resin-gatherers, resiniers, as they are called, who during the 
 summer months live in the forest ; for the most part a rude set of 
 men, speaking a strange patois, from which, however, you may glean 
 some information. When the resin-harvest is at hand, the resinier 
 goes forth provided with a short ladder and a curved axe. His 
 manner of testing the fitness of a tree to be tapped is by throwing 
 his arms around it. If the trunk be so thick that he cannot see his 
 finger ends, the pine is ripe for the operation. This is performed 
 with great quickness and dexterity. A longitudinal cut or groove is 
 made in the trunk, down which the resin flows, and is caught at the 
 bottom of the stem, in a little trough fashioned in a few moments 
 from the bark removed by the cut. Weekly the wound is re-opened 
 but not widened, and the operation is renewed yearly, until the 
 entire trunk is scored in such a manner as to make you wonder how 
 the maimed bole can support the superincumbent weight. But, 
 stranger still, the pine is not injured by this scoring process ; for, if 
 the operation be judiciously performed, by the time that the resinier 
 has gone round the tree, the first wound has healed, and the trunk is 
 ready to be bled again. Wonderful too is the quantity of resin which 
 exudes from these bountiful trees. You may know where the 
 resiniers have lately been, by the palsamic odour proceeding from 
 the wounded pine. A resin-gatherer told me that after a season's 
 practice — from the first of May to the end of September — a good 
 
COLLECTING OP RESIN. { 
 
 hand could score 2,400 trees, scrape the resine molle, which encrusts 
 the trunks, into the troughs with small iron rakes, and carry the 
 resin to the pits where it is boiled. I saw a resinier frequently score 
 a tree to the height of 15 feet, and make a trough in two minutes 
 and a quarter. Such a proficient earns 25 francs weekly, a high 
 wage in this part of France. Indeed, the resinier is far better off 
 now than the small vineyard proprietor, who generally, destitute of 
 capital, is ruined by a failure of his crop. . . . 
 
 " When the pines have been scored and re-scored, those destined 
 to make tar — called pins perdus — are cut down. The tar, com- 
 mercially known as goudron des Landes, not so good, however, as 
 that derived from the Scotch pine, is made by burning the roots and 
 thick portion of the trunk very slowly in cavities made in sloping 
 ground, and the tar is caught in cast-iron pans and run into barrels. 
 An inferior kind of lamp-black is deposited from the smoke of the 
 wood, but a better description is obtained by burning the straw used 
 in straining the resin. 
 
 " Besides these products, the resin of the Pinus Pinaster yields 
 common turpentine, and is used extensively for pills. Glaring 
 placards and advertisements at Arcachon further inform the visitor 
 that ' Sdve de Pin Maritime est recommandee contre les affections de 
 poitrine, catarrhes, bronchitis,' &c, by the French Faculty, — a revival 
 by the way, in another form, of tar-water, whose varieties were 
 extolled by Bishop Berkeley long ago, in his curious book, entitled 
 1 Sevis'. . . . 
 
 " And even now the economical uses of resin are not exhausted ; 
 so the Frenchman did not exaggerate when he asserted that, resine 
 est Vor en barriques. 
 
 " Many and delightful were the hours that I spent in the Pignadas, 
 generally on horseback, for the country around Arcachon is very 
 favourable for riding, and the small Landais horses are excellent. 
 Arab blood runs in their veins. 
 
 " As all the agremens of Arcachon are not yet chronicled in guide 
 books, I may mention that by far the most enjoyable excursion is 
 that to the Pointe du Sud, about six miles south of the town. Start 
 early, when the tide is ebbing, so that you may enjoy the fine, broad, 
 hard sand. At the Pointe du Sud you have the mighty Atlantic before 
 you, the great Biscayan waves breaking at your feet ; while behind 
 dark pines fringe the coast. Return through the forest ; avenues, 
 called Gardes-feu cut through the pines to prevent the spread of fire, 
 extend to Arcachon ; and when you are on the right track, you will 
 
8 APPEARANCE PRESENTED BY PLANTATIONS. 
 
 do well not to stray from it, as it is quite possible to realise in these 
 pignadas the unpleasant feeling of losing your way, particularly when 
 the sun has set. 
 
 " Few places are more impressive than dark pine forests, now scream- 
 ing when the wind sweeps through to the trees, and now filling the 
 solitude with murmering voices, when stirred by gentle breezes, and 
 yet not a solitude ; for as you pass through them in the noontide the 
 air trembles with ceaseless hum. Pines are always a favourite home 
 for insects ; and here, in the warm south, they exist in countless 
 multitudes, making even silence vocal ; for, flashing through the air, 
 or sluggishly basking in the summer sun, they are endowed with the 
 power of making the forest resonant with strange sounds. By far the 
 most remarkable of these noisy animals is the Cicada, which attains 
 a great size in the pine forests in Southern France, and emits a loud 
 sound, according to my observation, always increasing in intensity as 
 the temperature rises." 
 
 Agriculture, as from the first was intended, has followed in the 
 wake of sylviculture. 
 
 " After innumerable futile attempts to reclaim and fertilise portions 
 of this desert, two joint stock companies (Compagnie des Landes, and 
 Compagnie d'Arcachon), have succeeded in reclaiming a considerable 
 portion of the Plaine de Cazaux. 
 
 "Sheltered from the prevalent west winds, by the great maritime 
 pine forest, the Plaine de Cazaux, situated to the east or leeward, 
 as may be said, of that forest, is not so liable to the destructive effects 
 of the great sand storms as other parts of the Landes. Rice, tobacco, 
 and the topinambour or Jerusalem artechoke, for which the soil is 
 admirably adapted, are the chief crops. The improvements are in a 
 great measure due to a M. Pierre." 
 
 From these pen and ink sketches some idea may be formed of the 
 appearances presented by the pine plantations on the Landes of the 
 Gironde. The forest-like chai-acter of these will bear comparison 
 with that of the plantations seen from the tower of the cathedral of 
 Antwerp. And a knowledge of the general appearance presented by 
 the district may lead to the conclusion that the transformation 
 cannot have been less complete. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Appearances Presented by Lands Adjacent to the Pine 
 Plantations in Gascony. 
 
 To appreciate aright the effect produced by the planting of the drift 
 sands of the Landes with pine trees, it is necessary to know some- 
 thing of the appearance presented by the land thus utilised, and of 
 the land around which has thus been transformed into what in com- 
 parison therewith is a paradise — a garden of delight. A description 
 of the district, which may be reckoned one of the most dreary and 
 dismal in the land, one altogether at variance with the ideas called 
 up by the designation La Belle France, is given in a work by Arthur 
 Mangin, entitled " The Desert World," from an English translation, 
 of which I cite the following description : 
 
 " The department which borrows its name from the Landes of 
 Gascony is divided by the Adour into two wholly dissimilar parts. 
 To the south of the river lies a rich, undulating, vine-bearing country, 
 rich in pasturage and harvest, sown with pleasant villages and smiling 
 country houses, and watered by full streams and little rivers. To 
 the north the appearance of the country changes abruptly. When 
 the traveller has crossed the alluvial zone of the Adour he sees before 
 him a thin, dry, sandy level of a comparatively recent marine for- 
 mation. Its only products are rye, millet, and maize ; its only vege- 
 tation, forests of pines and scattered coppices of oaks ; beyond these, 
 and they do not extend far, all cultivation ceases, and the soil is 
 stripped of verdure ; you enter upon the Landes — seemingly vast as 
 a sea — occupied by permanent or periodical swamps ; and where, 
 over a space of several square leagues, in an horizon apparently 
 boundless, you perceive nothing but heaths, sheepfolds or steadings 
 for the flocks of sheep that traverse these deserts, and shepherds 
 keeping mute watch over their animals, living wholly among them, 
 and having no intercourse with the rest of humanity, except when 
 once a week they seek their masters' houses to procure their supply 
 of provisions. It is these shepherds only ( Landescots and Aouillys), 
 and not, as is generally supposed, all the peasants of the Landes, who 
 are perched upon stilts, so as to survey from afar their wandering 
 flocks, and to traverse more safely the marshes which frequently lie 
 across their path. b 
 
10 APPEARANCE OP THE LANDES. 
 
 "Wild and uncouth are the figures which these stilt-walkers 
 present, as they move rapidly over the country, often at the rate of 
 six or seven miles an hour ; occasionally indulging in an interval of 
 rest, by the aid of a third wooden support at the back (curved at the 
 top, so as to fit the hollow of the body), while they pursue their 
 favourite pastime of knitting. The dress of the Landescot is singu- 
 larly rude. His coat or paletot is a fleece; cuisses and greaves of the 
 same material protect his legs and thighs ; his feet are thrust into 
 sabots and coarse woollen socks, which cover only the heels and instep. 
 Over his shoulder hangs the gourd which contains his week's store of 
 provisions : some mouldy rye-bread, a few sardines, some onions and 
 cloves of garlic, and a flask of thin sour wine. From sunrise to sun- 
 set he lives upon the stilts, never touching the ground. Sometimes 
 he drives his flock home at eventide ; sometimes he bivouacs sub jove 
 frigido, under the cold heaven of night. Unbuckling his stilts, and 
 producing his flint and steel, he soon kindles a cheery fire of fir- 
 branches, and gathering his sheepskins round him, composes himself 
 to sleep ; his only annoyances being the musquitoes, and his fears of 
 the evil tricks of wizard or witch, who may peradventure catch a 
 glimpse of him in the moonlight, as they ride past on their besom to 
 some unholy gathering or demon-dance. 
 
 " An English traveller has sketched in vivid colours the landscape 
 of the Landes. Over all its gloom and barrenness, he remarks, over 
 all its ' blasted heaths,' its monotonous pine-woods, its sudden 
 morasses, its glaring sand-heaps, prevails a strong sense of loneliness, 
 a grandeur and intensity of desolation, which invests the scene with 
 a sad, solemn poetry peculiar to itself. Emerging from the black 
 shadows of the forest, the pilgrim treads a plain, ' flat as a billiard- 
 table,' apparently boundless as the ocean, clad in one unvaried un- 
 broken garb of dusky heath. Sometimes stripes and ridges, or great 
 ragged patches of sand, glisten in the fervid sunshine ; sometimes 
 belts of scraggy young fir trees appear rising from the horizon on the 
 right, and sinking into it again on the left. Occasionally a brighter 
 shade of green, with jungles of willows and water weeds, giant rushes, 
 and 'clustered marish mosses,' will tell of the 'blackened waters' 
 beneath — 
 
 * Hard by a poplar shook alway, 
 
 All silver-green with gnarled bark ; 
 For leagues no other tree doth mark 
 The level waste, the rounding gray.' 
 
 " The dwellings which stud this dreary, yet not wholly unpoetic 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE LANDES. 11 
 
 landscape, are generally mere isolated huts, separated oftentimes by 
 many miles. Round them spreads a miserable field or two, planted 
 with such crops as might be expected on a poor soil and from 
 deficient cultivation. The cottages are mouldering heaps of sod and 
 unhewn and unmortared stones, clustered round with ragged sheds 
 composed of masses of tangled bushes, pine-stakes and broad-leaved 
 reeds, beneath which the meagrest looking cattle conceivable find a 
 precarious shelter. 
 
 " The Landes are divided into the Little Landes, near Mont-de- 
 Marsan ; and the Great Landes, stretching to the north and west of 
 the department of which that town is the capital, and uniting unin- 
 terruptedly with those that occupy the vast country situated south of 
 the Gironde. The total superficial area of these plains is estimated 
 at upwards of 2,400,000 acres, of which two-thirds belong to the de- 
 partment of the Landes, and the remainder to that of the Gironde." 
 
 Again — " In shape, the Great Landes may be compared to an 
 immense rectangular triangle, having for its base the coast, which, 
 from the mouth of the Gironde to Bayonne, or for a length of more 
 than sixty leagues, is almost rectilineal. But they are separated 
 from the sea by a long parallel chain of lakes and water-courses — 
 a waste of shallow pools — a labyrinth of gulfs and morasses, and then 
 by the continuous chain of the Dunes. 
 
 " That which is commonly called the Great Lande is bounded on the 
 north by the etang, or lake, of Cazau. It is a sandy, treeless plain, and 
 upon which, for a traject of several leagues from east to west, not 
 one habitation worthy of the name is perceptible until the traveller 
 arrives at Mimizan, near the southern point of the lake of Aureilhan. 
 This lake on the south-west pours its waters into the sea. To the 
 north it communicates, through the canal of St. Eulalie, with the 
 lake of Biscarosse, which is itself connected with that of Cazau. 
 East of this chain of lakes lies the Lande ; west of it stretches the 
 range of Dunes, or sand hills. 
 
 " The lake or pool of Cazau is a small sea of fresh water, perfectly 
 clear, profoundly deep, and fourteen to fifteen thousand acres in 
 extent. It has its whirlwinds and its tempests, so that in certain 
 seasons it is perilous to embark on its surface. And were its banks 
 clothed with rich woods, or raised aloft in irregular or precipitous 
 cliffs, it would surely attract as great a throng of tourists as the 
 mountain-tarns and lochs of Scotland or Cumberland, or the Arcadian 
 waters of Northern Italy. The lake of Biscarosse, in form a triangle, 
 with one side formed by the Dunes, covers about twelve thousand 
 
12 APPEARANCE OF THE LANDES. 
 
 acres. It derives its name from a village situated at its northern 
 angle, on the bank of the canal which connects it with the lake of 
 Cazau. The lake of Aureilkan is the smallest of the three ; the St. 
 Eulalie canal, which links it to the preceding, traverses a series of 
 peat-bogs bounded eastward by gloomy pine-forests, and westward 
 by the interminable Dunes, which, by arresting the flow of the rain- 
 waters, have really created these so-called lakes and extensive 
 swamps. Enormous quantities of rain fall every year in the Landes, 
 — which district the Romans would certainly have dedicated to Jupiter 
 Pluvius, — and find beneath the thin superficial stratum or crust of 
 sand and earth, a sub-soil of tufa and allios — in other words, of com- 
 pact chalk and sand agglutinated by a ferruginous sediment. Fre- 
 quently this tufa possesses all the hardness of stone, and its 
 imperviousness is its fundamental property. Hence it follows, that 
 a portion of the heavy annual rainfall remains in the receptacles 
 provided by the hollows and depressions of the soil, and in due time 
 accumulates into marshes and lagoons, until gradually evaporated by 
 the heat of spring. 
 
 " When of old the scared peasants beheld the irresistible advance 
 of these strange ministers of destruction, they had no other resource 
 than to fell their woods, abandon their dwellings, and surrender their 
 ' little all' to the pitiless sand and devouring sea. What could avail 
 against such a scourge? Efforts were made to repel it. It is 
 said that Charlemagne, during a brief residence in the Landes, on 
 his return from his expedition against the Saracens, employed his 
 veterans, and expended large sums of money in preserving the cities 
 of the coast from imminent ruin ; but whether the means employed 
 were insufficient, or whether the imperial resources failed, and other 
 urgent needs diverted the population and their leaders from this 
 struggle against nature, the works were wholly abandoned." 
 
 But in more propitious circumstances the work has been resumed 
 with better success. 
 
 " The reader," says the writer I have quoted, " must not believe 
 this country to be a desert in the popular acceptation of the word ; 
 it has its forests of pines, where the extraction and preparation of 
 resinous matter are carried on with considerable activity. It has its 
 small towns, its pretty villages, its factories, and even its handsome 
 villas. Finally, modern industry has cut the Landes in two by the 
 Bordeaux railway, which traverses them from north to south, and 
 bifurcates at Morans to throw off a line to Bayonne, and another to 
 Tarbes." 
 
DESCRIPTION OF DUNES. 13 
 
 Of the Dunes which have been so transformed M. Mangin gives 
 the following description : — " The Dunes form the extreme line of 
 the Brittany coast for nearly two hundred miles, from the Adour to 
 the Garonne. They are hills of white sand, as fine and soft as if it 
 had been sifted through an hour-glass. Their outline, therefore, 
 changes every hour. When the wind blows from the land, millions 
 of tons of sand are hourly driven into the sea, to be washed up again 
 on the beach and blown inland by the first Biscay gale. A water 
 hurricane from the west will fill up with sand square miles of shallow 
 lake, driving the displaced waters into the interior, dispersing them 
 in shining pools among the ' murmurous pines,' flooding and fre- 
 quently destroying the scattered hamlets of the people, and inun- 
 dating their fields of rye and millet. 
 
 " Their origin is due to the prevalence of the sea-winds on those 
 points of the coast which are not protected by rock and cliff, and 
 whose slopes of sand descend very gradually to the margin of the 
 waves. Their formation is easily explained. The sand of which 
 they are composed is a silicious material, reduced to minute grains, 
 generally rounded, by trituration. These grains, nevertheless, are 
 often too big and too heavy for the wind to take them up and scatter 
 them afar, like the dust of the highways or the ashes of volcanoes. 
 But at low tide the sand, dried by the sun's rays and the action of 
 the wind, offers to the latter a sufficient holdfast to be dragged up 
 the slopes which descend seaward, and deposited at a certain distance. 
 This process being constantly repeated, the heaps are daily increasing 
 in dimensions. 
 
 "It will easily be understood that this accumulation along the 
 shore cannot have taken place where the force and direction of the 
 sands experience periodical or capricious changes ; for then the sands 
 cast upon the beach by the winds of the north and west would be 
 driven back into the sea by the winds of the south and east. This is 
 noticeable in many places where the nature of the coast is favourable 
 for the production of such a phenomenon. But on other shores — as 
 on the Atlantic littoral of France — the winds which blow most 
 frequently and most violently are from the west and south-west. And 
 it is there we encounter the Dunes. Those of Gascony are by far the 
 most remarkable. Northward, they extend as far as the Point de 
 Grave, which shuts in the mouth of the Gironde ; southward, to the 
 bank of the Adour, and even further, to the cliffs of Beam. Here 
 the basin of Arcachon constitutes one vast hollow ; and some open- 
 ings exist, moreover, in the department of Landes, between that basin 
 
14 APPEARANCE OF THE L ANDES. 
 
 and the Adour, for the overflow of the waters which descend from the 
 interior. To the north and south of the Teste de Buch the chain of 
 sand hills measures from 4,400 to 6,600 feet in width. At other 
 points it is still wider ; but it narrows towards its extremities, and 
 both at the Point de Grave and near Bayonne does not exceed 450 
 yards. 
 
 " Owing to their extreme shiftiness of soil, the Dunes can attain no 
 considerable elevation. The sand deposited by the wind on the sum- 
 mit of the hill is always in a state of precarious equilibrium. It has 
 a constant tendency to be precipitated down the other side, and the 
 higher the summit the greater is this tendency, so that there comes 
 at last a moment when no further accumulation in height is possible. 
 The Dune may then extend its basis, may even increase twofold in 
 dimensions, but it no longer rises. 
 
 " Let us note, moreover, that owing to its density the sand cannot 
 be carried even by the most violent winds into the higher regions of 
 the atmosphere ; and that the Dunes, when they have reached a cer- 
 tain elevation, oppose to them an insuperable obstacle. This circum- 
 stance would consequently have a salutary effect, and the accumulation 
 of sand would be determined by a law of its own, if the Dunes, once 
 formed, had time to cohere. But this is not the case. Incessantly 
 does the wind undo or modify its work ; and the loftiest hills being 
 the most exposed to its violence, are quickly reduced to the common 
 level. In general, the greatest elevation of the Dunes corresponds to 
 their greatest breadth. Thus the culminating point of those of Gas- 
 cony is found in the belt situated between the lakes of Cazau and 
 Biscarosse, where the chain is from 7,500 to 9,000 yards across. 
 Their average height is 180 feet to 200 feet above the sea-level ; but 
 some of the hills in the forest of Biscarosse attain an altitude of 320 
 feet. In the neighbourhood of the mouths of the Gironde and the 
 Adour, where the chain is considerably narrowed, the height of the 
 Dunes is only thirty to forty-five feet. 
 
 " The reader must not suppose that the Dunes consist of a single 
 series of sand hills ranged along the shore. He will, however, have 
 conjectured, from our statements respecting their width, that they 
 really compose a chain of several more or less regular ridges. The 
 hills are separated from one another by valleys, locally named laites 
 or lettes. These valleys, where the pluvial waters flow and accumu- 
 late, exhibit a striking contrast, in their freshly-blooming verdure, to 
 the naked, barren Dunes. The general aspect of the landscape may, 
 therefore, be compared to that of the ocean. There is the same 
 
DESCRIPTION OP DUNES. 15 
 
 broken surface, the same extent of undulation, the billows of sand 
 being upheaved by the wind like the billows of the sea, and sharing 
 in their mobility. You must see, says a writer, in order to form an 
 idea of those colossal masses of fine sand, which the wind incessantly 
 skims, and which travel in this way towards the inland country ; you 
 must see their contours so softened that they look like mountains of 
 plaster of Paris polished by the workman's hand, and their surface so 
 mobile that a little insect leaves upon it a conspicuous track ; their 
 slopes, at every degree of inclination ; their everlasting sterility — 
 not a blade of grass, not an atom of vegetation ; their solitude, less 
 imposing than that of the mountains, but still of a truly savage 
 character. You must see, from the summit of one of these ridges, the 
 ocean on your right hand, and on your left the extensive lakes which 
 border the littoral ; and, in the midst of this tumultuous sea of tawny 
 sand, green grassy valleys, rich and fertile pastures, smiling oases of 
 verdure, where herds of horses graze, and cows, half-wild, guarded by 
 shepherds scarcely less wild than they. 
 
 " The marked characteristic of the Dunes, as we have already said, 
 is their mobility, which renders them a constant menace for the 
 neighbouring populations. To the wind which creates them they 
 owe their frequent changes and their inland movement. While the 
 sea eats into the coast, assisted by the breezes which gradually sweep 
 clear the ground before it, the Dunes extend, and drive before them 
 the shallow lakes : these in their turn encroach upon the Landes, and 
 until now man has been constrained to recoil, step by step, before his 
 threefold enemy. It is in this phenomenon, rather than in the un- 
 grateful soil of the Landes, that we must seek the cause of the curse 
 which has seemed so long to rest upon this country-side. You must 
 go back some twenty centuries to trace the origin of the Dunes of 
 Gascony. Fourteen or fifteen hundred years ago the coast north of 
 the Adour was inhabited, and comparatively flourishing. Mimizan 
 was then a town and a sea-port, from which were exported the resinous 
 products of the neighbouring forests. The Normans disembarked 
 there on several occasions. Under its walls, in 506, was fought a 
 great battle between the allied Goths and Ostrogoths on the one side, 
 and the Bearnais, commanded by a bishop of Lescar, on the other. 
 Both town and port to-day are buried under the sands. ' Full fathom 
 five ' lie church and convent, and the busy street, the noisy mart, and 
 the once peaceful home. The present village has nearly perished : 
 the Dune was not three yards from the church when its progress was 
 recently arrested. Other cities, laid down in old charts of the country, 
 
16 APPEARANCE OP THE LANDES. 
 
 but of which not a trace remains, have in this manner disappeared, 
 and entire forests have been ingulfed, now under the sands of the 
 Dunes, now under the sands and waves of the sea. 
 
 " Some parts of the chain have been rendered to a great extent 
 immovable by the vegetation which has gradually covered them, and 
 these have opposed a formidable obstacle to the encroachments of the 
 sands. Yet here and there the barrier has been defied. For example, 
 in the forest of Biscarosse the movable Dunes, actually sweeping over 
 the ancient hills, have not only filled up the valleys, but ingulfed a 
 great number of pines, and raised themselves several yards above the 
 crest of the oldest trees, planted on the summit of the highest hills." 
 
 The name Dunes is traced etymologically to Dun, a hill, and in the 
 designation we may trace the origin of the designation downs given to 
 extensive districts in England. The designation lande is given to 
 waste lands and moors ; and thus may the landes of the Gironde be 
 associated in thought with Dartmoor and Exmoor, and with Howns- 
 low Heath and other places bearing similar designations in England. 
 
 But if associated in thought differences in their character must not 
 be lost sight of. Of Dartmoor, the extensive and romantic table land 
 of granite, which occupies the south-western part of the country of 
 Devon, it is stated in the work from which I have quoted — " In its 
 recesses still linger the eagle, the bustard, and the crane; its solitudes 
 are broken by the hoarse cries of the sparrow-hawk, the hobby, and 
 the goshawk ; and the Cyclopean memorials of Druidism which cover 
 its surface — cromlechs and kistvaens, tolmens and stone-avenues — 
 invest it with a peculiar air of mysterious awe. It extends in length 
 about twenty-two miles (from north to south), and in breadth twenty 
 miles (from east to west). Its total area exceeds 130,000 acres. It 
 rises above the surrounding country like ' the long, rolling waves of 
 a tempestuous ocean, fixed into solidity by some instantaneous and 
 powerful impulse.' A natural rampart is cast around it. Deep 
 ravines, watered by murmuring streams, diversify its aspect, and 
 lofty hills of granite, locally called tors, of which the principal, Yes 
 Tor, has an elevation of 2,050 feet above the sea. Its soil is composed 
 of peat, in some places twenty-five feet deep, underneath which lies 
 a solid mass of granite, occasionally relieved by trap (a volcanic rock), 
 and traversed by veins of tin, copper, and manganese. 
 
 " Nearly in the centre of this dismal wilderness lies an immense 
 morass, whose surface is in many places incapable of supporting the 
 lightest animal, and whose inexhaustible reservoirs supply the foun 
 
DESCRIPTION OF DARTMOOR. 17 
 
 tains of many a river and stream — the Dart, the Teigu, the Taw, the 
 Tavy — all clear as crystal in the summer months, but, after heavy 
 rains, rnuniug redly through the ' stony vales.' The roaring of these 
 torrents, when angry and swollen, is sublime to a degree inconceiv- 
 able by those who have never heard the wild impressive music of 
 untamed Nature. 
 
 " The tors are remarkable for their quaint fantastic outlines, which, 
 like the clouds, suggest all manner of strange similitudes — to dragons, 
 and griffins, and hoary ruins, and even to human forms of gigantic 
 size, apparently confronting the traveller as the lords and natural 
 denizens of the rugged waste. The principal summits are Yes Tor, 
 Cawaand Beacon, Fur Tor, Lynx Tor, Rough Tor, Holne Ridge, Brent 
 Tor, Rippen Tor, Hound Tor, Sheep's Tor, Crockem Tor, and Great 
 Mis Tor. Not only must their variety of form delight the artist, but 
 his eye rests well pleased on their manifold changes of colour — purple, 
 and green, and gray, and blue — now softened by a delicate vaporous 
 shadow, now glowing with intense fulness in the sun's unclouded 
 light. 
 
 " Dartmoor is traditionally reputed to have been anciently clothed 
 with forest. The sole relic now existing is the lonely Wistman't 
 Wood, which occupies a sombre valley, bounded on the one side by 
 Crockern Tor, on the other by Little and Great Bairdown ; the slopes 
 being strewn with gray blocks of granite in ' admired disorder,' as 
 if the Titans had been at their cumbrous play. Starting from this 
 chaos of rocks, appears a wood or grove of dwarf weird-looking oaks, 
 interspersed with the mountain-ash, and everywhere festooned about 
 and garlanded with ferns and parasitical plants. None of these trees 
 exceed twelve feet in height, but at the top they spread far and wide, 
 and ' branch and twist in so fantastic and tortuous a manner as to 
 remind one of those strange things called mandrakes.' Their branches 
 are literally covered with ivy and creeping plants, and their trunks 
 so thickly embedded in a coating of moss that at first sight, says 
 Mrs. Bray, ' you would imagine them to be of enormous thickness in 
 proportion to their height. Their whole appearance conveys to you 
 the idea of hoary age in the vegetable world of creation ; and on 
 visiting Wistman's Wood it is impossible to do other than think of 
 those " groves in stony places " so often mentioned in Scripture as 
 being dedicated to Baal and Astaroth.' 
 
 " That heathen rites were celebrated here in the pre-historic era 
 seems very probable, the best etymologists agreeing that the name is 
 a corruption of Wuc-nian, or Wish-man ; that is, of the old Norse god 
 
 C 
 
18 APPEARANCE OF THE LANDES. 
 
 Woden, who is still supposed to drive his spectral hounds across the 
 silent wastes of Dartmoor. Celtic or Cymric memorials, as we have 
 previously hinted, are very abundant and very various. There are 
 cromlechs, where the Britons buried their dead ; stone pillars, with 
 which they commemorated their priests and heroes ; avenues of 
 upright stones leading up to the circles, where, perhaps, their priests 
 celebrated their religious rites ; kistvaens, or stone-chests, containing 
 the body unburned ; tolmens, or holed stones, whose meaning cannot 
 be determined, but which may probably have had some astronomical 
 uses; bridges, huts, and walled villages, all bearing traces of the 
 handiwork of our ' rude forefathers.' " 
 
 For the counterpart of this we must go considerably to the north 
 of the Landes ; but we find it in Brittany, which, geologically speak- 
 ing, may be regarded as a prolongation of our English mountains, to 
 which, with all the north-west coast of France, they were formerly 
 united. " Brittany," writes Mangin, " belongs to what geologists call 
 the primitive and intermediary formations. It is divided into three 
 belts or longitudinal trenches : those of the north and south consist 
 of primitive rocks, granite, and porphyry ; the central appertains to 
 a more recent formation, to the group of intermediary or secondary 
 rocks, composed in the main of schists and mica-schists, quartz, and 
 gneiss. Schist prevails over a considerable area, and is prolonged to 
 the very extremity of the peninsula. These hard, compact, imper- 
 vious rocks, are entirely bare in many places ; elsewhere, and over a 
 great extent, they are covered but by a thin layer of clayey and 
 sandy earth, where the sudden slopes of the soil do not allow the 
 rains to settle. 
 
 "Here are the plains, often of considerable dimensions, which, 
 bristling with rocks, and broken up by ravines, water-courses, and 
 marshes, constitute the Landes of Brittany. True deserts these, 
 relieved at distant points by an isolated hut, or by a wandering herd 
 of swine, lean cows, and meagre-looking horses, which obtain a scanty 
 subsistence from the heathery soil, sown here and there with tufts of 
 furze, broom, and fern. 
 
 "Under a sky of almost continual sombreness, like that which 
 impends over the pottery districts of England, these landes present a 
 sufficiently sinister and uninviting aspect. The traveller, as he crosses 
 their sepulchral wastes, will hardly marvel that they were anciently 
 a chosen seat of Druidical worship. Like Dartmoor, they would 
 seem to have offered a peculiarly fitting arena for the rites and 
 ceremonies of a creed which we know to have been mysterious in 
 
DESCRIPTION OP BRITTANY. 19 
 
 character and sanguinary in spirit. They are covered with its gray 
 memorials : the masses of granite of different shapes known as Mam- 
 Mrs, or 'long stones,' and peidvens, which appear to have been 
 employed as sepulchral monuments ; dolmens, or ' table-stones ;' and 
 cromlechs (crom, bowed or bending, and lech, a stone), which anti- 
 quaries are now agreed to regard as the remains of the ancient 
 cemeteries or burial places. At Camae, near Quiberon Bay, may be 
 seen a truly remarkable example of the Parallelitha, or avenues of 
 upright stones, forming five parallel rows, which extend for miles 
 over the dreary moorland. What were their uses it is impossible to 
 determine, for there seems little ground to believe, as some writers 
 would have us believe, that they were ' serpent temples,' where the 
 old Ophite worship was celebrated. We can only gaze at them in 
 wonder : mile upon mile of gray lichen stained stones, some twenty 
 feet high, laboriously fashioned, and raised in their present places by 
 the hand of man some twenty centuries agone. 
 
 " On these very dolmens, where the priests of the Tentates were 
 wont to immolate their human victims to their unknown god, the 
 mediaeval sorcerers and sorceresses celebrated the Black Mass, or 
 Mass of Satin, in terrible burlesque of the Roman Catholic sacrament, 
 concocted their abominable philtres, and performed their dreary 
 incantations. Alas for human nature ! In every age it is a prey to 
 the wildest credulity. Even in the present day more than one 
 superstition hovers around the monuments of the Celtic epoch. 
 The Bretons believe them haunted by demons called poulpiquets, who 
 love to make sport of the passing stranger, but will sometimes give 
 both counsel and encouragement to those who know how to address 
 them in the prescribed formulas ; who, like the Ladye in the ' Lay of 
 the Last Minstrel,' at their bidding can bow 
 
 ' The viewless forms of air. ' 
 
 For, in the Breton mind, the superstitions of Druidism have not been 
 wholly uprooted by the teachings of Christianity, still less by those 
 of science and reason. Many a dark and dismal legend flourishes in 
 the lonely recesses of the landes. 
 
 " Brittany, like England, has its Comouaille, or Cornwall, and it 
 is here, particularly in North Cornwall, that we see it under its most 
 desolate aspect, with its chains of black treeless hills covered with 
 heath and furze ; with its deserts of broom and fern, its ruins scat- 
 tered along the winding roads, its attenuated herds wandering at their 
 will across the moors, and its savage, ignorant, and scanty population. 
 
20 APPEARANCE OP THE LANDES, 
 
 The Bretons of Cornwall, according to a French writer, are elevated 
 but a little above the true savage life. Those who dwell upon the 
 coast live on the products of their fishing, except when the fortunate 
 occurrence of a wreck provides them with temporary abundance. 
 At bottom, they possess the qualities and defects of characters 
 strongly tempered, but absolutely uncultivated. They are as hard 
 and bare as their own granite rocks. Persevering, courageous, 
 resolute, they make excellent sailors, the best which France can 
 find ; the sea is for them a second country. Progress, which they 
 do not understand, inspires them with a sort of terror, a gloomy mis- 
 trust. When the railway surveyors first intruded upon their solitudes, 
 these rigid conservatives assailed them with volleys of stones, and, 
 when the railroads were laid down, flung beams across the lines to 
 overthrow the hissing, whirring trains which threatened to disturb 
 their prescriptive barbarism. They asked but to be left alone— to 
 be suffered to live as their forefathers lived — to be spared the 
 ingenuities, successes, vices, and virtues of the New World. But 
 modern civilization, like Thor's hammer, or Siegfried's magic sword 
 Balmung, will break down the last barriers raised by ignorance and 
 superstition. It will shed its light upon the wilds and wastes of 
 Brittany, and compel their inhabitants in the course of yeai's to 
 acknowledge its value and accept its benefits." 
 
 There is not a little in the ethnological remarks made which I am 
 not prepared to homologate. I consider the Parallelitha and similar 
 erections had no connection with Druidism, that they were more 
 probably connected with the worship of Baal in some of its forms, 
 having their counterpart in the high places spoken of in the Jewish 
 Scriptures, while the Druids represented the worshippers of the 
 « groves." But referring thus to this in passing I gladly, and with 
 gratitude, avail myself of the topographical description. 
 
 Ere we reach that stony region in travelling northwards from the 
 Landes of Gascony, we must pass across the peat bogs of Montoir 
 and the Grand Briere, near Savenay, in the department of the Loire 
 Inferieure. They occupy a considerable area of a vast desolate plain, 
 where a few lean sheep crop an insufficient food from the scanty 
 herbage, and whose sole product is turf. " This "country," says 
 Jules Janin, " has no other harvest, no other wealth than its peat ; 
 neither fruit, nor flowers, nor corn, nor pastures, nor rtpose, nor 
 well-being ; the earth is wild, the sky one of iron. It is a region of 
 stagnant waters, pestiferous exhalations, decrepit men, famished 
 animals." 
 
THE SWAMPS OF MOXTOIR 21 
 
 " The swampy levels of Montoir form the natural vestibule to the 
 Armorican Peninsula, which of all the French provinces has the 
 longest and the most vigorously withstood the advance of civiliza- 
 tion, its ideas, and its modern institutions, and has the most rigidly 
 preserved its primitive character. There are many nooks and cor- 
 ners in Brittany scarcely changed in outward aspect or inner life 
 since the remote days when it was a valued appanage of the English 
 crown. They seem to have been plunged in a sleep of centuries, 
 from which the shrill whistle of the steam-engine is only just awaken- 
 ing them. The country is undulating and broken ; in the central 
 districts it assumes quite a mountainous character. It is true that 
 its heights are only of moderate elevation, the loftiest not exceeding 
 2,000 feet ; but they are barren, rude, and sombre in appearance. 
 The coast is picturesque enough to delight the most zealous artist, 
 bordered with high and abrupt cliffs, and lined, as it were, with a 
 beach where the waters of the Channel ever break in floods of spray 
 and foam, and where masses of rock lie scattered of immense size 
 and the most fantastic forms." 
 
 The counterpart to this we find in the English fen country, 
 which extends inland, around an arm of the North Sea called the 
 Wash, into the six counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, 
 Norfolk, Northampton, and Suffolk, with an area of upwards of 
 420,000 acres. Inland it is bounded by an amphitheatral barrier of 
 high lands, and touches the towns of Bolingbroke, Brandon, Earith, 
 Milton, and Peterborough. Into this great basin flow the waters of 
 the greater part of the drainage of nine counties, which gather into 
 the rivers Cam, Glen, Lark, Nene, Great and Little Ouse, Stoke, and 
 Welland, these being linked together by a network of natural and 
 artificial canals. 
 
 " Anciently, the Fens were pleasant to the eye of the lover of the 
 picturesque ; for they contained shining meres and golden reed-beds, 
 haunted by countless water-fowl, and strange, gaudy insects. ' Dark- 
 green alders,' says Kingsley, ' and pale-green reeds stretched for miles 
 round the broad lagoon, where the coot clanked and the bittern 
 boomed, and the sedge-bird, not content with its own sweet song, 
 mocked the notes of all the birds around ; while high overhead hung 
 hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond buzzard, kite beyond kite, as far 
 as eye could see.' "What strange transformations must this wild 
 region have undergone ! There was a time, in all probability, when 
 a great part of the German Ocean was dry land, through which, into 
 a vast estuary between North Britain and Norway, flowed together 
 
22 APPEAEANOE OP THE LANDE8. 
 
 all the rivers of North-eastern Europe — Elbe, Weser, Rhine, Scheldt, 
 Seine, Thames, and all the rivers of east England, as far north as the 
 Humber. Meanwhile, the valleys of the Cam, the Ouse, the Nene, 
 the Welland, the Glen, and the Witham, were slowly ' sawing them- 
 selves out' by the quiet action of rain and rivers. Then came an age 
 when the lowland was swept away by the biting, corroding sea-wash 
 still so powerfully destructive on the east coast of England, as far as 
 Flamborough Head. ' Wave and tide by sea, rain and river by land ; 
 these are God's mighty mills in which he makes the old world new. 
 And as Longfellow says of moral things, so may we of physical, — 
 
 " Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small ; 
 Though he sit and wait with patience, with exactness grinds he all." ' 
 
 These ever-active causes have converted the dry land into the fens. 
 The mud brought down by the rivers cannot get away to sea ; and, 
 with the debris of the coast, it is constantly swept southward by tide 
 and current, and deposited within the great curving basin of the 
 Wash, between Lincolnshire and Norfolk. There it is kept by the 
 strong barrier of shifting sands coming inwards from the sea ; a 
 barrier which also confines the very water of the fens, and spreads it 
 inland into a labyrinth of streams, shallow meres, and bogs. The 
 rainfall, over the whole vast area of dull level, has found no adequate 
 channels of escape for centuries; and hence we may understand how 
 peat — the certain product of standing water — has slowly overwhelmed 
 the rich alluvium, and swallowed up gradually the stately forests of 
 fir and oak, ash and poplar, hazel and yew, which once spread far 
 and wide over the blooming country. 
 
 ' Many a green isle needs must be 
 In the deep wide sea of misery,' 
 
 sings Shelley ; and this dreary outcome of mudbank and bog and 
 mere had its wooded isles, very fair and lovely to behold, redeeming 
 the desolation of the landscape. Such were Ramsey, Lindsey, 
 Whittlesea, whose names remind us of their whilome characteristics 
 lea, ey, an island). In these green places the old monks loved to 
 build their quiet abbeys, rearing their herds in rich pastures, feeding 
 fat fish in their tranquil streams, and dreaming in the shadow of 
 green alder and stately ash. 
 
 " But these Eden-isles were few, and the surrounding marsh was 
 black and dismal enough to scare the boldest spirit, and pestilential 
 enough to sap and undermine the strongest frame. The Romans had 
 attempted to drain and embank it, and their vallum may still be 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE FENS. 23 
 
 tracked along the surface of the marsh-lands, marked to this day by 
 the names of Walsoken, Walton, and Walpoole. In the Middle Ages, 
 however, it returned to its primeval desolateness — a waste and 
 wilderness, haunted by the foul legends of an unwholesome super- 
 stition. In the immediate neighbourhood of the great monasteries 
 of Crowland and Ely, and of the thriving towns, the good work of 
 drainage went on slowly ; but elsewhere the land was given up to 
 the bittern and the heron." 
 
 By Dukes of Bedford much was accomplished in the earlier half of 
 the seventeenth century, and by Rennie, the great engineer, some 
 hundred and fifty years later, to fit these fens for agricultural opera- 
 tions. " Works are now in progress," says the writer from whom, in 
 furtherance of my work, I have quoted so largely, " for rescuing a 
 further portion of the basin of the Wash, to be formed into a new 
 county, and named after the Queen. So that now, in tracts once 
 covered by the sea, or knee-deep in reedy, slushy, pestilential slime, 
 the grass grows luxuriantly, the crops wave in golden abundance, or 
 the breeze takes up and carries afar — 
 
 ' The livelong bleat 
 Of the thick-fleeced sheep from wattled folds.' 
 
 " But the dominion of labour has not yet been established over the 
 the whole Fen-districts. There are still dreary nooks, and gloomy 
 corners, and unproductive wastes ; wild scenes there are, which few 
 Englishmen have any conception of as contained within the boun- 
 daries of their own ' inviolable isle.' Romantic scenery, remarks Mr. 
 Walter White, must not be looked for on the Lincolnshire coast. In 
 all the journey from the Wash till you see the land of Yorkshire, 
 beyond the Humber, not an inch of cliff will your eyes discover. 
 Monotonous is the prospect of — 
 
 1 A level waste, a rounding gray' 
 
 of sand-hills, which vary but slightly in height, and bristle with 
 marum. ' But tame though it be,' continues our authority, ' the 
 scene derives interest from its peculiarity. Strange perspective 
 effects appear in those irregular hills : yonder they run out and form 
 a low dark, purple headland, against which the pale green and yellow 
 of a nearer tongue look bright by contrast. Here for a few furlongs 
 the range rises gray, cold, and monotonous ; there it has a warmth 
 of colour relieved by deep shadows, that change their tint during 
 the hours that accompany the sun while he begins and ends his day. 
 Sitting on the summit of those dry hills, you will remark the con- 
 
24 APPEARANCE OF THE LANDES. 
 
 trasted landscape : on the one side, the level pasture land, league 
 after league of grassy green, sprinkled with villages, farms, churches, 
 and schools, where work and worship will find exercise through ages 
 yet to come ; on the other, league after league of tawny sand, sloping 
 gently outwards to meet the great sea that ever foams or ripples 
 thereupon. On the one hand, a living scene bounded by the distant 
 wolds ; on the other, a desert, sea and shore alike solitary, bounded 
 only by the overarching sky. More thoughts come crowding into 
 the mind in presence of such a scene than are easy to express.' " 
 
 Such as are these English Dunes and Moors and Fens are the 
 Landes, with which the sand dunes which have been reclaimed to 
 man are associated, and of which they form a part. The special 
 characteristic of them is the sand of which they are composed ; the 
 second characteristic of them is the superficial aspect which the hill- 
 like accumulation of the sand gives to the contour of the country ; 
 a third characteristic is the constant onward movement of the sand 
 landward, covering up valuable fertile land with sterile sand and 
 stagnant waters ; and the last, but not least remarkable characteristic 
 is the forests which now wave over extensive areas thus recovered. 
 
 Of these the writer I have quoted, — I am unable to say whether M. 
 Mangin or his translator, — for the latter states that he has made 
 copious additions to the original work, with the view of rendering its 
 scope more comprehensive and complete, and of adapting it specially 
 to the requirements of the English reader — says : — " The works of 
 Charlemagne, on which he employed his veterans to preserve imperilled 
 cities, have been resumed, and with greater success, by a skilful 
 agriculturist, M. Desbiey, of Bordeaux, and an able engineer, M. 
 Bremontier, who have called in nature herself to assist man in his 
 war against nature. Their system consists of sowing in the driest 
 sand the seeds of the sea-pine, mixed with those of the broom 
 (genista scoparia), and the psamma arenaria. The spaces thus sown 
 are then closely covered with branches to protect them from the 
 action of the winds. These seeds germinate spontaneously. The 
 brooms, which spring up rapidly, restrain the sand, while sheltering 
 the young pines, and thenceforth the Dune ceases to move, because 
 the wind can no longer unsettle its substance, and the grains are 
 held together by the roots of the young plants. The work is always 
 begun on the inland side, in order to protect the farmer and the 
 peasant, and to withdraw the infant forest from the unwholesome 
 influence of the ocean-winds. And, in order that the sown spaces 
 
THE FEATURE OF THE LANDES. 25 
 
 shall not themselves be buried under the sands blown up from the 
 shore, a palisade of wicker-work is raised at a suitable distance, 
 which, reinforced by young plants of sandwort (psamma arenaria), 
 check the moving sands for a sufficiently long time to favour the 
 development of the seeds. Finally, the work is completed by the 
 construction of a substantial wall, or rather an artificial cliff, which 
 effectually prevents the further progress of the flood, or directs it 
 seaward, to be arrested on its course by the barrier of the sand-hills. 
 Unable to force a passage through these natural ramparts, they have 
 excavated certain basins, more or less extensive, and more or less 
 deep, which have formed inland seas, communicating with the Atlantic 
 by one narrow issue. 
 
 " It is a noteworthy fact that, owing to the encroachment of the 
 Dunes, these lakes have been constantly forced back upon the inland 
 country. Fortunately, this menacing invasion of the sands has been 
 checked by the great engineering works executed a few years ago ; 
 which, on the one hand, have fixed, and, as it were, solidified the 
 Dunes, and, on the other, have provided for the regular outflow of 
 the waters. The Landes have thus been opened to the persevering 
 labours of the cultivator. The culture of the pine, and the manu- 
 facture of resinous substances, have largely extended, and the time, 
 perhaps, is not far distant when these deserts will almost completely 
 disappear; when these desolate and unproductive plains will pleasantly 
 bloom, transformed into shadowy woods or verdurous meadows. 
 
 " To so fortunate a result nothing will more powerfully contribute 
 than the embankment of the Dunes. These have been, in reality, the 
 true scourge of this country ; these were the moving desert, the con- 
 stantly ascending sea, which had already engulfed forests, villages, 
 even towns, under its billows of sand, and driven before it the ter- 
 rified inhabitants of the coast." 
 
 The expressions employed in this intimation of what is expected 
 remind a Scotsman of his Scottish paraphrase of the predictions of 
 Isaiah — 
 
 " "With joy and peace shall then be led 
 
 the glad converted lands ; 
 The lofty mountains then shall sing, 
 
 the forests clap their hands. 
 "Where briers grew 'midst barren wilds, 
 
 shall firs and myrtles spring ; 
 And nature, through its utmost bounds, 
 
 eternal praise8 sing." 
 
26 APPEARANCE OP THE LANDES. 
 
 I have not seen these plantations, but I have in France had much 
 conversation in regard to them with others of similar tastes who have 
 resided in the midst of them. The accounts given to me were vague, 
 but not more so than conversational statements in general are. They 
 left on my mind the impression that on the sea margin there is a pretty 
 broad beach, and some 100 yards or more from this — 200 it may be, 
 or 300 — the trees have been planted in a belt following, to some ex- 
 tent, the line of the coast, and extending in breadth irregularly from 
 half a mile to a mile, it may be, or more, beyond which the planta- 
 tions are continued in strips of some breadth, crossing each other at 
 right angles, and thus enclosing quadrangular patches or fields, which 
 have been brought under cultivation. Upwards of 100,000 acres of 
 land were reported to me as having been reclaimed, and to a con- 
 siderable extent covered with trees. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Legislation in Regard to the Planting op the Landes 
 with Trees. 
 
 The planting of the Landes with trees was begun in 1789, under the 
 direction of the Minister, M. Necker, (father of Madame de Stael). 
 
 On the 13th Messidor an IX (2nd July, 1801), there was issued the 
 following Arrete, or Order, relative to the plantation with wood of 
 the Dunes on the coast of Gascony. 
 
 " The Consuls of the Republic on the report of the Minister of the 
 Interior, the Council of State having been heard, order : 
 
 " Art. 1. Measures shall be taken to continue to fix and to plant in 
 wood the Dimes of the coasts of Gascony — beginning with those of 
 La Teste — according to the plans presented by the citizen Bremon- 
 tier, engineer, and the Prefect of the department of the Gironde. 
 
 " 2. To this effect there shall be established a commission, composed 
 of the chief engineer of the department, who shall preside, a forest 
 administrator, and three members taken from the agricultural section 
 of La Societe des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Bourdeaux, who shall 
 be appointed by the Prefect on presentation by the society. 
 
 " The said commission shall direct and superintend the execution of 
 the works, together with the employment of the funds which shall be 
 appropriated thereto. The whole under the authority, and with the 
 approval of, the Prefect." . . . 
 
 By another order, issued under date of the 3rd Jour complementaire, 
 an IX, it was ordered : 
 
 " Art. I. The measures prescribed under Order of the 13th Messidor, 
 an IX, for the fixation and plantation of the Dunes on the coasts of 
 Gascony shall, in what relates to wicker hurdles and other artificial 
 works which they shall require, be discussed on the plans of the 
 citizen Bremontier, Engineer-in-chief, and approved by the Prefect of 
 the department of the Gironde ; and in what relates to sowings and 
 plantations these must be arranged with the Administration of Forests. 
 
 " 2. The expenses for hurdles and other artificial works shall be 
 made from the funds of the department of the Interior, and those for 
 the plantations and the salaries of forest agents from the funds 
 appropriated to forests." 
 
28 LEGISLATION RELATIVE TO 
 
 By decree of 12th July, 1808, it was declared : " Art. 22. There 
 shall be established in the department of the Landes a commission 
 for the plantation of the Dunes. 
 
 " This commission shall be organised in the same manner as that 
 established at Bordeaux in execution of the decree of the 18th 
 Messidor, an IX." 
 
 On the 14th December, 1810, the following decree was passed by 
 Napoleon : 
 
 "Napoleon, &c. — On the report of our Minister of the Interior, 
 our Council of State having been heard, we have decreed and do 
 decree as follows : 
 
 " Art. 1. In the maritime departments there shall be taken measures 
 for the sowing, the plantation, and the culture of vegetables known 
 to be the most suitable for the fixation of Dunes. 
 
 " 2. To this effect the Prefects of all the departments in which are 
 Dunes shall cause to be prepared in their respective departments by 
 the Ingenieurs des Fonts et Chaussees, a chart of the Dunes which are 
 susceptible of being fixed by plantations appropriate to their nature ; 
 they shall cause to be distinguished on their charts the Dunes which 
 belong to the domains, those which belong to communes, and those 
 which are the property of private persons. 
 
 " 3. Each Prefect shall draw out, or cause to be drawn out, in 
 support of these charts, a memoir on the most advantageous manner 
 of proceeding, according to localities, in the sowing and planting of 
 the Dunes ; they shall annex to this report a draft of regulations, 
 which shall contain the measures of administration the most 
 appropriate to his department, which can be usefully employed to 
 effect the end desired. 
 
 " 4. The charts, memoirs, and drafts of regulations, got up and 
 drawn out in execution of the foregoing articles, shall be sent by the 
 Prefects to our Minister of the Interior, who can, on the report of our 
 Director-General des Fonts et Chaussees, order the plantation if the 
 Dunes do not include any private property ; and, in the contrary case, 
 he shall make his report to us, to be by us decided in Council of State 
 in the form adopted for regulations of public administration. 
 
 " 5. In the cases in which the Dunes shall be the property of private 
 persons, or of communes, the charts shall be published, and posted 
 up in the forms prescribed by the law of 8th March, 1810; and if 
 the said private persons or communes find themselves incapable of 
 executing the works commanded, or refuse to do so, the public 
 
PLANTATIONS ON THE DUNES. 4tf 
 
 administration shall be authorised to see to the plantation at their 
 expense ; they shall retain possession of the Dunes, and collect the 
 proceeds of the fellings which may then be made, until complete 
 recovery shall have been made of the expenses which have been 
 incurred in the case, and of interest thereon ; after this the Dunes 
 shall return to the proprietors, under burden of maintaining satis- 
 factorily the plantations thereon. 
 
 " 6. In time coming no felling de plants d'oyats, of mat grass epines 
 maritimes, pine trees, silver firs, larches, and other arenaceous plants, 
 ministering to the conservation of the Dunes, shall be made without 
 the special authorisation of the Director-General des Ponts et 
 Chaussees, and on the advice of the Prefects. 
 
 " 7. There shall be established Guards for the conservation of the 
 plantations actually existing on the Dunes, or which shall be made 
 there in time to come ; their appointment, their number, their duties, 
 their salary, their uniform, shall be regulated after the mode in use, 
 for the guards of communal woods. 
 
 " Offences shall be prosecuted before the tribunal, and punished 
 conformally to the provisions of the Penal Code. 
 
 " 8. We do not design, by the present decree, to innovate aught on 
 what is practised for the plantations which are being executed in the 
 Dunes of the departments of the Laudes, and of the department of 
 the Gironde. 
 
 " 9. Our Ministers of the Interior, and of Finances, are charged 
 each in what concerns him, with the execution of this decree." 
 
 After the restoration there was decreed the following Ordinance : 
 
 " Ordinance of 5th February, 1817, relative to the fixation and the 
 sowing of the Dunes on the departments of the Gironde and the 
 Landes. 
 
 " Louis, &c. — On the reports of our Ministers, Secretaries of State 
 in the departments of the Interior and of Finance, our Council of 
 State being heard, we have ordained, and do ordain as follows : 
 
 "Art. 1. The works of fixation and of sowing the Dunes in the 
 departments of the Gironde and of the Landes shall be resumed in 
 1817. 
 
 " These works shall, in regard to execution, be directed by our 
 Director-General des Ponts et Chaussees, under the authority of our 
 Minister of the Interior. 
 
 2. The necessary funds for this operation shall be charged in the 
 budget des Ponts et Chaussees, the yearly credit must not exceed 
 9 ,000 francs for the two departments. 
 
30 LEGISLATION RELATIVE TO 
 
 3. The works shall be executed, the expenditure made, aud the 
 accounts rendered, according to the mode adopted for the service 
 des Fonts et Chaussees. 
 
 " 4. In succession as the sowings reach an age which shall be 
 afterwards determined, they shall cease to be entrusted to the 
 Director des Fonts et Chaussees ; but he shall transfer them to the 
 General Administration of Forests. 
 
 " 5. The General Administration of Forests shall furnish, free of 
 charge, to the Direction des Fonts et Chaussees, the seeds, young trees, 
 and boughs, yielded by the forests which they administer, which 
 shall be necessary for the fixation and sowing of the Dunes. 
 
 " 6. The Ingenieurs des Fonts et Chaussees are authorised to require 
 assistance of the forest agents and guards in the tours of inspection 
 which they shall have to make over the whole extent of the Dunes. 
 
 " 7. It shall subsequently be decided what special measures shall 
 be taken to prevent and to repress the offences which tend to destroy 
 or to injure the works of sowing the Dunes. 
 
 " 8. A regulation of our Director-General des Fonts et Chaussees, 
 approved by our Minister, Secretary of State for the Interior, shall 
 determine the advance of the works, their range and their surveillance. 
 (This was done by a regulation dated 7th October, 1817.) 
 
 "9. The orders of 2nd July, and 20th September, 1807, are 
 abrogated, together with all other provisions contrary to the present 
 ordinance. 
 
 " 10. Our Minister, Secretary of State for the Interior, is charged 
 with the execution of the present ordinance." 
 
 On 29th April, 1862, was issued a decree, which places the 
 superintendance of the Dunes within the duties of the Minister of 
 Finance. * The provisions of this are as follows : 
 
 " Art. 2. The works of fixation, of maintenance, of conservation, and 
 of exploitation of the Dunes in the maritime coast are placed within 
 the range of duties of the Minister, Secretary of State of Finance, 
 and they are entrusted to the Forest Administration. 
 
 " 3. These provisions shall come into operation on 1st July, 1862. 
 
 " 4. Our Ministers of State, of Finance, of Agriculture, of Commerce, 
 and of Public Works, are charged each in what relates to his de- 
 
 * A law appears to have been issued in 1857, enjoining the draining and 
 planting of all lands belonging to communities within the district of the 
 Landes, but this I have not seen. 
 
PLANTATIONS ON THE DUNES. 31 
 
 partment with the execution of the present decree, which shall be 
 inserted in the Bulletin des Lois. 
 
 These enactments tell this much of the history of the work : 
 that the views of M. Bremontier commended themselves to the 
 execution of the Republic, and that he was entrusted with the 
 execution of the work at the public expense, under legitimate 
 restriction ; that the work was ordered to be begun at the Dunes 
 of La Teste in Gascony, in the first year of the present century, and 
 seven years later they were begun on the Landes ; that the work was 
 carried out with if possible greater energy under Napoleon the 1st, 
 and subsequently under Louis XIV ; and that, carried out previously 
 under the Minister of the Interior, they were in 1862 transferred to 
 the control of the Minister of Finance, and entrusted to the Forest 
 Administration. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Literature Relative to the Arrest and Cultivation op 
 Drift-Sands in France. 
 
 The work of planting the Landes of Gascony, as has been stated, was 
 begun in 1789. 
 
 In 1790 was published a Memoire sur les Dunes, <bc, hy~ M. 
 Bremontier, by whom the work was projected and begun under the 
 direction of M. Necker. In this memoir M. Bremontier describes the 
 formation of the sand-dunes, and of the measures which had been 
 adopted to arrest tbe drifting of the sand. 
 
 In 1806 appeared a Rapport sur les differ ents Memoirs de M. 
 Bremontier, by M. M. Laumont, et autres. 
 
 In 1827 was published Historique de la creation d\une Eichesse 
 Millionaire, par la cidture des Pins, by M. Delamarre ; 
 
 In 1831, a Notice sur les travaux de la fixation des Dunes, by M. 
 Lefert, Ingenieur des Fonts et des Chaussees, in Annates des Ponts et 
 Chaussees, 1831, 2nd Semestre. 
 
 In 1833, in Annates des Ponts, &c, 1st Semestre, were reprinted 
 the Memoire by Bremontier, and the Rapport, by Laumont and others, 
 mentioned above. 
 
 1842, a Notice sur le pin Maritime, by M. Lorentz, appeared in 
 Annales forestiere. 
 
 1847, a Memoire sur les Dunes de Golf de Gascoyne, par M. Laval, 
 Ingenieur en chef, Directeur des Ponts et Chaussees, appeared in 
 Annales des Ponts, &c, 2nd, Semestre. 
 
 This is spoken of as a very remarkable Memoir, which, though 
 less extensive and comprehensive in subject than that of the dis- 
 tinguished Bremontier, fully and perfectly explains the formation of 
 Dunes, and the latest and most approved methods employed to fix 
 them. 
 
 In 1857 was published a second edition of Mise en valeur des terres 
 pauvres par le Pin Maritime, by Am6dee Boitel, Inspecteur de 
 V agriculture. 
 
 In 1862 appeared an interesting article entitled, Le littoral de la 
 France, by Elissee Rectus, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, for 
 December, 1862. 
 
FRENCH AND GERMAN LITERATURE. 33 
 
 In 1864 was published Traite de la Culture du Pin Maritime dans 
 les Landes, by Eloi Sarnanos, Paris. 8vo. 
 
 About this time, I presume, was published " The Desert World," 
 by Arthur Mangin, from a translation of which, published by Nelson 
 and Sons, I have quoted so largely ; and "Weld's " Tour through the 
 Pyrenees," to which I am also so greatly indebted. 
 
 In 1870 an interesting report on the Landes of Gascony was made 
 to the academy, by M. Faye. 
 
 These works I cite as bearing chiefly upon the planting of the 
 Landes of Gascony and the Gironde. 
 
 The literature thus cited relates only to one aspect or department 
 of a wider subject : The natural history of drift sands, and means 
 of arresting and utilising them. 
 
 The literature on this subject is voluminous. It is chiefly in con- 
 nection with sylviculture in Gascony that the students of the natural 
 history of Dunes in France have published the results of their obser- 
 vations. It may be, and probably it was the case, that the planting 
 of the Landes with trees called then for the study of the subject, and 
 supplied, at the same time, the opportunity of careful observation. 
 But much as we may owe to French writers on the subject, it is not 
 to them alone that we are indebted for information on the subject ; 
 and none will be more ready than they, with the courtesy of their 
 nation, and the honourable feeling of men of science, to admit that it 
 is not to them or to their countrymen, but to others, we are indebted 
 for information on many points surpassing in importance in their 
 relation to physical geography what they have communicated, 
 relating as this did chiefly, though not exclusively, to the cultivation 
 of these Dunes when formed, and the practicability of doing so 
 advautageously to all concerned. 
 
 While they were thus employed, in other nations the subject in 
 other aspects of it was commanding and receiving attention. In 
 1832 appeared Anleitung zum Auban der Sandfldcken ; and in 1838 
 was published a work entitled Over den Oorsprong en die Geschiedenis 
 der Hollandsche Duinen, by Hull. The latter relating to the origin 
 of the Dunes, the former to the planting of them. 
 
 In 1841 appeared a paper, by G. Forchhammer, entitled Geognostische 
 Studien am Meeres Ufer, in Leonhard und Brown's Neues Jahrbuch 
 fur Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie, &c. Jahrgang, 1841. 
 
 In 1846, was published Die Inseln und Marschen der Herzogihilmer 
 Schleswig und Holstein. Dresden and Leipsig. 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
34 LITERATURE OP THE SUBJECT 
 
 la 1850, Der Dunenbau auf Ostsee, Kusten West-Preussens, by G. 
 C. A. Krause, 1850, appeared; and subsequently there was published. 
 
 Iu 1854, Ansichten uber die Bewaldung der Steppendes Europdischen 
 Russlands, by J. von den Brincken. Braunschwieg. 8vo. 
 
 In 1856 was published at Haarlem De Boden von Nederlanden, by 
 W. C. H. Staring. 
 
 In 1861 was published at Copenhagen Om Klit formationen og 
 Klittens Behandling, og Bestyvelse, by C. C. Andreson. 
 
 And in 1873 was published at Vienna Der Eicropdische Flug sand 
 mid seine Kultur, by Josef Wessely, in which is given a list of upwards 
 of 100 books and papers on subjects pertaining to this department of 
 forest science in Hungarian, Latin, and German, published in 
 Hungary alone. 
 
 In our own language valuable information in regard to the natural 
 history of sand, and of sand dunes, is given by the Honourable Mr 
 G. P. Marsh in his volume on " The Earth as Modified by Human 
 Action ;" and by Professor R. C. Kedzie of the Agricultural College 
 of the State of Michigan, in a lecture delivered at the College, in 
 September, 1870 ; which will be printed in the appendix. 
 
 It does not come within the scope of my purpose in this volume 
 to enter upon the consideration of the more comprehensive views of 
 the subject thus opened up. The discussion of these is for the pre- 
 sent postponed . 
 
 In accordance with what has been advanced in a previous chapter, 
 is a narrative of the operations given in an article on pine trees, 
 which appeared in the Edinburgh Review in October, 1864. 
 
 From this it appears the Landes, in Gascony in 1789, covered 300 
 square miles, ever shifting, and ever encroaching on the productive 
 land beyond this sand. M. Bremontier, in the administration of forests, 
 set himself to fix, aod, if practicable, so to utilise this as to make it 
 productive. 
 
 " In his report of proceedings, he compared this sandy tract to a 
 billowy sea. It offered nothing \o the eye but a monotonous 
 repetition of white wavy hillocks perfectly destitute of vegetation. 
 When violent storms of wind occurred, the surface of these downs was 
 entirely changed — what were hills had become valleys, and valleys, 
 hills. The sand on these occasions was often blown into the interior 
 of the country, actually covering cultivated fields, villages, and 
 even entire forests. This was done so gradually by a shower of 
 particles as fine as the sand used for hour glasses that nothing was 
 
IX THE " EDINBURGH REVIEW." 35 
 
 destroyed. The saud gradually rose amongst the crops as if they 
 were inundated with water ; and the herbage and the tops of trees 
 appeared quite green, and healthy even at the moment of their being 
 submerged. On this moving and shifting sea, M. Bremontier sowed 
 seeds of the common broom mixed with those of the pinaster, com- 
 mencing on the side next the sea — or on that from which the wind 
 generally prevailed, and sowing in narrow zones in directions at right 
 angles to that of the wind. The first zone was protected by a line 
 of hurdles, and after it was established, it protected the second, as 
 the second did the third, and so on. 
 
 " To prevent the seed being blown away before it had germinated 
 and become firmly rooted, he protected it by various ingenious modes, 
 such as hurdles and thatching, and he had at last the gratification, 
 after conquering many difficulties, of seeing his first zones firmly 
 established. The rest was then comparatively easy ; and by degrees 
 the trees covered the whole of these sandy downs, not only providing 
 the interior country with a barrier against the incui-sion of the sands, 
 but turning the downs themselves from a desolate waste into a source 
 of productive industry. Although the timber is of little value, the 
 manufacture of tar, turpentine, and other resinous products furnishes 
 sufficient occupation for the inhabitants, who are thinly scattered 
 over large spaces. Among the efforts of man to control the elements 
 and the powers of nature the conquests of the Landes from the desola- 
 tion of the desert is entitled to a place beside the recovery of Holland 
 from the empire of the sea. 
 
 "An agricultural genius, who, having studied agriculture, and 
 particularly drainage, under scientific teachers, devised a system of 
 reclaiming and husbandry, which has been very successful. 
 
 " Prosperity is rapidly following these improvements, and, what is 
 better, malaria no longer poisons the reclaimed district. The 
 peasantry enjoy better health, and M. Pierre firmly believes that the 
 terrible pellagri will soon be unknown in the Landes." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Culture op the Maritime Pine on the Landes op Gascony. 
 
 M. Boitel, in his volume entitled Mise en valeur des Terres pauvres 
 par le pin maritime, supplies much of the information which is 
 naturally desired in proceeding to enquire what steps should be taken 
 in carrying out similar measures elsewhere. 
 
 The following is a resume of the details of operations followed in 
 Gascony, as reported by him. Having referred to the circumstance 
 that these two distinct forms of sand-lands, the one situated more in 
 the interior of the land, immobile, or at least settled, and ranked by 
 geologists amongst the formations of the tertiary period ; the other 
 found in the neighbourhood of the sea, and belonging to the dune 
 formations still going on, mobile, and affected by the winds ; he 
 describes, first, the formation of pineries, or plantations of pine on 
 the fixed sands. 
 
 Operations are carried on generally thus on lands covered with 
 heather, or heather brooms, and whins : If the land be capable of 
 tillage they begin by enclosing it, so as to exclude cattle, which, but 
 for this precaution, would over-run the plantation, and do great 
 damage to the seedlings or plants. This is effected by the formation 
 of what is locally called a barradeau, composed of an exterior ditch, 
 the inner bank of which is furnished with a wall of earth covered 
 with sods about a metre, or 40 inches, in height. It is constructed 
 entirely of earth dug in the formation of the ditch, and is almost 
 vertical on the outside ; on its inner side it is formed of the sand 
 furnished by the same ditch, leaning against the wall to a height of 
 45 m.m., or 18 inches. 
 
 This done, advantage is taken of the weather to set fire to the 
 bush, taking necessary precautions against the extension of this 
 beyond the enclosure to the bush, or pineries adjacent. If the ditch 
 be not deemed sufficient, a band of 1 or 2 metres in breadth is cut 
 with a scythe along the outside of the barradeau, and the bush and 
 brushwood thus obtained is thrown into the interior of the enclosure. 
 
 When the growth of bush is strong and near a tile-work, it is often 
 advantageous, instead of burning it on the ground, to sell it for use 
 in the kiln. 
 
boitel's account of operation. 37 
 
 Some careless proprietors sow the pine seed on the land amongst 
 the bush, without any preparatory work. In such cases the seedlings 
 push their way with difficulty, and the young pines remain long in a 
 miserable and languishing state, if they do not altogether succumb in 
 the struggle. In the district of Orleans a careful preparation of the 
 soil is necessary, but in Gascony it is enough that the heath be 
 mown or burned. 
 
 It is found advantageous to sow in September, but it may be sown 
 on till May, and in favourable spots till the end of that month. 
 
 When the ground is free, five or six seeds are deposited in holes 
 made with a small wooden trowel, 60 m.m., or 2 feet apart, and 10 or 
 12 inches deep. Where the ground is hard or covered with sod, 
 the holes are dug with a pick-axe or a hoe. Brooms are sown at the 
 same time to give shade and shelter to the seedlings, which are very 
 sensitive, both to sunshine and to cold, 
 
 By Bremontier, first hurdles or wicker work, and afterwards trees 
 were employed in his successful undertakings to arrest the drift-sands 
 of the Landes, and the two appliances are used conjointly; while not 
 a little is accomplished by the natural, or aided, spread of the 
 indigenous vegetation, the different kinds of which, in accordance with 
 the laws regulating the distribution of plants, grow well in their own 
 domains. 
 
 11 On the very margin of the sea," says Boitel, " that is at the limit 
 reached by the waves on the slope of the coast directly opposed to all 
 the marine influences, we admire the robust vegetation of the 
 calaniagrostis armaria, (a species of small reed), called there gourbet ; 
 of the triticum junceum, (a species of Couch grass) ; and of the 
 Festuca sabulicola (a species of Fescue grass). These are the three 
 species of plants which, by their vivacious condition, their long, wide- 
 stretching and resisting roots, their numerous and persistent leaves, 
 and the length of their stipes, or stalks, contribute most powerfully to 
 arrest the sands. Some other herbaceous plants also are feeble 
 auxiliaries to them in doing so — such are the convolvulus soldanella 
 (the sea convolvulus), the arenaria peploides (ovate leaved Honckenya), 
 the cakile maritinut (sea rocket), the galum armaria (a species of 
 lady's obedstraw), the erynglum maritimum (sea holly), and the 
 euphorbia pa?rilis (sea spurge). 
 
 " Leaving this little slope battered by the sea, and mounting the 
 terrace which dominates the sea there for a breadth of from 400 to 
 500 metres — ligneous vegetables are as yet unable to maintain them- 
 
38 CULTURE OP THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 selves against the sea-breeze, — we find only a herbaceous vegetation, 
 which comprehends the species which have been mentioned, and with 
 them the following : — Elychrysum stoechas (a species of everlasting), 
 carex arenaria (sand carex), linaria serpyllifolia (thyme-leaved toad 
 flax), thymus serpyllum (wild thyme), hoeleria cristata (crested koeleria), 
 aira canescens (gray hair grass), lotus corlatus (nicurd's foot trefoil), 
 jasione montana (common sheep's bit), silene bicolor (a species of 
 campion, or catchfly), alyssum armarium (sand alyssum), hieraceum 
 prostatism (a species of hawkwood), anthyllis vulneraria (lady's fingers), 
 astragalus bayonensis (a species of milk vetch), medicago maritima 
 (seaside medick), dianthus gallicus (French pink), ononis spinosa 
 (prickly rest-harrow), sedum acre (biting stoncrop), diotis candidissiam, 
 (white cotton weed), thrincia hirta (hairy thrincia), crithmum mariti- 
 mum (sea camphire), artemisia crinthmifolium (camphire leaved worm- 
 wood)." 
 
 It is the zone which succeeds this last, extending from Bayonne to 
 Cape Breton, which has, by the care of the Government, been devoted 
 to the culture of the maritime pine. 
 
 In regard to outlying portions of the zone of plantations, he says : 
 — "It is interesting to visit the maritime pines, which look like 
 advanced posts, planted there to withstand the sea, and arrest the 
 winds and the sand. Although they are under the shelter of an en- 
 ormous screen of sand accumulated by the waves, they are all mutil- 
 ated and deformed ; no one has kept his head ; they have the trunk 
 laid against the ground, the branches are covered up with sand, and 
 having assumed the appearance of young pine layers. The sea winds 
 have levelled up the sand on them to a depth of 1.50 meters, or 5 feet. 
 The grains of sand driven by the tempest give to the leaves violent 
 and multiplied strokes, which make them become yellow and dry. 
 
 " In proportion as the distance between them and the sea is in- 
 creased, being numerous and varied, they give mutual support ; 
 they also increase in size, and resume by degrees their natural form. 
 
 "Beyond this zone of deformed and stunted pines we find at about a 
 kilometre, (two thirds of a mile) from the sea, beautiful pineries 
 which furnish in abundance wood and resin. But it must always be 
 born in mind that these pines never acquire the dimensions, the 
 regularity, and the vertical growth of the pineries farther inland ; 
 the influence of the sea makes itself be felt over a radius of from 2 
 to 3 kilometres (or two miles)." 
 
 Sometimes a spontaneous and vigorous vegetation fixes and consc^li- 
 
ACCOUNT GIVEN BY COURREGES. 39 
 
 dates the sand on level spots which present little hold to the violence 
 of the wind ; hut it is the maritime pine which plays the most im- 
 portant part in effecting this. 
 
 Two principal things have to be attended to by the forester to 
 whom it is entrusted to sow the pines in these mobile lands. He 
 must seek first to prevent the adjacent sand from invading and 
 annihilating the sowiug ; and, second, to prevent the wind carrying 
 away or otherwise modifying the surface of the ground sown : that is, 
 in other words, he must fix down the adjoining sand, and protect the 
 ground sown. The first must be done by plantation of Gourbet, 
 calamagrostis arenaria (sand small reed), or by clayonnages, lines of 
 wickerwork. We are indebted to Courreges, a careful observer, 
 early lost to forest science, for the following notes preserved in the 
 Annates forestiere for 1847, which relate to the employment of these 
 wickerwork fences and the subsequent sowing of the seed. 
 
 " The clayonnage is the best means to employ to consolidate the 
 drift-sands and prevent their displacement on parts exposed to the 
 wind ; and this is the first thing to do before proceeding to sow the 
 seed. 
 
 " Clayonnage may be effected in three ways — first, with planks or 
 beams ; second, with stakes dressed with branches ; third, with 
 heather or other bushes. 
 
 " It is earned out in such a way as to receive at an angle of 45°, 
 the winds coming from the north-west or from the south-west, which 
 are the most violent winds, and those most to be feared for the 
 sowings. It takes the form of a triangle of which the base is parallel 
 to the shore, and the two sides form, with this base, an angle of 45°, 
 the exact direction of the aforesaid winds." 
 
 The employment of planks and beams, in the structure of these, is 
 almost abandoned. It is the most expensive of the three modes 
 of clayonnage, and it does not appear to me that it would be of any 
 use to describe it. 
 
 " The Clayonnage of stakes, is composed of poles, about 2 metres 
 (or nearly 7 feet) long, planted in lines some 20 inches apart. They 
 are uuited by branches of heather, or other bushes placed as closely 
 together as possible 
 
 11 The Clayonnage of heather is formed of four parallel ranges of 
 bundles of Erica Scoparia (small green-flowered heath), or of other 
 bushes growing on the land, such as whins, brooms, &c. These 
 bundles may be 9 or 10 inches in girth ; they are planted — quincunx, 
 fashion 6 inches apart — in lines 10 inches distant. 
 
40 CULTURE OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 "The moving sand striking against this is stopped, and it gradually 
 fills up all the intervals, and forms thus a slope with two sides. In 
 proportion as the dune rises, care is taken to raise, from time to time, 
 all the bundles of the four ranks until it is judged that the dune is 
 sufficiently elevated to protect the sowings on the adjacent zone. 
 
 " The costs of the two are about the same ; but the latter lasts 
 longer, and is more easily maintained. Nevertheless, the former is 
 perferred for points on which the wind acts with more force and 
 violence." 
 
 Of the sowing, M. Courreges reports — 
 
 "They sow by hand broad cast 16 kilogrammes (about 351bs.) of 
 pine seed, and 7 kilogrammes (15 J lbs.) of broom seed to the acre, 
 sowing the one after the other, because, being of different weights, 
 they would be ill sown if they were mixed. 
 
 "They immediately cover up the surface sown with brushwood, 
 composed of heather, whins, and other bushes, laid with the root to 
 the wind, that they may be less easily raised by the action of the 
 wind, and fixity is given to the covering by loading it with some 
 shovelfuls of sand. 
 
 " Branches of the pine are little esteemed as a covering, because 
 they very soon become despoiled of the leaves with which they are 
 clothed. 
 
 " When the covering up of the ground is completed, it is well to 
 cast over it 4 or 5 kilogrammes (9 or 10 lbs.) of pine seed, which 
 falling between the branches, may come to replace seeds buried to 
 too great a depth by the treading of the workmen. 
 
 " The broom and the maritime pine appear above the sand about 
 the same time, but the broom developes more rapidly, and soon covers, 
 with its shade, the young pines, the vegetation of which shows itself 
 pretty promptly and pretty vigorously under the protecting shelter." 
 
 In the Landes they value the cork oak, and not without reason, 
 because of its product, and it is often grown along with the maritime 
 pine, under the shade and shelter of which it grows up erect, yielding 
 its bark in good condition for sale, whereas otherwise it is apt to be- 
 come bushy. It is sown in a similar way two years after the sowing 
 of the pine. 
 
 In some cases, but not generally, pines produced by natural sowing 
 on marshy land, are cut out with a sod of such size as to contain all 
 the rootlets, and planted in holes dug for them of the same size, with 
 
ARREST OP THE SAND. 41 
 
 the same exposure, arranged in lines, and from 6 to 7 metres, (20 to 
 24 feet) apart. This cannot be done with seedlings in sandy soil, 
 as the soil would not cohere to the roots. When done quickly it 
 often succeeds well ; but with sundry disadvantages. 
 
 The trees yield resin as well as the others, but they do not grow so 
 regularly as to yield equally useful wood. 
 
 By Boitel it is intimated that it is well that the young pines which 
 grow in the vicinity of the sea should be numerous and closely grown, 
 as they can then resist with greater efficacy the shock of the winds 
 and storms, aud, through the mutual support which they give, they are 
 less likely to bend and break under the load of snow cast upon them 
 in winter. 
 
 The expense being greatly increased by the covering of branches, 
 to avoid this in many cases after the preliminary step of securing 
 shelter by an artificial dune, raised by clayonnage, they wait till the 
 sand is fixed by a spontaneous vegetation, or a plantation of gourbet 
 (calamagrostis arenaria), in spots a metre, or 40 inches apart ; and 
 when this has been done the grain is sown or planted in accordance 
 with the method adopted on old inland sands. This is found to 
 do pretty well. 
 
 When none of the measures described are practicable, the seed is 
 sown on the bare and mobile sand, and covered with branches of 
 pine obtained from the thinnings and prunings of the nearest pineries. 
 
 In this case, the branches are disposed north and south ; along- 
 side of the first branch is laid a second ; along-side of the second a 
 third, and so on till the summit of the dune is reached. The 
 branches are cut of equal length, somewhere between 3 metres, or 
 3--50— or 10 and 12 feet. 
 
 The first line of branches being formed, a second is laid down, and 
 a third, the one to the right, and the other to the left, in such a way 
 that the branches intercross. 
 
 And to fix the whole, there is laid on the ends of the branches 
 a pine pole of about 8 centimetres, 3 or 4 inches in circumference, 
 which is fixed in the ground at the end with small hooks of wood. 
 
 If any part of the dune be firm, then this covering is dispensed 
 with. 
 
 The expense of covering is great, but this need not be grudged, as 
 the drift sands, once covered with pines, produce vigorous forests, 
 which in a few years furnish wood and resins in abundance. And 
 thus have these drift sands been arrested, and kept from carrying 
 destruction to fields, and forests, and villages more remote, as may 
 
 F 
 
42 CULTURE OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 be seen to have happened near the little lake of Leon, and at Vielle, a 
 village of the Landes, where even the church disappeared under the 
 sand borne thither by the wind. 
 
 In accordance with this account is the following given by M. 
 Bagneris, Inspecteur des Forets, et Professeur a VEcole forestidre 
 de Nancy, who visited the plantations in 1873 : — " In the month of 
 January last," says he in a supplement to a volume published by him, 
 entitled, Manuel de Sylviculture, " I made an excursion through the 
 district of the Dunes, from Bayonne to Tremblade, accompanied by 
 M. Nanquette, Director of the School of Forest Science, and my 
 colleague, M. Broilliard. I can thus give an account of the means 
 used for their fixation and reboisement. I also studied the treatment 
 of the maritime pine as regards the collection of resinous products. 
 
 " On the low and sandy shores which skirt the sea between the 
 mouths of the Adour and the Gironde, every tide bears along a very 
 fine sand. At low water this sand is conveyed inland by the wind, 
 making constant encroachments and it is always succeeded by more, 
 whence result moving heaps, sometimes 70 metres high (upwards of 
 230 feet), sloping gently on the side next the sea, and steep on that 
 next the land. Sometimes these heaps take the form of continuous 
 hills lying in straight lines with valleys between, sometimes they 
 appear without any order. This depends on the coast line. The 
 former arrangement is met with between the Adour and the Gironde, 
 whilst at the Point de la Coubre the second form I found to prevail. 
 
 "These moving sand hills are called Dunes. It is ascertained that 
 their progress landward is at the average rate of 4"30 m. a year 
 (15 feet), and that the quantity of sand thus transported is about 75 
 cubic metres to the running metre of the length of the Dune. (In- 
 formation given by M. Dutemps du Gric, Conservateur at Bourdeaux). 
 The valleys there called lettes are of variable size, the bottom is fiat 
 and usually marshy where the Dunes are bare, or dunes blanches as 
 they are called in that country. 
 
 " It may easily be imagined what an interest is taken in reclaiming 
 and fixing these Dunes whose advance threatens to swallow up all, 
 even menacing human habitations, which more than once it has been 
 necessary to move inland from before them. In the first place the 
 sand is temporarily arrested by means of clagonnages and stone, 
 rooted plants, such as the gourbet, the spurge, the fesgue grass. The 
 maritime pine follows to fix it and make it valuable. This last is 
 admirably suited for such local conditions as there prevail. It grows 
 naturally in mild climates, and its tap root is furnished with strong 
 
REPORT BY BAGNERI8. 43 
 
 lateral branches, which throw off throughout their length numerous 
 secondary tap-roots. Along with these valuable properties it possesses 
 the advantage of supplying valuable and abundant resinous products. 
 " The maritime pine has long been used in the Dunes. The forest 
 of Teste must be several centuries old. But it will only thrive quite 
 close to the sea. After the works carried on by Bremontier, which 
 were begun in 1787, it was planted quite up to the brink of the 
 beach. I shall state how this is done. 
 
 " Before putting in the seed a protecting barrier must be erected 
 to prevent the sand from burying the seed and young trees. This 
 barrier is nothing but an artificial Dune, called the dune littorale ; 
 it is formed by erecting a palisade parallel to the shore, at about 
 100 metres from the high water mark. For this purpose planks are 
 employed of about 1*60 metres in length, 3 centimetres in thickness, 
 and from 12 to 15 centimetres broad ; a furrow, 40 centimetres deep, 
 is dug in the sand, in which the planks are sunk to a depth 
 of 20 centimetres, the lower ends being cut in a tapering form. 
 In this way, when the furrow is filled up, the planks are buried 
 to a depth of 60 centimetres, 1 metre being above ground. They 
 do not touch each other, a space of 2 centimetres being left 
 between. 
 
 "The saud arrested by the palisade arranges itself in heaps 
 sloping gently towards the sea; the interstices allow a certain 
 quantity of sand to pass through, which increases the base, and 
 consequently the solidity of the Dunes. "When the palisades are 
 almost covered, the planks are extracted by the help of a lever with 
 claws, and the Dune goes on increasing. It should not increase too 
 rapidly, because, if so, it might be destroyed by a wave. 
 
 " The better to secure its base behind the palisade a barrier is 
 formed of stakes, of 2'50 metres, between which flexible branches are 
 interlaced. The stakes are driven in to a depth of 50 centimetres, 
 and the clayonnages at first are only one metre high ; the height is 
 increased as the Dune rises, and when it reaches the top of the 
 stakes a new barrier is erected as the stakes cannot be removed as was 
 done with the palisade. 
 
 " The whole is then consolidated by plantations of gourbet, which is 
 arranp-ed in tufts of from 5 to 6 stems, with 50 centimetres between 
 each. The gourbet has this advantage, that as the sand increases in 
 depth, the stalks rise, and produce roots which form a perfect net- 
 work; 300 bundles of gourbet of 10 kilogrammes each, besides 6 
 kilogrammes of seed are required per hectare. The seed is sown 
 
44 CULTURE OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 broad cast ; the operation of planting, and the feet of the workmen 
 assist in covering it. 
 
 " The palisade costs from 2*50 francs to 3 francs per metre, it lasts 
 five years when made of pine which has not been injected. Its 
 keeping up and removal cost about 50 centimes a year. The 
 barrier costs about 30 centimes per running metre, and it should be 
 renewed nearly every year. 
 
 " If there be any danger of the littoral Dune being injured by the 
 wind, other palisades should be erected, at a certain angle with the 
 first, on the sand which has been dislodged. At present there is a 
 well kept up dune littorale, more than 200 kilometres long, from the 
 bar of the Adour to the mouth of the Gironde. 
 
 " When once a shelter from the wind is provided rehoisement should 
 be begun. This is done by scattering a mixture of the maritime 
 pine, broom, whins, and goxirbet. For example, in the operations 
 carried on by the State, 10 kilogrammes of the seed of the maritime 
 pine, 9 kilogrammes of broom, and 4 kilogrammes of gourbet seed are 
 used per hectare. It is then covered by faggots of brushwood, broom, 
 and whins. One man unties the bundles, two others spi'ead them 
 out, and a third places a spadeful of soil at every 50 centimetres to 
 secure the covering which is absolutely necessary to prevent the seed 
 being carried away, and especially to keep the sand in its place. For 
 this purpose rushes are better than broom, because they furnish a 
 better manure when decomposed, 
 
 " The seed should be sown, and the covering put on, simultaneously. 
 At the close of each day additional earth should be laid on the last 
 laid brushwood to protect it from the wind. Care should also be 
 taken to arrange it equally and close to the ground, so as to leave no 
 air holes, for in a single night the labour of several days may be lost. 
 
 " Pines, broom, and whins will grow together, and it is remarked 
 that pines thrive best where the two last abound. When these are 
 sparse much care must be taken in watching over the covering, as 
 protection is necessary for four years. It should even be renewed, 
 and this is one of the chief things to be done in maintaining the work. 
 
 " After some years the rehoisement of the dune littorale may be pro- 
 ceeded with, by erecting a wide palisade nearer the sea, but whether 
 this be done or not, the dune littorale must always be kept in good 
 order, otherwise the works would be inevitably buried by the con- 
 tinual advance of the sand. 
 
 "Such is, in short, the kind of work to be done. It is often 
 tedious, and, in certain circumstances, difficult. To consolidate and 
 
ACCOUNT GIVEN BY BOITEL. 45 
 
 plant with trees the Dune, will cost, at least, 500 francs per hectare^ 
 This outlay ceases, however, to appear exorbitant when we consider 
 the protection which it provides. Almost the whole is laid out on 
 the erection and keeping up of palisades, and chiefly in the transport 
 from long distances, across moving sands of great depth, of the 
 required planks and faggots of brushwood." 
 
 And it is stated by him that one effect of the reboisement — or, as 
 that word is scarcely applicable though the word employed, the 
 growth of the pineries — has the effect of drying up the stagnant 
 water in the lettes, " either," says Boitel, " by the evaporation con- 
 nected with vegetation, or more likely by the formation of mould, by 
 which the moisture is absorbed and retained, or by some unknown 
 operation." 
 
 Such artificial sowing as has been described may be necessary in 
 taking in new ground, and it is practised elsewhere; but in the 
 Landes natural reproduction is sufficient to maintain the pignadas. 
 
 " The pine," says Boitel," produces cones with impricated scales. 
 These scales, compactly arranged, varnished, and of bone-like consis- 
 tence, form a covering for the seed which may seem to be indestruc- 
 tible ; but by an organisation which calls forth manifested admira- 
 tion of the Providence, the scales which man could scarcely break by 
 artificial means open as if by enchantment when they attain a 
 certain temperature. 
 
 " The heat in dilating them, causing them to bend backward, 
 separates them one from another, and in the new position thus taken 
 they offer an easy exit to the winged seed which they had previously 
 held imprisoned. 
 
 "Let it be borne in mind that the cones remain attached to the tree 
 beyond the period of their maturity, that they are persistent and 
 pendent on their peduncle, or stalk, and it will be seen that they are in 
 a position admirably adapted for favouring the escape of the seed, and 
 this, yielding to its weight, detaches itself freely from the opened 
 out scale, and immediately by its wings it comes under the disseminat- 
 ing influence of the winds. 
 
 " The seeds thus sown germinate under the shade of the old trees, 
 and form a young repeuplement, or new generation of trees, to take 
 the place of the old when they shall pass away; and destined to be 
 productive when the time shall come for the final and complete 
 exploitation of the older trees reserved for this purpose. 
 
 " These natural sowings are, so to speak, the only means of produo 
 
46 CULTURE OP THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 ing the repeuplement of the pineries of Gascony required. The 
 maritime pine finds in that land conditions so favourable to its 
 development that it goes on reproducing itself indefinitely on the 
 same ground, without any necessity for man to trouble himself about 
 the sowing of fresh seeds. Often, in order that a sandy surface may 
 cover itself spontaneously with young pines, it is enough to surround 
 it with an enclosure, which shall keep out from the pasturage which 
 it supplies cattle left without surveillance in the pineries." 
 
 An illustration of the importance of this occurs in one of the earlier 
 works by Darwin. It is stated, if my memory serves me right, that on 
 a piece of waste land or heath a common having been enclosed, forth- 
 with, to the surprise of many, there began to grow up vigorously 
 seedling pines, though pines had never been grown there before. 
 And, on examination, it was found that all around, growing amongst 
 the grass, were decapitated seedling trees, which had sprung up from 
 self-sown seed, but been broken over by cattle grazing there ; and 
 apparently nothing more was required in order to the whole becoming 
 a forest of pines than that this destructive operation should be 
 prevented by a fence to exclude the cattle. 
 
 When the pineries become fairly established on the Dunes in 
 Gascony, or on fixed sands more inland, which belong to the tertiary 
 formation, they require, as the trees increase in size, to be subjected 
 to periodical thinnings, and in some cases to moderate pruning 
 judiciously executed. 
 
 " In thinning, attention is given to removing the worst of the 
 trees, and to leave to the better trees the air, light, and space 
 required for their perfect development. Pineries which are not 
 thinned at the proper times suffer from this, as do crops overgrown 
 by weeds from neglect of hoeing suffer from these injurious plants. 
 The best sowings are those which are neither too sparse nor too 
 dense; pines which have much space for growth develope more in 
 breadth than in height ; they present a dwarfed trunk, irregular and 
 full of knots, and they are loaded with strong and vigorous crowns, 
 conditions which are as unfavourable to the operation of tapping for 
 resin as to the production of useful timber. If the plants remain 
 too numerous and too close they famish one another, shoot up 
 beyond what is desirable, and fall into an emaciated condition, in 
 which they succumb to every injurious influence. The stems are 
 slender ; and the crowns, weak and few in number, fall off of them- 
 selves, leaving stumps, which disappear. But they recover them- 
 
ACCOUNT GIVEN BY BOITEL. 47 
 
 selves easily, and protect one another in the pineries which have been 
 moderately thinned during the first twenty years of their growth. 
 Beyond this general observation it is difficult to lay down precise 
 rules in regard to the best means of executing thinnings. If germina- 
 tion have produced many more seedlings than was expected, it will 
 do good to remove, by hand, a certain number of these at the age of 
 3 or 4 years, or as soon as they are seen to be injuring and starving 
 one another ; on the contrary, in a sowing which has come up badly, 
 and which does not sufficiently cover the ground, the first thinning 
 should be deferred till they have attained the age of 15 or 16 years. 
 In ordinary circumstances pines require to be thinned when they 
 have reached the age of 7 or 8 years. At this age the expense of the 
 operation may be covered by the produce in faggots and charcoal 
 wood. But in every case it is less the value of the produce than the 
 future of the pines which should determine the time at which this 
 first operation is to take place. That man would ill understand his 
 own interests, and would imperil the continued existence of, and the 
 revenue to be derived from, a young crop of seedling pine, who did 
 not clear it of diseased and dying plants, on the ground that the 
 expense of the work would not be entirely covered by the sale of the 
 produce of the first thinning. 
 
 " The subsequent thinnings, eclaircies, as they are technically called 
 in France, are determined by the kind of products which it is desired 
 to obtain, regard being had to the nature of the soil and the state of 
 the markets. In Sologne, for example, where the maritime pine does 
 not grow well above 25 years, but where it furnishes faggots, for 
 which there is a ready sale in Paris and Orleans, it is subjected to 
 periodical moderate thinnings, carried out much as are the fellings 
 of the coppice wood of deciduous trees. On a deep and firm sand where 
 the maritime pine may form a timber forest fit for tapping for resin, 
 and for the production of workable timber, the earlier thinnings ought 
 to be somewhat more energetic, in order that they may favour more 
 especially the trees destined to form the standing wood. 
 
 " In any case there is a risk of disappointment if thei'e be a lack of 
 prudence and moderation in the management of these successive 
 thinnings. The maritime pine is a tree which, especially in youth, 
 is very sensitive to cold winds, to hail, and to coiqis de soleil ; it 
 suffers greatly when, by excessive clearing or thinning, it is exposed 
 suddenly and extensively to the air and the heat of which it has been 
 deprived. 
 
 " Grown up pines of a slender trunk, terminating in a heavy and 
 
0-33 metres. 
 
 1 to 1 metre. 
 
 1-33 metres. 
 
 1-66 „ 
 
 2- 
 
 2-33 „ 
 
 2-66 „ 
 
 48 ACCOUNT GIVEN BY BO I TEL. 
 
 bulky head, succumb easily to the action of strong winds, if there 
 be removed, all at once, neighbouring trees which had served to 
 shelter and protect them. 
 
 " The space which should be allotted to pines depends on their age, 
 the vigour of their vegetation, and the nature of the products which 
 it is desired they should yield. 
 
 " Delamarre, in Normandy, allows the following spaces round the 
 trees : 
 
 1st eclair -cie at the age of 7 years, 
 2nd „ „ 8 „ 
 
 3rd „ „ 12 „ 
 
 4th „ „ 16 „ 
 
 5th „ „ 20 „ 
 
 6th „ „ 24 „ 
 
 7th „ „ 28 „ 
 
 A metre is equal to nearly 40 inches. 
 " In Gascony pines destined for tapping for resin are allowed a space 
 all round them. 
 
 At 20 years of age, ... ... 3 metres. 
 
 » 25 „ 4 „ 
 
 „ 40 „ 5-50 „ 
 
 „ 35 to 60 years of age, ... ... 7 „ 
 
 " Timber woods of pines submitted to a definitive tapping contain 
 about 200 trees to the hectare of nearly 2| acres." 
 
 Magageor pruning, in its application to the maritime pine, consists 
 in removing one or more couronnes or tiers of branches, beginning 
 with the lowest. Although the maritime pine appears to support 
 amputation better than do most other resin yielding trees, " I have 
 always observed," says Boitel, " that the removal of a certain number 
 of couronnes was hurtful to the vigour and the health of the trees. 
 The leaves play an important part among the nutritive organs ; and 
 if pruning do more harm to resinous trees than to broad leaved trees, 
 which put forth new buds on the old wood, this must without doubt 
 be attributable in a great measure to this — that the growing trees do 
 not produce in place of the amputated branches young sho ots, the 
 leaves of which might discharge the functions of those which have 
 disappeared by the operation of pruning. Pruning has, moveover, 
 the inconvenience of leaving in the trunks running sores, which are 
 healed with difficulty, and are the occasion of a pretty considerable 
 loss of sap. 
 
ACCOUNT GIVEN BY BOITEL. 49 
 
 " It is remarked that the pines most loaded with branches and with 
 leaves are those which give the greatest bulk of wood and the most 
 abundant crops of resin. Notwithstanding this, pruning, objection- 
 able in theory, becomes useful in certain peculiar cases. If there be 
 seedlings with too much space around them, shooting out more in 
 circumference than in height, and loading themselves with heavy and 
 vigorous lateral couronnes, which absorb the greater part of the sap, 
 then there is removed gradually the lower branches in order to 
 concentrate the sap upon the stem, which is the part of the tree 
 which it is of most importance to cause to increase in size and in 
 length. As for sowings which are sufficiently stocked, instead of 
 employing pruning to force the trees to shoot upwards, it is now ad- 
 vantageous to get the same result by moderating the thinning, and 
 leaving on the ground as many trees as may be necessary to induce 
 development in height, and one knows not how sufficiently to 
 blame proprietors who, giving no attention to their seedlings for 
 eight or ten years, all at once subject the reserved trees to a 
 vigorous thinning, accompanied by an excessive elaqage or prun- 
 ing. This great mutilation, joined to a too immediate action of 
 air and light, occasions a state of disease, from the injurious effects 
 of which the pinery suffers throughout the whole period of its 
 growth. 
 
 " Elagage is also proper on grown up pines, the lower couronnes of 
 which, enfeebled by age, finally die and fall, leaving long stumps, 
 which, in decaying, produce in the wood perforations which diminish 
 much its value. This serious inconvenience is avoided by pruning 
 away at a proper time languishing and dying boughs ; and, in place 
 of cutting them off close to the stem, leaving a stump 5 to 6 centi- 
 metres, or 2 and 2£ inches long. 
 
 " Such spikes, hardened by the action of resin which accumulates 
 in them, embody themselves without difficulty in the trunks, and 
 produce no other inconvenience than that of obstructing the tools in 
 the working up of the wood. Spikes in parts of the trunk destined 
 to be tapped for resin should not be above half-an-inch in length \ 
 otherwise, they arrest and blunt the hatchet of the resinier when he 
 comes to make gashes where they are. The good of attending to this 
 is experienced in the pineries of Gascony. 
 
 " At Belle-Isle M. Trochu pi-efers, on the contraiy, pruning close to 
 the trunk, and leaving no spike, executed in the beginning of winter 
 as being the method most favourable to the production of planks 
 without knots and without holes. 
 
 o 
 
50 CULTURE OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 " Both Eclairdes, or thinnings, and Elagages, or prunings, are deli- 
 cate operations, which should only be entrusted to conscientious 
 and skilled workmen. The woodman who is engaged on piece work 
 works without other consideration than how he can inci-ease the 
 number of his faggots and of his carts of charcoal, and it is to be 
 feared that in his precipitation he might sacrifice trees which in 
 every respect deserve to be preserved." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Exploitation of the Pine Plantations op Gascont. 
 
 In the exploitation of forests there are two methods of procedure which 
 have come down to us from times preceding these, in which the 
 practical application of science to the management of forests has led 
 to a more complicated, but more advantageous method, being adopted. 
 In the one, single trees are cut down here and there, as required, 
 leaving the others standing; in the other, extended areas are 
 successively brought under the axe, and completely cleared. To the 
 former method of procedure in France the designation Jardinage is 
 given. 
 
 " Exploitation by Jardinage," says Boitel, " appears to me to be that 
 most used by the inhabitants of the Landes. In the tapping for 
 resin, and in the felling of trees, they give less attention to the tout 
 ensemble of the pinery than to the special condition of the individual 
 tree ; on the same ground are seen very often numerous distinct 
 generations of trees : some young, and good for removal in thinninc 
 the wood ; others full grown, and regularly tapped • and others, in 
 pine, more aged, and disappearing in proportion as they become less 
 fit for yielding resin, and better adapted to yield workable timber or 
 fire-wood. In these pineries it is by the natural spreading of the 
 woods that the ground finds itself constantly clothed with trees, and 
 it is the same in the pineries of Corsica and Spain." 
 
 But a more important feature of the pineries than the fellino 1 of 
 the trees, is the collecting and manufacture of the resinous sap 
 which they yield. 
 
 Full details of the various operations connected with this are 
 given by M. Eloi Samanos, Membre de la Societe d'agriculture des 
 Landes, in his volume entitled " Traitd de la culture du Pin 
 Maritime." The following more succinct account of these is given 
 by M. Bagneris in his account of these plantations already cited. 
 
 "It seems to be well-known," writes M. Bagneris, "that resinage is 
 not remunerative except where the maritime pine is indigenous, which 
 is only in mild and warm climates. This tree is found in abundance 
 on the ocean seaboard between the mouths of the Adour and the 
 Gironde. To the north of the latter, between Royan and Rochefort, 
 
52 EXPLOITATION IN GASCON Y. 
 
 it is less vigorous, produces less resin, and is of a smaller size ; and 
 the woods are not so thickly planted. Farther north, and especially 
 in the basin of the Loire, where, as I think, foolishly it has been 
 extensively introduced, it is not in its element, It does not 
 reproduce itself naturally, it is short lived, its wood loses all its good 
 qualities, and it is not possible to tap it with advantage. 
 
 " Kesin never abounds unless the trees have plenty of room, are 
 vigorous, and have thick foliage ; it is thus a good plan to thin 
 plantations at the age of from six to eight years. Till the age of 
 twenty, the thinnings should be repeated every five or six years, so as 
 to leave at that period no more than 600 or 700 trees per hectare. 
 Those intended for felling should now be tapped. This is why 
 200 or 250 trees to be felled are now marked beforehand. When the 
 plantation is thirty yearsold, only 250 or 300 should be left per hectare. 
 This number is further reduced to 200 or even 150, which remain till 
 nearly seventy or eighty years of age, when the pinery should be 
 renewed, that is to say, if resinous products are not the chief object. 
 
 " This renewal may be effected either by means of the self-sown 
 plants which have sprung up in later years, or by artificial planting. 
 According to M. Eloi Samanos, this is usually done by seed in the 
 Landes. A.s to the mode, he advises lines from 4 to 6 metres distant 
 from each other to be marked out, according as the trees are to be 
 placed ; this should be deeply trenched, either by the mattock or 
 plough, for a breadth of 60 centimetres ; 6 kilogrammes of seed should 
 be allowed per hectare, which should be covered in by a slight 
 harrowing. 
 
 "While the early thinnings are going on, before beginning the 
 gemmage or tapping, the lower branches are lopped, so as to leave a 
 bare trunk of at least 5 metres high ; this is to hinder the formation 
 of dead branches which interfere with the flow of the resin. The 
 incisions can be made more easily and regularly in the layers of 
 wood covering these old wounds. Experience has proved the benefit 
 of this, but, on lopping branches close to the stem, care should be 
 taken not to enlarge the wound unnecessarily. It should always be 
 remembered that a tree never has too many leaves, and therefore too 
 many branches should never be lopped at once. 
 
 " It may easily be supposed that in thinning the young plantations 
 and in lopping the lower branches, the soil is left without sufficient 
 shelter. The sparse foliage of the pine adds to the evil. But there 
 immediately appears a thick vegetation of grass, whins, heath, broom, 
 thorns, &c. ; this is a very valuable source of litter and manure. But 
 
COLLECTION OF RESIN. 53 
 
 the forest does not profit thereby. Under the name of soutrage, this 
 brushwood vegetation is collected and sold at 50 centimes per cart- 
 load, containing about two cubic metres. One hectare may produce 
 from 5 to 12 cart-loads. 
 
 "It is evidently a loss to the forest that the vegetable mould 
 should not be allowed to accumulate, but it clears paths for the 
 resiniers, and diminishes the danger from the fires, which desolate the 
 country in the summer months. This danger is so great that at 
 certain distances large trenches are dug from 10 to 20 metres broad, 
 which are kept open for five years. In new plantations, and 
 especially in the Dunes, these are made at every 1,000 metres distant, 
 so as to enclose squares containing 100 hectares. 
 
 " There are two methods of tapping, le gemmage c\ vie and le 
 gemmage c\ mort. In both the quarres are opened thus : after having 
 cut away part of the bark, it is pierced as far as the wood ; at about 
 ten centimetres from the foot of the tree an incision is made with a 
 habchat, a kind of hatchet, the head of which is slightly hollowed out, 
 and the handle is bent to the right. Once or twice a week the 
 workman scarifies the wound, and increases its height by one 
 centimetre. In the forests under the forest regime, the height of 
 4 metres, 14 centimetres, should never be exceeded. The regulations 
 also stipulate that the quarres should never exceed 12 centimetres in 
 size, or one centimetre in depth. 
 
 " Trees to be gemme a vie, should have only one incision made at a 
 time, and it will tend to prolong the life of the tree that that should 
 be only 8 centimetres in size. The same incision is kept open for 
 five years, and is raised vertically, the first year 55 centimetres, 
 the three following, 64, the fifth, 67 centimetres. When the five 
 years are expired, another incision is made in the same way, and so 
 on, till the time when the tree is gemme cl mort, previous to being- 
 felled. The gemmage cl vie begins when the tree is one metre in cir- 
 cumference. According to M. Lamarque it is good, especially at the 
 beginning, to tap for four years and then to allow the tree to repose 
 for one. The old incisions soon heal up, and after a certain time 
 others may be opened above them, on the protuberances of bark 
 which have formed, and which are called ourles. 
 
 " Here and there old pines may be found with a great number of 
 quarres. It frequently happens that the old incisions are exposed 
 owing to a want of adherence in the ourles. The latter shrink and 
 causes swelling, so that the foot of the tree resembles a spindle. 
 
54 EXPLOITATION IN GASCON Y. 
 
 One would think it was going to give way under the weight of its 
 branches. 
 
 " In private woods the incisions are sometimes 4 or 5 metres long, 
 and 2 or 3 are opened at once on the old trees. This is a mistake, 
 because, if more resin is obtained for the moment, the longevity of 
 the tree is materially diminished. 
 
 " As has been said, gemmage cl mort is practised on old trees which 
 are to be felled, and upon those which are to be removed, so as to give 
 more room to the others. With the latter, it is done so soon as they 
 can bear a quarre, which is when they measure from 50 to 60 
 centimetres round, this they usually do at about twenty years of age. 
 The quarres are opened as in the gemmage a vie, only they are en- 
 larged more rapidly, and several are made on the tree at once. It 
 usually takes three or four years to gemmer ct mort, or to bleed them 
 to death. 
 
 " When a quarre is opened or scarified the sap is seen in the form 
 of drops on the exposed wood ; some runs down the wound, the rest 
 solidifies and forms a crust, this is the Galipot. In former times the 
 gemme was allowed to run down to the foot of the tree, where it was 
 collected in a little trough cut in a root or hollowed in the ground. A 
 great deal was lost, especially during the first year, as much of it 
 was absorbed by the sand. Now small earthen pots are hung on the 
 tree, and are gradually raised so as to be on a level with the incision. 
 To direct the gemme into the pot there is a little zinc spout slightly 
 attached to the tree ; the pot is kept in its place between this spout 
 and a nail fixed below it on which it rests. To prevent any loss the 
 pot may be covered by a piece of wood. The resinier or resin collector 
 examines the pots when he scarifies the wound, and he empties them 
 when full. The Galipot is scraped off once or twice in the course of 
 the year. 
 
 " The use of pots and spouts is known as the system of M. Hughes. 
 The outlay at first is greater, but the gemme is purer and in larger 
 quantities, the difference being as four to three, so says M. Samanos. 
 It is much employed in the Dunes, at Cape Breton, at Mimizan, at 
 Biscarosse, at La Teste. It is less usual in Dax, and still less so at 
 Mont de Marsan. The gemmage is there inferior, because, to prevent 
 loss by absorption in the ground, the workmen lead the gemme from 
 several quarres into the same trough. Now to do this they are obliged 
 to cut spouts in the foot of the tree which pierce the wood almost 
 completely round the tree, and this causes a rapid decay. Gemmage 
 
COLLECTION OP RESIN. 55 
 
 is only performed between the 1st March and 15th October, but the 
 bark may be begun to be removed from the 10th January. A pine 
 gemme a vie yields about three litres, or quarts of gemme when at its 
 best, that is to say when its diameter is a least forty centimetres. 
 It may also be alleged that taking into account the decreasing num- 
 ber of trees a hectare yields nearly a cask of 3-10 litres of resin 
 yearly, whatever the age of the trees may be. It is more difficult to 
 reckon the yield of the gemmage ct mort. But it may be admitted 
 that 200 to 250 trees of 20 centimetres in diameter yield about a 
 barrique or hogshead yearly, and that for three years. At Biscarosse 
 I have seen in a wood belonging to M. Marcellus, a pine 4 metres in 
 circumference, and with a bare trunk 11 metres high, on which 
 were 4 active quarres, which produced yearly from 7 to 8 litres 
 of resin. 
 
 " The price of resin varies considerably. It is sometimes as low 
 as 40 francs per barrique or hogshead, which is very little. During the 
 American war it rose to 290 francs. 
 
 "At present (1873) raw resin brings 120 francs per barrique at 
 Mont de Marsan, where it is manufactured. The resinier is paid at 
 so much per barrique. His wages vary from 30 to 35 francs, which 
 represents an average day's wage of from 4 to 5 francs. 
 
 " I have visited several manufactories at Mont de Marsan, in one 
 of which essence of turpentine is distilled. It is done thus : the raw 
 resin is put into a large reservoir ; but as it always contains much 
 foreign matter, according to the greater or less care taken in collecting 
 it, earth, chips, bits of bark, leaves, &c. To separate these the raw 
 resin is heated in coppers, taking care that the temperature does not 
 rise so high as to disengage the essence. It is then filtered through 
 rye straw and received in a trough in a state in which it is called 
 terebenthiyie. From this trough it passes into an alembic by a valve 
 which opens when necessary. During the distillation a thread of 
 water is introduced by means of a pipe, and this becoming vaporised, 
 it conveys the essence of turpentine along with it through the room, 
 where both are received, in a liquid state, in a bucket, and separation 
 is effected by decantation. 
 
 " What remains in the Alembic is made into resin, dry pitch, and 
 yellow resin. It runs off through an opening below it to a pipe which 
 leads it to a trough. The resin is obtained by filtering it through a 
 very fine brass sieve placed ever a box. Dry pitch is nothing but 
 the residuum, which is at once run into moulds made in fine sand. 
 It is formed into bricks of from 45 to 90 kilogrammes in weight. To 
 
56 EXPLOITATION IN OASCONY. 
 
 obtain yellow resin the residue is washed up warm with a tenth of 
 water, and is also run into sand moulds. 
 
 " All these products are useful. The essence is used in making 
 varnish, in painting, in polishing, and in cleaning furniture, &c. It is 
 also used in medicine. Solid resin is used in making paper, soap, 
 stearine candles, torches, and sealing wax, and it is also used in 
 caulking vessels. 
 
 " The residue of the first filtration of the raw resin is burned in 
 furnaces constructed for the purpose, the products being pitch and 
 tar. 
 
 "One barrique of resin will produce 100 kilogrammes of essence of 
 turpentine which at present is worth 125 francs. The other products 
 cover the expense of manufacture, and yield a small profit. Dry pitch 
 sells at 18 francs the 100 kilogrammes. The same weight of yellow 
 resin fetches 20 francs. In another manufactory in the same town, 
 by exposing the dry pitch to intense heat, a double decomposition is 
 effected, and by different processes there are produced ethereal oils 
 for making varnish ; fixed oils, which are used for lamps, for greasing 
 the iron-work of carriages, and for injecting wood, and in making 
 printers' ink. 
 
 " All these products conjointly constitute the principal value of the 
 maritime pine. But where there are means for removing it, the 
 product of timber becomes important. There are different opinions 
 as to the respective qualities of timber which has been gemme or 
 tapped, and not gemme. In pines which have been gemmi the 
 current of resin, owing to the evaporation of the essence, always 
 leaves a good deal of concrete resin in the tissues, which increases 
 their durability. The annual growth decreases in thickness; but 
 data are awanting for making comparisons, as pines are rarely found 
 which have not been tapped, and these have generally been left to 
 serve as boundary lines between properties. They grow to a great 
 size, but they are seldom felled till they begin to decay. 
 
 "One thing is certain, that the portion of the trunk which 
 contains the incisions is too much broken up to be useful for the 
 saw pit, but it furnishes very valuable and desirable vine poles ; it 
 is quite gorged with resin, which ensures their preservation. It 
 will also make staves for casks to hold solid resinous matter. 
 But the upper part of the tree is always free from breaks in the 
 continuity. At Cape Breton I have seen planks seven feet long by 
 seven inches broad, and five lines in thickness. In reducing these 
 measurements to the metrical system it will be seen that 100 of 
 
MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL. 57 
 
 these planks are equivalent to 2 cubic metres. They are sold at 
 70 francs per hundred. 
 
 "Railway sleepers can also be made. When injected they are 
 worth 2 francs 10 cents each, delivered at the railway station. 
 One may judge of the importance of this when we remember that 
 the Southern French Railway and those of the north of Spain are 
 laid on pine sleepers. 
 
 " To conclude, charcoal for forges is also made from the maritime 
 pine. The cubic mfetre of this charcoal weighs from 200 to 220 
 kilogrammes, and in the forest it brings from 18 to 20 francs." 
 
 In regard to the manufacture of charcoal, which occupies an 
 important place in the exploitation of pine forests, M. Boitel reports : 
 " Branches and very young trees are not saleable as fire-wood, but 
 may be profitably converted into charcoal. In certain localities, where 
 the roads are bad, and the centres of population are at a distance, 
 the manufacture of charcoal is the only way of profitably employing 
 wood, which, if in the form of cotrets or faggots, would cost a great 
 deal for transport. 
 
 " Usually pieces of wood of from 4 to 5 centimetres in diameter 
 are made into charcoal. Smaller ones are made into bourrees, small 
 faggots ; larger, into cotrets or bois de service. 
 
 "The first fellings, which are from six to ten years old, furnish wood 
 for charcoal and bourrees. When the pines are older, charcoal is only 
 made from the branches and upper parts of the stem. 
 
 " The best pieces for making charcoal are straight, not very thick, 
 and sufficiently dry. They should not be more than from 0"75 
 metres to 0*80 metres in length. The crooked branches are cut 
 into two or three pieces, the lateral twigs are cut off close, and the 
 ends are round and smoothly cut. Twigs hinder the wood being 
 properly arranged, and when the ends are ragged there is a good deal 
 of charcoal lost. Green and dead wood are avoided. The first yields 
 very little charcoal, the second only ashes, which may ignite the 
 furnace after the workman believes it to have been completely 
 extinguished — a great inconvenience, which spoils a great deal of 
 charcoal and occasions conflagrations. The maritime pine is fit for 
 the furnace six months after being felled. 
 
 " Spring and autumn are the best seasons for making charcoal. 
 In summer it is dangerous to make it when there is no water. When 
 possible, the charcoal maker should always have plenty of this at 
 hand. 
 
 H 
 
58 EXPLOITATION OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 " In choosing a site for a furnace, the position of the timber to be 
 used should be considered. A central position is best, so as to 
 diminish the expense of land carriage. The ground is first levelled, 
 and all heath and shrubs removed to prevent the chance of fire. 
 The maritime pine is easily injured by the heat and smoke of a 
 furnace, and it is best to place the kiln either outside the forest or 
 else in the centre of a considerable clearing, as dead trees become a 
 nursery of insects destructive to trees. 
 
 " Where old sites are conveniently situated, it is a good plan to 
 make choice of these. 
 
 " When a new furnace is made the first bed should be laid on a 
 layer of horizontal branches. This is called a plancher, a platform or 
 floor. 
 
 " The size of the furnace varies according as the charcoal is for 
 domestic or for other uses. 
 
 "For kitchen use, experts recommend that 15 or 18 steres or 
 cubic meters of wood should be burned at a time, and 30 or 35 
 when it is to be used in forges. Small furnaces occasion less waste, 
 but sometimes they are apt to fail. 
 
 " The site of the furnace being prepared, a large post is placed 
 vertically in the centre, the wood to be carbonised is placed round it 
 after its being surrounded by twigs and dry wood which will ignite 
 easily ; the faggots are placed on end, but inclining gently ; the first 
 layer being made, a second, third, and fourth are added. In doing 
 this the largest and greenest pieces are used for the lowest and most 
 central part of the furnace, because there the fire burns most fiercely. 
 The small dry pieces are placed on the outside and top of the mass. 
 The faggots should be pressed closely together, and the interstices 
 filled with twigs. If several kinds of wood are used at once, the 
 hardest should be placed in the centre. 
 
 "The cone completed, the central post is withdrawn, and this 
 leaves a chimney in the centre, the whole is then covered with leaves, 
 twigs, earth, and moss, more or less mixed with sand. This layer of 
 earth should be 5 or 6 centimetres thick. Fire is then set to the 
 lower part of the chimney, which remains open a certain time so that 
 the mass may be ignited. The chief fire is thus in the middle of the 
 chimney, and the workman takes care to feed it with wood when a 
 vacancy is produced. Whenever the mass is sufficiently ignited, the 
 opening is stopped, the moment for doing this is regulated by the 
 colour of the smoke, which, white at first, becomes blue and 
 transparent when the flames acquire strength. The entrance and 
 
MANUFACTURE OP CHARCOAL. 59 
 
 exit of air must be regulated so that the heat may not be too great 
 or too low. When too low, the charcoal is of inferior quality ; when 
 too high, there is great waste, and the yield of charcoal is small. 
 
 " The skill of a charcoal maker is now seen in ascertaining what 
 progress the fire makes in the interior, in such a way that it can be 
 moderated in some places and increased in others. It is by the 
 smoke and cracks on the surface that this can be judged of. The 
 fire is moderated by stopping the openings, or increased by making 
 others. 
 
 " The bad effect of currents of wind is prevented by pallisades, or 
 bourrees, arranged like a wall, or by a simple clayonnage of branches. 
 
 " The best consticuted charcoal furnace is the one which, remaining 
 uniform and homogeneous throughout the operation, sinks and 
 breaks in regularly, allowing the smoke to escape in the same 
 quantities from all the openings disposed round the furnace. 
 
 " The fire extends from above to below, and from the centre to the 
 circumference- At the end of 36 hours, in furnaces of the usual size, 
 the whole covering becomes incandescent. This is the time of the 
 'grand feu.' When this point is reached, M. Thomas says, that 
 a good charcoal burner will make it blaze furiously, and then put it 
 out dexterously. This, when done at the right time, produces a 
 great deal of charcoal. But to prevent failure, the furnaces should 
 be sheltered from currents of air, otherwise there is a chance of 
 considerable loss. 
 
 " After the violent blaze, the chai'coal making may be considered 
 finished. The fire is moderated by degrees by making openings 
 which allow the air to pass, and by replacing the warm dry earth of 
 the covering by earth which is cold and damp. The fire is 
 extinguished in five or six hours ; but another day is required 
 before the charcoal becomes cool and is fit to be carried away. 
 
 " To obtain a good yield of charcoal one must guard against 
 raising the temperature too much at the beginning of the operation. 
 The first part of the time is spent not in carbonising the wood, but 
 in getting rid of the moisture. If the faggots are strongly heated 
 before the water is dispelled, the latter being decomposed, two sorts 
 of gas are created, which, combining with the charcoal, issue from 
 the furnace in the form of carbonic acid, and carbonic oxide, and 
 carburetted hydrogen. From thence results a real loss of carbon, 
 which in this case is consumed in the same way as in our kitchen 
 stoves. The water decomposed by the fire acts on the incandescent 
 charcoal with more force than would the atmospheric air. 
 
bO EXPLOITATION OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 " Well burned charcoal may be known by its hardness, and the 
 sound it emits when struck. If nothing is lost in the furnace, 42 
 kilogrammes of charcoal are yielded by 100 kilogrammes of wood, but 
 even in the most favourable cases this is never done. The most perfect 
 operation does not yield more than 25 per 100. By the usual 
 methods, only 15 or 20 per 100 are obtained. 
 
 " In Sologne the usual cord of charcoal is of the following dimen- 
 sions : — 
 
 Height, ... ... 30 inches, or 0*82 metres. 
 
 Breadth, ... ... 30 „ or 0*82 „ 
 
 Length, ... ... 16 feet, or 5-33 „ 
 
 Cubic measurement of a cord of charcoal, 3 stores, 58, or 3"58 cub. „ 
 
 " According to the success of the operation, a cord of charcoal pro- 
 duces from 4 or 4|, to 5 bags, containing 230 litres each. 
 
 The stere of dry pine weighs, 250 kilogrammes. 
 
 The cord of the same, ... 895 „ 
 
 The hectolitre of dry pine charcoal, 19 „ 
 
 The bag, .. ... 43 „ 
 
 " The yield of 4 bags per cord is equivalent to 18 per 100 metres 
 weight. The yield of 5 bags per cord is equivalent to that of 24 per 
 100. 
 
 " Pine charcoal sells in the market at from 5 to 6 francs, oak 
 charcoal from 10 to 12 francs. To give the charcoal burner an 
 interest in the operation, his wages are regulated by the supply of 
 charcoal he gets — 45 cents per bag. Some proprietors who have 
 confidence in their workmen, in place of paying by the bag, give 
 them 2 francs for every cord of wood which is carbonised. Pine 
 charcoal is lighter and of less value than that of the oak ; the last 
 weighs a quarter more, about 25 kilogrammes per hectolitre. 
 
 " The different kinds of charcoal are distinguished with difficulty. 
 Merchants often fraudulently mix them. 
 
 " In Sologne, when pine charcoal is worth from 1*75 to 2*25 francs 
 per bag, that of the oak is worth from 3 to 4 francs. 
 
 " Some years ago there was established at Sologne a manufactory 
 where the pine was carbonised in air-tight vases. The volatile 
 products were condensed, and produced by distillation tar and 
 pyroligneous acid. Besides these articles, which are usually lost, 
 the yield of charcoal was much greater. The death of the proprietor 
 put an end to this interesting manufacture. 
 
 " There is in Sologne an encumbering kind of forest produce 
 which it is difficult to get rid of. I refer to the bourree, a sort o 
 
MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL. 61 
 
 faggot bound by a single cord, exclusively composed of fragments 
 from the saw-mill, or the clearings of the woods. In the Landes 
 there are bourrees of a peculiar kind, formed of heath, broom, and 
 whins. Whatever it is made of the bourree is from 1 metre to 1*33 
 metres in length, and from O80 to 0*85 metres in circumference. 
 Sologne furnishes a great quantity of these bourrees, which are not 
 needed for fuel, except when within reach of the great centres of 
 population. They rarely pay the cost of being carried farther than 
 12 or 16 kilometres. 
 
 " When they are not sold to the poorer classes for fire-wood it is 
 necessary to get rid of them in such a way as to reimburse the 
 proprietor for their collection. Rather than make an article which 
 costs from 1 franc to 2 francs per hundred, and which it is difficult 
 to sell, he would prefer to leave the twigs to rot on the spot so as to 
 produce a sort of compost for the trees. In this case he should copy 
 the Gascoyne farmer, who litters his cattle with the smaller twigs, 
 which act as absorbents. 
 
 " In Sologne this is not the custom, and the bourrees are used in the 
 manufacture of bricks, tiles, and lime. The manufacturers buy 
 them at from 2 francs to 2 francs 50 cents the hundred, which leaves 
 the proprietor a clear gain of 50 cents. The making of bourrees is a 
 good employment for the idle season. 
 
 " Unfortunately, brick kilns are not able to use all the bourrees 
 supplied by making cotrets, or faggots, of pine, and it would be im- 
 possible to sell all if they could not be converted into other articles 
 made use of in various manufactories. 
 
 " For several years the bourrees have been burned in air-tight vases ; 
 petite braise, or charcoal cinders, is produced, and a more powdery 
 sort of charcoal called charcoal dust. The experiment leaves nothing 
 to be desired, for the bourrees are carbonised so perfectly that with 
 care they may be withdrawn from the furnace in the same shape in 
 which they were put in. Pine needles, leaves of heath, are perfectly 
 carbonised, undergoing no physical change except in the colour, 
 which changes from grey to black. Twigs of a certain size furnish 
 braise, which is used in the same way as ordinary charcoal, but this 
 article is of secondary importance beside the charcoal dust, which is 
 the chief product. This is used in many manufactories. M. Popelin- 
 Ducart uses it for the preparation of the cylindrical charcoal, known 
 as Charbon de Paris. 
 
 " Such is the power of science. Bourrees, which would not repay 
 the cost of transport to warm the inhabitants of Sologne, are, 
 
62 EXPLOITATION OP THE MABITIME PINE. 
 
 after a chemical change, able to rival the ordinary charcoal in the 
 furnaces and kitchens of Paris. This new article has to make its way 
 against the prejudices of servants, but it may be hoped that at length 
 it will be justly appreciated. 
 
 " Charcoal dust is used largely in the manufacture of artificial 
 manures. It is known that carbon disinfects and solidifies the 
 material. It is used for this purpose in several important towns. 
 It is to be wished that this process of disinfection of drainage were 
 more general. If it were so, what great services would be rendered 
 to agriculture and the public health ! In the first place, it opens a 
 market for charcoal dust, which it is difficult to dispose of at present ; 
 and it preserves, for the benefit of agriculture, a great quantity of 
 useful substances, which in towns are wasted, while at the sametime 
 the air is vitiated and the public health endangered. 
 
 " Of two almost worthless articles, the bourrees of Sologne and the 
 drainage of large towns, is thus composed a powerful manure, each 
 hectolitre of which represents at least a hectolitre of wheat. When 
 viewing the numerous advantages of such a manufacture, one is 
 surprised that there has not been established long ago an interchange 
 between Sologne and Paris of charcoal and disinfected and solidified 
 sewage. What could be better than the carbonised heath being 
 saturated in Paris with fertilising nature, and again restoring in 
 Sologne fertility to the sterile soil which had produced it ! 
 
 " If Sologne exchanged charcoal dust for disinfected drainage, the 
 Landes which only require manure to be pi-oductive, would be cleared 
 as if by enchantment, and would soon be covered with rich harvests. 
 
 " The improvement in the healthiness of the country which follows 
 the progress of agriculture and this marvellous result, would both be 
 attained by the use of fertilising substances which would otherwise 
 be a powerful cause of disease. 
 
 " It would be a bold thing to say that such an end can be attained 
 without difficulty. In the first place, there must first be invented a 
 simple and easy way of making charcoal dust. 
 
 " When the dust is made, negotiations must be entered into with 
 municipalities. Finally, to extend the sale, the resistance and 
 prejudices of farmers must be subdued ; but these men have been 
 so often deceived by pretended artificial manures, that they stand 
 aloof from any new substance." 
 
 There are given, by M. Boitel, the following details of the manu- 
 facture of charcoal dust : 
 
MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL DUST. 63 
 
 " At the Imperial Castle of La Motte-Beuvron, Sologne, the 
 carbonisation of bourrees is carried on in a brick oven placed in a 
 central position in relation to the Forests or the Landes which are to 
 yield the material, and special regard is had to the roads as it is 
 desirable the oven should be near the best roads. Water also is 
 required to extinguish the charcoal when drawn from the oven. It 
 should therefore be of easy access. 
 
 " In such ovens or kilns the upper aperture of the oven, into 
 which the bourrees are thrown, should be easily reached, and also 
 the lower opening, from which the carbon is withdrawn. This double 
 condition is attained by placing them where there are two surfaces 
 with unequal levels. The upper opening on a level with the 
 higher surface, while the lower is also on a level with the ground. 
 This arrangement is to be seen in many lime kilns. The earliest 
 kilns were not made in this way. The upper opening was above the 
 ground by the whole height of the kiln. The workman could not 
 throw in the bourrees at once, but was obliged to carry them up a 
 scaffolding. This additional labour increased the expense. 
 
 " This inconvenience is prevented by erecting kilns of the kind 
 described : In default of a suitable slope, the kiln may be placed on 
 the ground, piling up earth to the half of its height and forming two 
 inclined planes, one leading to the upper opening, the other leading 
 down to the inferior one. Care should be taken to prevent rain from 
 collecting in the oven. 
 
 " The bourrees are collected in isolated heaps in the neighbourhood 
 of the oven. It is considered that these should not be massed 
 together for fear of their taking fire j and that they should as much 
 as possible be sheltered from rain. Wet bourrees are difficult to 
 carbonise, and yield less powder, especially if they have been exposed 
 to damp for any length of time. 
 
 " The workman throws in the bourrees either by hand or with a 
 wooden fork. Thirty bourrees are enough to fill a kiln. It is lighted 
 by the lateral opening ; immediately it ignites this opening is carefully 
 stopped with clay so as to exclude the air. The upper opening is 
 left half open, from which issues a thick white smoke chiefly formed 
 of vapour. So long as the smoke continues white, the workman 
 throws no more bourrees, but whenever it loses a blueish tinge he 
 hastens to feed it up, as this is a certain indication of an advanced 
 degree of carbonisation. 
 
 " He continues to work all day without withdrawing the charcoal, 
 and before leaving at night he puts in a fresh supply of bourrees. 
 
64 EXPLOITATION OP THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 At this time he covers up the upper opening entirely, but without 
 hindering altogether the entrance of air and the issue of smoke : 
 small apertures being indispensable. On the other hand, much air 
 must not be admitted during the night, as then the moisture in the 
 wood is entirely evaporated, and the charcoal powder may be 
 converted into ashes. 
 
 "The carbonisation is completely finished when the workman 
 returns to his kiln on the following morning. Although the kiln has 
 not been hermetically sealed during the night there is but a slight 
 loss of charcoal ; the upper part only being affected by the air which 
 is moveover surcharged with carbonic acid. 
 
 "The workman now hastens to withdraw the charcoal, and to 
 extinguish it as completely as possible. 
 
 " By the lateral opening, he, with a little iron rake, draws out 2 
 hectolitres on to the inclined plane ; he then shuts the opening 
 instantly, and extinguishes the burning powder by watering it with 
 a gardener's watering pan. He applies one litre of water to the 
 hectolitre of powder ; this quantity is not enough to extinguish it 
 completely, but it is known that the powder is of better quality when 
 subjected to roulage, instead of employing an operation to be 
 immediately described, than it would be if more water were employed. 
 The workman then takes a wooden rake and spreads the charcoal 
 over an extent of about ten metres. The charcoal is extinguished 
 all the sooner by coming in contact with the cold earth, and an 
 atmosphere composed of carbonic acid and steam. By this roulage 
 the powder is exposed to the air in thin layers. The workman being 
 careful to extinguish any sparks of fire. 
 
 " This operation is long and hurtful to the workman, he breathes 
 a dry powder which incites him to drink, and injures his lungs. The 
 workmen who drink abundantly of the bad water of the country often 
 fall victims to fever. 
 
 "A workman spends three hours in extinguishing by roulage 
 20 hectolitres of powder. 
 
 " The kiln of the Couscaudiere consumes in a summer day, when 
 supplied by two workmen, from 350 to 360 bourrees, and when 
 supplied by only one workman, 260 or 280; 360 bourrees yield from 
 18 to 22 hectolitres of powder, which contain braise in the proportion 
 of 6 to 15. 
 
 " This braise is separated from the powder by an iron sieve, the 
 interstices being 2 centimetres across. The yield of braise varies 
 according to the composition of the bourrees. The oak yields more 
 than the birch, and the latter more than the maritime pine. 
 
MANUFACTURE OP CHARCOAL POWDER. 65 
 
 "As to the yield of powder, pine bourrees take the highest place. 
 Careful carbonisation also affects the yield, a certain quantity being 
 converted into ashes if the admission of air is not properly regulated. 
 " To prevent the necessity of continual superintendence, the work- 
 man is paid according to the yield. At La Motte-Beuvron he gets 
 15 centimes per hectolitre of powder. 
 
 " 100 bourrees may be carbonised at the following cost : — 
 Price of 100 bourrees, ... 2 francs cents. 
 
 Carriage, ... ... 1 „ „ 
 
 Cost of manufacturing 6 hectolitres 
 
 of powder, ... ... ,, 90 „ 
 
 Total, 3 francs 90 cents. 
 
 " From these 100 bourrees are obtained 6 hectolitres of powder, 
 which is worth on the spot 50 cents the hectolitre, or 4 francs for 
 6 hectolitres. The net profit is 60 centimes per 100 bourrees. In 
 this calculation I do not include the kiln, which costs very little, and 
 lasts for a number of years. If the work be done by proprietors, it 
 will be seen that their bourrees will bring them 2 francs 60 cents per 
 100. 
 
 " The expense of manufacture, at present 15 cents per hectolitre, 
 would be very much diminished if several kilns were made at the 
 same place. Whilst the bourrees are burning, the workman has a 
 good deal of spare time. When he has the care of two kilns he can 
 feed one white the bourrdes are burning in the other. He can roll 
 and extinguish the powder from one while attending to the fire in 
 the other. But it must be kept in mind that a collection of kilns 
 in one place increases the expense of carriage. If the roads be bad 
 the kilns should be isolated, and built at equal distances. The 
 expense of manufacture would be greater, but this would be largely 
 compensated by the reduction in the expense of carriage. A kiln 
 costs little, especially to proprietors who make their own brick and 
 lime. 
 
 "The tools required by the charcoal burner are simple in the 
 extreme. 
 
 " 1st, a wooden fork to put the bourrees in the oven ; 2nd, a long- 
 handled iron rake to draw out the charcoal ; 3rd, two gardener's zinc 
 watering-pans ; 4th, a wooden rake ; 5th, a wire sieve ; 6th, a half 
 hectolitre measure ; 7th, a large square shovel of sheet iron bent up 
 at the side, each side measuring 0*38 metres, with a wooden handle 
 0*80 metres in length. 
 
66 EXPLOITATION OF THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 " Of all these tools the only one requiring improvement is the sieve, 
 or riddle. It is of a rectangular shape, the longest side measures 1 
 metre, the shorter 65 centimetres, 4 pieces of wood about 25 centi- 
 metres high form the frame. The net- work meshes are 2 centimetres 
 in diameter, and are strengthened by transverse pieces of wood. It 
 is fixed to a post by a hook and a double handle, which serves for 
 putting in motion. It is with this sieve that the braise and the 
 charcoal powder are separated. 
 
 " These two articles vary according to the composition of the 
 botirrees." 
 
 In the Industrial Museum of Edinburgh, and it may be in other 
 similar institutions situated elsewhere, there have been exhibited 
 specimens of the products of the Landes, before and after having 
 been reclaimed from the conditions of wastes of moving sand, and 
 specimens of the implements employed in collecting the resinous 
 products of the trees. They were presented by M. Leopold Javal, 
 Deputy of the French Empire. 
 
 From a statement accompanying the specimens referred to, it 
 appeared that the operations carried out on the ground where they 
 were obtained were conducted by planting seedlings to the leeward 
 of the older plantations, in intersecting narrow belts, and sheltering 
 these with hurdles till they had taken root and begun to grow. This 
 they soon did, and, thriving well in such situations, they very soon 
 became strong enough to withstand the wind, and form live fences 
 enclosing squares of considerable extent. 
 
 These enclosures were then sown with rape, mustard, and other 
 rapid-growing crops, advantage being taken of wet weather to do 
 this. When the seed produced by these had been collected, the 
 remainder of the plant was ploughed in to produce vegetable mould, 
 and the process was repeated until sufficient vegetable mould to 
 support grain and other more valuable crops had been produced. 
 
 There were exhibited specimens of the sand, and of a bog iron ore 
 found about three feet below the surface, known as alios, with 
 specimens of the products of the land before cultivation. These con- 
 sisted chiefly of the common brake (Pteris aquilina) ; heather, or ling 
 (calluna vulgaris), which was used there, as elsewhere, for making 
 brooms ; the tree heath (erica arborea), a heath indigenous in the south 
 of Europe, and there found with stems measuring about an inch in 
 diameter ; and the furze, or whin (ulex europcea). 
 
 Of products raised by cultivation there were exhibited white maize, 
 
ECONOMIC PRODUCTS OF THE LANDES. 67 
 
 yellow maize, millet, little millet, buckwheat, rye, oats, wheat, and 
 tobacco. There were exhibited sections of the cork tree (quercus 
 suber); of the black oak (Q. nigra), a native of North America; of 
 the holly leaved oak (Q. gramuntia), which is indigenous in France ; 
 and of the cluster pine (pinus pinaster), or Spardenny, of which the 
 maritime pine (P. maritima) is conjectured to be a variety ; there 
 were exhibited specimens of this cut into railway sleepers, railway 
 fencing, drain pipes, hop poles, shingle for roofing, and pavement 
 for streets, stables, and footpaths ; all of these had been infiltrated 
 with blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) by the process of Bouchard, 
 recommended as a prevention of rot and decay ; and there were 
 exhibited specimens of the following resinous products of the trees : 
 Soft resin, collected in covered vessels ; gallipot, or white resin, 
 obtained by scraping the trees ; barras, a coarse resin ; sun turpen- 
 tine, prepared by exposing soft resin to the action of the solar rays, 
 and used in the manufacture of perfumery and of varnishes ; 
 bala turpentine, similar to the sun turpentine, but of inferior 
 quality ; Venice turpentine, which oozes through the joints of casks 
 filled with soft resin ; spirits of turpentine ; rectified spirits of 
 turpentine ; resin, residuum of the distillation of rough turpentine 
 or resin ; tar, a product of the distillation of rough turpentine, and 
 of the destructive distillation of wood ; empyreumatic oil, obtained in 
 the distillation of resin ; lubricating grease, a mixture of resin and 
 vegetable oils ; and torches of resin used chiefly in Bretagne. 
 
 Of implements there were exhibited a common hatchet, a hatchet 
 for making the broad shallow vertical grove in the bark and outer 
 concentric circles of the trunk, to allow of the escape of the resinous 
 sap, and for making the cut into which a zinc spout for collecting 
 that sap is fixed : the edge was, an arc of a circle about 3^ inches 
 broad, and the head aud handle formed an angle of about 135°; a 
 course earthenware vessel in which the resinous sap is now generally 
 collected : it would hold about f pints, and was shaped like an 
 earthenware milk pan, or coarse flowerpot of equal width and depth ; 
 a shovel for detaching gallipot aud digging holes : it was like a hoe in 
 shape, but solid ; a second of the same of about 2 inches in breadth ; 
 a scraper for the same purpose, of the same breadth, but bent round 
 like a crook to scrape downwards ; a ladder made of the side of a 
 young tree, with the edge cut into projecting angular steps. 
 
 The resins and the cereal products, exclusive of the fire-wood and 
 timber, were said to suffice to cover the expense of management, 
 and to supply a satisfactory return for the capital invested in the 
 
68 EXPLOITATION OP THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 enterprise, and of the reclaimed land brought under annual culture. 
 And as regards the charcoal manufactured, it is remarked by M. 
 Boitel : 
 
 " This would evidently be a source of possible wealth if the forests 
 were easily accessible, but they are not so as yet at least in the 
 Dunes, and will not be so until the newly planted trees arrive at a 
 valuable age. 
 
 " Good roads are being made at present, and in future the maritime 
 pine may be cultivated for the sake of its timber as well as for its 
 resin. 
 
 " The culture of the maritime pine has conferred invaluable benefits. 
 A considerable extent of low lying marshy land has been brought in, 
 once a focus of pestilence which decimated the population. It has 
 made it healthy and productive, and has introduced industry and 
 comfort into districts which seemed doomed to misery. The 
 maritime pine has also arrested the advance of the Dunes and pre- 
 vented them from overwhelming houses and arable land. Its 
 impoi-tance must increase. In the department of the Landes alone, 
 the extent already planted is more than 500,000 hectares. In the 
 Gironde there is almost as much, and very soon barren wastes and 
 sandy dunes will be things of the past." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Sylviculture on the Landes op La Sologne. 
 
 Besides the Landes of Gascony and the Landes of the Gironde which 
 are near the coast, we meet with Landes in inland situations in 
 France, arid regions, supporting but a sparse population, being 
 covered with heaths, and whins, and brooms, and other plants, which 
 take possession of waste and uncultivated lands, and yield little 
 nutriment for the support of man. Such are the Landes of La 
 Sologne, of which mention has been made in connection with details 
 given of the manufacture of charcoal ; such also are the Landes of 
 Le Brenne, and of Le Limousin — with solitudes broken only by the 
 visits of poor shepherds tending or searching for their sheep, 
 contrasting strangely with the animation and bustle prevailing in 
 districts adjacent. 
 
 In these we meet with another phase of sand dunes and drifting 
 sands, and of the culture of the maritime pine. 
 
 There, as in many other places elsewhere, the growth of the 
 maritime pine is less luxuriant than it is in the district to which our 
 attention has hitherto been given. 
 
 In the Landes of the Gironde the maritime pine propagates itself 
 by natural reproduction by self-sown seeds. There, all conditions are 
 peculiarly favourable to its growth. It is otherwise in the Depart- 
 ment of Maine and in La Sologne. 
 
 In Sologne it is very rarely the case that a pinery is reproduced by 
 self-sown seed. In the first place the trees never attain to great age, 
 and they never furnish aught but a small quantity of seed. In the 
 second place a repeuplement, when it does make its appearance, soon 
 perishes under a dense covering of timber trees, which deprives it of 
 air and light. In fine, young saplings, which may have withstood 
 the injurious effects of too dense a shade, become oft-times the prey of 
 flocks of sheep, which the people have the bad custom to lead into 
 pineries, from which they should be strictly excluded. 
 
 Of the Landes of La Sologne and of La Brenne, it has been 
 remarked that they are less known than are those of Gascony, 
 because they do not lie upon the old great lines of communication. 
 
70 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 They were once covered with a forest 1,200,000 acres in extent, 
 but this having been cleared away, they have relapsed into what 
 was their earlier condition, a barren sand waste, diversified by marsh 
 land, and marshes in abundance. 
 
 In writing of the " Desert World," M. Mangin, or his translator 
 into English, introducing his subject, says, " To those whose 
 imaginations have been kindled by glowing pictures of the African 
 Sahara and the Arabian wilderness, it will be, perhaps, a matter of 
 surprise to learn that even fertile and civilised Europe includes 
 within her boundaries l'egions which are scarcely less cheerless or 
 desolate, though happily of far inferior extent. 
 
 " In France, so richly cultivated, so laborious, and so blessed by 
 genial Nature as she is, there are, nevertheless, a few districts where 
 her sons may wholly forget — nay, almost disbelieve in the existence 
 of — her cities stirring with ' the hum of men,' her vineyards and her 
 gardens, her grassy pastures, her prolific meadows, her well ordered 
 highways, and those ' iron roads ' which are the incessant channels of 
 such restless energy, movement, and vigorous life." 
 
 And after describing mountain solitudes in the gigantic ranges of 
 the Jura, the Vosges, and the Cevennes ; the first an outlying spur 
 of the great Alpine system, and situated on the border of Switzerland ; 
 the second separating the valley of the Rhine from that of the 
 Moselle ; the last separating the valley of the Loire from that of the 
 basin of the Rhone, he goes on to reckon among the uncultivated 
 regions of France, the marshes of the Bresse of Forez, and, with others, 
 those of the Sologne. 
 
 The Landes or heaths of the Sologne appear as a desert surrounded 
 by a magnificent girdle of cultivated land, fully developed in the 
 fertile valleys of the Loire and the Cher. And, as is the case in 
 Gascony, the heath is surrounded on all sides by valleys, vineyards, 
 and gardens, in the highest state of cultivation. While in Corsica, 
 another sandy desert, the orange, the olive, and the chesnut adorn 
 spots surrounded with maquis, veritable heaths, with this, as the only 
 difference between them and the heaths of the Sologne, that under 
 that southern climate the whins and the meagre heaths are replaced 
 by the arbutus, the myrtle, arborescent heaths, cistuses, and 
 
 In all of the places mentioned, in Sologne, in Brenne, and in 
 Gascony, it is not rare to see farms of from 1,500 to 2,000 hectares, 
 in round numbers, 4,000 and 5,000 acres, with only from 150 to 200 
 
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 71 
 
 hectares under cultivation ; and in Corsica nine-tenths of the island 
 are covered by the maquis, or heaths. In Gascony, to one who would 
 urge the destruction of the heath, the agriculturist of Chalosse, or 
 of Beam would reply — No heath, no maize ; exactly, as elsewhere, one 
 would say — No dung, no wheat. And in that climate it is impossible 
 to carry out a rational and profitable culture excepting on the bases 
 of two hectares of heath for one under culture. 
 
 And there, by students of agricultural economy, it is deemed proper 
 to seek the improvement of the poorer land by rearing trees upon it, 
 instead of attempting to introduce at once the appliances of what is 
 known as high farming. But even for woods the land here requires 
 prepai'ation, and the preparation which is found to be most appropriate 
 is the culture of certain cereals, alternating with a growth of the 
 maritime pine, without which it would be hazardous to attempt the 
 growth of the Scots fir, the Corsioan pine, and the Norway fir, and the 
 oak, and the birch, all of which have been cultivated here with the 
 best results. 
 
 But the land improver must wait many years before he can say 
 whether the land will bear the other coniferae ; and the oak, and 
 other broad-leaved trees, it is alleged grow but slowly and require 
 shelter. And even when the time has come to attempt the growth 
 of such, it is not uncommon to grow a mixture of the maritime pine 
 with the other coniferae, the oak, the birch, and the chesuut ; as, 
 should the others fail, it at least will grow ; and if all succeed it is easy 
 to sacrifice any one kind for the promotion of the growth of the others ; 
 and in any case it will give shelter to those which might suffer from 
 frost, and it will yield marketable products, while the oak and the 
 birch are still too young to be subjected to exploitation. 
 
 In Sologne we have a well-defined geological district, about 
 440,000 hectares, or above a million of acres in extent. The 
 superficial strata have been designated by geologists specifically as 
 the Sands and Clays of the Sologne, a formation reckoned among]the 
 upper layers of the middle range of the tertiary period. 
 
 It may be represented, says Boitel in his volume entitled " Mis^ 
 en valeur des Terres Pauvres par le Pin Maritime," as a vast 
 calcareous basin, filled by alternate deposits of sand and of clay. 
 This basin, the wall of which crops out at a great many points along 
 the circumference of La Sologne, presents naturally different depths 
 at different localities. 
 
 In two borings, within yards of each other, at Saviguy (Loiret) 
 
72 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 we have in one a depth of 270 feet, and the other only 226| feet ; 
 and a third at Vannes (Loiret), we have only 168 feet. And owing 
 to accidental disturbances, and to the general inclination of the 
 surface from east to west, one and another of the layers of which the 
 deposit consists appear on the surface with a very great variation 
 in breadth, giving rise to superficial ground of silicious sand, of clay, 
 and of those elements associated in different proportions ; and the 
 sub-soil, which may be considered the true soil of the trees, presents 
 modifications not less important in character and in depth. 
 
 All the layers which appear have, as a common character, that 
 they are poor in lime and in fertilizing substances. 
 
 " In Sologne," says Boitel, " the lack of lime, the natural sterility 
 of the country, the ignorance of those who exploit its products, the 
 want of capital, the deficiency of labour, the undivided state of the 
 property, whether held by communes or by individuals, and the strik- 
 ing ruin of some inexperienced innovators, are the main obstacles which 
 have retarded the utilisation and improvement of the greater part of 
 the uncultivated land." 
 
 Following out the natural division of the layers into sandy, clayey, 
 and mixed lands, he says of these : 
 
 " Sandy silicious soil is formed of sand, more or less coarse, and 
 more or less white ; it is light and easily worked. Damp does not 
 make it cohere, or change it into a thick oily paste. If it lies on an 
 impermeable clay bed, without any fall, it becomes, in winter, 
 saturated with water, and almost inaccessible to animals, who would 
 sink into it up to their chests. 
 
 " But if there is a slight declivity it drains itself of its own accord, 
 and is liable to become too dry in summer. Farmers sow it only 
 with rye and buckwheat ; turnips and red clover also succeed pretty 
 well. In farms where no boisement, or planting with trees, has 
 taken place for fifty years, it is often still arable. Old fashioned 
 farmers prefer it, because it is easily worked, and because the effect 
 of manure soon becomes apparent on the buckwheat and rye. 
 
 " Intelligent farmers, on the contrary, dislike it because of its 
 rapid exhaustion, and because old manure can never be stored up in 
 it, so as to yield a good return. Even supposing that lime could be 
 had, it would be unsuitable for wheat and oats, it being poor in fertiliz- 
 ing substances, and because these cereals would suffer from drought 
 before coming to maturity. Farmers subject these sandy soils to a 
 fallow of lengthened duration ; it then becomes covered with a 
 whitish hair-grass (aim canescens), with a species of woodruff 
 
SOILS IX LA SOLOGXE. 73 
 
 (asperula cynctnehica ), and sheep's bit (jasione montana). After a 
 repose of several years, a gi*een compact moss follows, which is con- 
 sidered an indication that it will now bear one or two crops of barley 
 without manure. Isolated plantations of chestnuts also succeed when 
 the ground is deep and damp enough, also the oak and birch, but 
 the maritime piue is most suitable. All the sapinieres, or fir planta- 
 tions, established in Sologne for the last twenty-five years have been 
 planted in such ground. 
 
 " Clay Soil. — In Sologne sandy silicious soil covers the greatest 
 extent ; then comes clay, which is very different. "When dry it 
 contracts, cracks, and is difficult to work. When wet it is 
 impermeable, and forms an oily tough paste or clay, suitable for the 
 manufacture of tiles and bricks. These should not be made either 
 in very dry or very wet weather, but only at times of a certain degree 
 of dampness. Such soil is less easy to work than is sand ; it 
 requires stronger ploughs and more perfect implements. These 
 considerations made old fashioned farmers exclude it from the list of 
 arable soils. It is covered with oak woods and ponds, or is kept 
 as pasture for sheep. 
 
 " The white oak easily becomes fit for exploitation, either as coppice 
 or as timber trees. If the clay is pure and compact the ckene rouvre, 
 or red oak, the variety chiefly grown in France, is to be preferred. 
 
 " Clay soil produces a stronger and richer vegetation. The smaller 
 heaths being overtopped by the erica scoparia, vulgarly called 
 bremaille, which obtains the height of ToO metres. The dwarf whin 
 is also found (ulex nanus), some junipers and some grasses (molinia 
 ccendea, agrostis vulgaris, and danthonia decumhens). Clay soils, al- 
 though more difficult to work, are more profitable than are sandy 
 ones; when drained, limed, and well manured, they are neither too 
 hot nor too dry; the compost is not wasted, and it gives a good return. 
 
 " At the same time where argilo-silicious soils, which are better for 
 cultivation, are to be had, clay soils should be wooded. The mari- 
 time pine will not thrive on it, the oak and pine should be chosen. 
 
 " Soils Composed of Sand and Clay. — This class comprehends all 
 soils composed of mixtures of sand and clay, but such are rare in 
 Sologne, and this is unfortunate for its agricultural future. 
 
 " If in place of elementary soils, pure sand and pure clay, the soil 
 in Sologne were like the average ground in France, the farmer would 
 be more frequently successful. 
 
 " The soils in Sologne are infinitely modified in composition ; and 
 then also modified through their connection with subterranean 
 
 E 
 
74 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 springs. Before planting a firwood pinery it is necessary to ascertain 
 if the soil and sub-soil are suitable to the maritime pine, as this 
 tree pines in argilaceous, stiff, cold, and damp soils, and thrives in 
 such as are deep, sandy, and well drained." 
 
 M. Boitel. supplies also the following information on the compara- 
 tive extents of wooded and arable ground in La Sologne : " About 
 1836 the forests covered an extent of about 38,730 hectares, which 
 included those belonging to the state, to communes, and to private 
 individuals. Since that time much sandy unproductive arable land 
 has been planted with maritime pines, and I am not far from the 
 truth in fixing the total extent so occupied in Sologne at 50,000 
 hectares. Forests thus cover one-eighth of the whole surface. The 
 forest of Bruadan, lately uprooted, was famed for its size and for its 
 beautiful oaks. The forests of Boulogne and Chambord take a high 
 place. In the interior of Sologne may be mentioned those of Villette, 
 Chaon, and many others lately planted with pines. The oldest forests 
 are composed of white oak copse, growing under large timber of the 
 same tree. These usually occupy a stiff clay. The pedunculated oak 
 presents also a luxuriant appearance, reminding one of more fertile 
 countries. The good success of deciduous trees proves that they have 
 not so many requirements as herbaceous plants ; for, while the latter 
 cannot procure nourishment, the former, on the contrary, appear to 
 derive from the sub-soil and the atmosphere everything necessary for 
 their welfare. 
 
 " Such differences between these two classes of plants are often 
 apparent. The marl so useful for crops seems positively hurtful to 
 certain trees. The upper soil, exhausted by frequent cropping, 
 appears equally favourable to the germination and the development of 
 trees. The Solognese peasant says that sand is ripe for trees when- 
 ever barley refuses to grow. 
 
 " Trees with deciduous leaves, the oak in particular, are certainly 
 the greatest improvement to the landscape; and when under the shade 
 of these magnificent specimens scattered here and there on the edges 
 of the farms, one questions whether the soil should be called sterile. 
 Every domain, and, it may be said, every farm, has one part of wood- 
 land assigned to the proprietor. The oldest forests are coppices of oak 
 and birch. The pedunculated or stalk-fruited oak occupies the 
 argilo-silicious soil, whilst the oak with sessile acorns, is found on 
 stiff clayey soil, where it succeeds as coppice better than any other 
 tree. The new forests, planted within the last thirty years, are usually 
 
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL FOR SYLVICULTURE. 75 
 
 formed of maritime pines. Isolated portions often look neglected, 
 because the bad habit prevails of pasturing cattle in oak-coppice 
 woods. There are even proprietors who tolerate this abuse in les 
 baux. Plantations of maritime pines are better protected, but care- 
 less shepherds often allow their flocks to brouse on the young shoots. 
 
 " It may be remarked that boisements, or plantations of trees, are 
 gradually encroaching on the arable ground. It is more than thirty 
 years since this invasion began. The soil, naturally poor in lime and 
 fertilizing elements, is rapidly exhausted by the prevailing bad farm- 
 ing. What can be done with such soil 1 Simply to sow three or four 
 francs' worth of the seed of the maritime pine, and to wait for the 
 growth of the young forest. Such an insignificant outlay preparing 
 for a certain return being obtained from soil absolutely useless for 
 agriculture. 
 
 " These improvements often take place on land otherwise unproduc- 
 tive, because it is the interest of the proprietors to do this. Subse- 
 quently a portion is cleared and made arable, and when exhausted by 
 fifteen or twenty years' culture, it is again planted with wood. In 
 this way in sandy cantons the farmer, or small land-holder, succes- 
 sively clearing and planting, becomes an important agent in 
 re-converting the lands into forests." 
 
 In regard to the formation of pine woods in La Sologne, M. Boitel 
 supplies the following information : 
 
 " Preparation of the Ground. — The extension of sylviculture, which 
 would fall to be deprecated if it implied that the land planted with 
 trees was land withdrawn from agriculture, comes to be desirable 
 when it is carried out on land fit for the growth of trees alone, and 
 which has become so only after a few years of temporary cultivation. 
 In Sologne nothing is more difficult than to convert a Laude at once 
 into a forest. The most experienced men carefully avoid attempting 
 to do so ; as when the soil of the Laude has been carefully prepared 
 to receive the seed, it is at once covered by a vigorous vegetation of 
 heath, broom, and gorse or whin, which never fail to choke the young 
 trees. Immediate boisement, or plantation with trees, succeeds rarely, 
 and only on very dry soils, where the heaths are stunted. Except in 
 such rare conditions, it may be said the natural growth (heaths, 
 broom, and gorse or whins) are stronger than the maritime pine, the oak, 
 and the birch ; when the seedlings come into collision, victory accrues 
 to the indigenous growth of the soil. Sologue, in this respect, is 
 very different from Gascony, where the maritime pine, by natural 
 
76 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 sowing, invades the heaths when these are not under pasture ; and fur- 
 ther, on the Dunes of Gascony broom is employed successfully to 
 shelter the infant pines ! 
 
 " Choice of Ground. — Either arable ground or Landes may be 
 planted. The latter cannot undergo the operation at once without 
 being subjected to cultivation for several years. 
 
 " The arable land employed must of course be of the worst kind. 
 Sandy, permeable, light soil is generally destined to boisement. Only 
 special circumstances ever induce a proprietor to plant with trees all 
 his property, whatever may be the nature of the soil ; but planting 
 may have to be carried on at the same time on pure sand, and on 
 sand which is more or less mixed with clay. 
 
 " Before fixing on the trees to be used, the nature of the soil, and 
 the requirements of convenience, must be consulted, and the selec- 
 tion should be of whatever will yield the highest and most permanent 
 annual return. 
 
 "Boisement in Sologne is either permanent or temporary; per- 
 manent where it is in contemplation to farm a copse or a timber 
 forest ; temporary, when intended to prepare the soil for agriculture ; 
 and this may determine the choice of trees. 
 
 " For temporary boisement, trees which soon attain maturity 
 should be chosen. The maritime pine, which in favourable circum- 
 stances attains the age of eighty years, rarely lasts more than twenty- 
 five in Sologne. After this age the bark is covered with lichens, the 
 growth is feeble, and it is at a loss if the exploitation be delayed. 
 The ground which is cleared will then yield excellent crops without 
 further expense than that of the working of the ground — thanks to 
 the organic remains with which it is enriched by the trees grown 
 upon it. 
 
 " In this way a rotation may be carried on according to the 
 following formula : 
 
 Maritime pine, ... ... 20 to 25 years, 
 
 Idem, 
 
 Rye and buckwheat, ... ... so long as rye and 
 
 buckwheat continue to thrive without the addition of manure. 
 
 "The soil when again exhausted, is again replenished with 
 maritime pine, and so on continuously. 
 
 " In this rotation the pine plays the part of a doubly productive 
 fallow, because, besides its commercial value, it restores to the soil 
 the elements which are required in agriculture. We cannot too 
 much admire the marvellous property of trees whereby they collect 
 
TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT BOISEMENT. 77 
 
 and restore to the exhausted soil, the substances withdrawn from 
 the air by their leaves [?] or from the subsoil by their roots. It 
 supplies us with one of the main instances in agriculture in which 
 time is of more value than money. With a great outlay iu fertilizing 
 a poor soil, the return may be uncertain or even ruinous to the 
 cultivator. If, on the contrary, it be expended on boisement, or plan- 
 tation of trees, where time is money, you attain your end by improv- 
 ing the fertility, and at the same time you produce the amelioration 
 by a money return. It is only in the case of very good soil that 
 time is here worth more than money. 
 
 " Permanent or definite boisement. — Temporary boisement makes the 
 poor soil of Sologne produce every year, pines, rye, and buckwheat. 
 Permanent boisement excludes agriculture, and the annual produce is 
 exclusively that of the forest. This is obtained by mixing the oak, 
 birch, and chesuut, with the pine, the coppice regime of which trees 
 follows the exploitation of the last named tree. In Sologne both 
 systems have both advocates and assailants. Unfortunately, discus- 
 sion will not decide the point, and we do not as yet possess sufficient 
 data to enable us to do so. But if we look at the subject from a philan- 
 thropic point of view, the first is to be preferred, because, instead of 
 producing alone fire-wood and charcoal, it furnishes cereals, over and 
 above, to a population at present obliged to have recourse to the im- 
 portation of these from a distance. 
 
 " Soivings of pines along with other trees. — The maritime pine when 
 grown by itself is treated as has been already detailed." When 
 mixed with other trees there are no very important modifications 
 of tbis. It acts as a shelter to coppice woods of oak, birch, and 
 chestnut. These coppice woods continue growing while the pines 
 remain, but they do not become really productive until after the 
 exploitation of these. Instead of passing abruptly and completely 
 from the culture of the pine wood, to that of the coppice woods of 
 deciduous trees, there are sometimes left baliveaux, or standards, 
 of maritime pines. In this way we have there a coppice of oak and 
 birch under a timber forest of pines. This method is only to be 
 adopted on soil which is very favourable to the pine. 
 
 " For mixed boisements it does not signify whether the soil is quite 
 suited to the pine or not. The good of the trees which will per- 
 manently occupy the soil is more to be consulted. In any case, 
 where the sand is shallow, Scots firs should be preferred. 
 
 " The trees to be mixed with pines should be, first, the red oak, on 
 stiff clay ; second, the white oak, on argilo-silicious soils ; third, the 
 
78 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 birch, in poor, damp, and deep sand ; fourth, the chestnut, on rich, 
 damp, and deep sand. The oak is very hardy ; in poor soils it is 
 the most productive. 
 
 " To conclude, it is not always easy to apply the rules laid down, 
 on account of the varieties of soil ; but to ensure success two kinds of 
 deciduous trees should be associated with the pine — for example, the 
 oak and birch. 
 
 " Fine coppice woods of chestnut are rare in Sologne, which seems 
 to prove that the soil is unsuitable. Nevertheless, solitary specimens 
 of chesnut trees of great beauty occur, but only in the neighbourhood 
 of the farms, where they have had the benefit of manure and culture. 
 
 " The year in which the pines are sown may not always be a good 
 year for acorns. In this case the latter may be pricked in later 
 among the young pines. 
 
 " When the pines and acorns are sown at the same time, the acorns 
 are first scattered in furrows, and when the ground is harrowed they 
 are covered to the proper depth. The pine seed is then sown and 
 covered by being slightly harrowed. Chestnuts are sown like acorns. 
 
 " Birch seed is not sown in Sologne ; young plants, three years old, 
 collected in the neighbourhood of the old trees, are preferred." 
 
 M. Boitel goes on to say : " Having pointed out the trees to be 
 employed on boisements, we may now consider the respective merits 
 of forests and agriculture as regards the general good. 
 
 " It is impossible to bring a poor soil at once into cultivation, and 
 it may be considered as proved beyond a doubt that reboisement is the 
 best way of improving land, and at the same time securing a speedy 
 return. 
 
 " In Sologne, agriculture can only be profitably carried on in 
 certain favoured spots where the soil, argilo-silicious or silicio- 
 argillaceous, has been drained and manured ; but it is evident that 
 expensive improvements, in which the outlay exceeds the return, can 
 only be carried out on a very small scale in Sologne. A farm of 100 
 to 150 hectares will only contain 20 or 30 hectares which have been 
 treated in this way. 
 
 " It is impossible to establish the relative proportion which ought 
 to exist between agriculture and boisement — local circumstances and 
 the position of the proprietor differ so very much. 
 
 " The most experienced men devote to boisement, first, exhausted 
 land which is usually sandy ; second, Landes exceptionally poor. 
 
 " We have already said that these Landes cannot at once be 
 
3 , 
 
 o 
 
 yt 
 
 4 , 
 
 ; so 
 
 )j 
 
 2 „ 50 
 
 „ 
 
 9 
 
 - 1 > 
 
 , 50 
 
 >> 
 
 EXPENSE OF SOWING. 79 
 
 changed into forests j but when grubbed out, and subjected to the 
 action of black cattle during two or three years, they yield crops, 
 which repay the expense of grubbing, and which destroy the weeds. 
 
 " I have tried boisements on a large scale on the Imperial domains 
 of Sologne. The following is the cost of sowing a hectare of 
 exhausted land : 
 
 10 kilogrammes of maritime pine seed 
 
 (winged) at 40 cents, ... 4 francs cents. 
 
 1 kilogramme of Scotch fir seed 
 
 (winged) at 3 francs, 
 150 litres of acorns at 3 cents, 
 50 litres of chestnuts at 5 cents, 
 Scattering the seed, ... 
 
 Total, 16 francs 50 cents. 
 
 "The expense of draining, levelling, enclosing, and weeding, 
 varying according to locality, amounts, at the least, to 15 francs per 
 hectare, so that the reboisement of a hectare will cost about 32 francs 
 50 cents, partly the seed, partly for hand labour. The expense of 
 ploughing and harrowing must be added, but usually this is not 
 great in these sandy soils. Land left in furrows only requires to be 
 harrowed after the seed is scattered. 
 
 " This system of boisement is perfect and permanent, and free from 
 risk. 
 
 " If the Scots fir does not germinate, which often happens, it 
 should be replaced by the maritime pine, and vice versa. If resinous 
 trees fail, the oak, birch, and chestnut will cover the ground 
 sufficiently. 
 
 " Some boisements cost only 4 or 5 francs per hectai*e instead of 32 
 francs 50 cents, in which case the seed of the maritime pine is sown 
 along with rye and buckwheat. The seed costs little, aud the produce 
 of the mixed culture pays for the ploughing and harrowing. This 
 method has the drawback of risking all on a single tree, which may uot 
 succeed. On the other hand, it is to be supposed that the ground is 
 not too far exhausted to be able to produce at least one other crop of 
 rye and buckwheat ; this is not usually the state of a field abandoned 
 by farmers or small land holders. 
 
 " The young pineries, called here scqnnieres, are treated according 
 to the method already described." 
 
 In the reclaiming of these Landes of La Sologne, we still find the 
 
80 SYLVICULTURE IN LA SOLOGNE. 
 
 maritime pine playing an important part ; but it is a subordinate 
 role. It is employed here not as the one important culture, but as a 
 means of preparing the soil for the culture of some of the poorer of 
 the cereals, or as a manure to other trees, for the growth of which it 
 has to make way, having secured its purpose, and in doing so 
 exhausted its growth. In this respect, as in others, the Landes of 
 Gascony and the Landes of La Sologne differ greatly ; and thus a 
 fuller study of these, more especially in particulars in which they 
 differ from each other, may be desirable. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Inland Sand-Wastes, and Sand-Wastes on the Coast. 
 
 The diffei'ent conditions of the maritime pine grown on the Landes of 
 Gascony, and of that tree grown on the Landes of La Sologne, indicate 
 that there must be some great difference in the conditions of the 
 sand-wastes themselves ; and I deem it of much more importance to 
 have this fact recognised by those who, without previous experience, 
 may contemplate the reclaiming of sand-wastes by sylviculture, than 
 to have the difference referred to precisely specified. All sand-wastes 
 are not alike : there are sand-wastes ; and there are sand-wastes ; 
 and there are trees which will grow luxuriantly upon one, which upon 
 another will pine away and die. 
 
 Climate has to do with such results as well as soil. Sea air, and 
 saline constituents of the soil, destructive to some trees, may be, like 
 elements, life to others. The mobility of a drifting sand dune on the 
 coast may be a condition of life to one tree, while the comparative 
 fixity of an inland sand-waste maybe essential to the growth of another. 
 Something has been gained by the discovery that even the maritime 
 pine, which has produced such wonderful results on the Landes of 
 Gascony and of the Gironde, will not grow everywhere, even on sand- 
 wastes in France. And the teaching of this is, that in every case in 
 which it is sought thus to arrest and utilize sand-wastes, the culture 
 must be determined by a special acquaintance with the case. 
 
 A previous study of the natural history of sand drifts and sand 
 dunes might facilitate the acquisition of such an acquaintance with 
 any one case as is referred to. But this comes not within the scope 
 of this volume, which is limited to the single chapter of that subject 
 indicated by its title. And it is the appearance presented by planta- 
 tions on drift sands, and by lands adjacent to the pine plantations in 
 Gascony alone, which have as yet been detailed. Points of similarity 
 and of difference between these sands and the sands of La Sologne 
 have only come before us incidentally. 
 
 With the fact before us, however, that there are differences in the con- 
 ditions of sand-wastes, we may find it satisfactory to advance a little 
 further in the study of these sand-wastes of France, less with a view 
 of ascertaining the difference between the sand-wastes of the coast 
 
 L 
 
82 SAND-WASTES IN PRANCE. 
 
 and those of the interior of France, than with a view to becoming 
 acquainted more extensively with the less superficial conditions of 
 these sand-wastes than those previously detailed, whether common 
 to all or peculiar to certain localities. 
 
 According to Herr Wessley, to whose work, entitled Der Europaische 
 Flugsand und Seine Kultur* I have already had occasion to refer, 
 the "Landes" covering 270 German square miles (5,550 English 
 square miles) of the province of Gascony, form the area of the basin 
 of Bordeaux, a triangle bounded by the Atlantic, and formed by the 
 land lying between the lower portion of the beds of the Garonne and 
 of the Adour. 
 
 On the coast are the " Landes Sauvages," or coast dunes, covering 
 an area of 19 German square miles, (nearly 400 English square 
 miles), which, through drifting, have extended to a breadth which is 
 unusual, and thereby has it frequently happened that the river courses 
 far inland have been stopped up, and thus, through their waters 
 penetrating into the Kehlen, or bared grooves, and hollows amongst 
 the dunes, which cover more than half the land, have these waters 
 been converted into lagoons and marshes. 
 
 The inland portion of the " Landes " forms a kind of plain from 250 
 to 300 feet above the level of the sea, an extensive sand heath 
 covered with dunes, very much cut up, and of a composition so 
 unfavourable to vegetation that in many parts it is throughout the 
 year perfectly barren. It is only of late, as he says, that by extensive 
 sylviculture, chiefly of the maritime pine, a considerable extent of 
 forest has been produced, following mainly the water courses, and 
 thereby a better produce from the land has been obtained. 
 
 The superficial covering of these heaths is composed principally of 
 a very poor sand, devoid alike of clay and lime from L9 to 2*5 feet in 
 depth, resting on an impenetrable under stratum, from 11 to 15 
 inches in thickness, which consists of sand cemented by calcareous 
 and vegetable matter and is almost identical with the so-called 
 German " Ortstein." Under this stratum of ortstein again lies sand, 
 and although in some places they have dug to a depth of 63 feet 
 the lower extremity of this sand layer has not been reached. 
 
 In the summer season there is neither spring nor brook to be seen 
 in these Landes. In the winter, however, being so near the sea, there 
 is a plentiful fall of rain ; and formerly, because of the little slope of 
 
 *Vienna : Fraesy and Freck. 1873. 
 
RETENTION OP WATER. 83 
 
 the ground preventing a flowing off on any side, and the ortstein 
 preventing its sinking into the ground, they were frequently flooded, 
 and in this state they continued till the water was finally evaporated 
 by the summer heat ; and then things went to the other extreme, 
 namely, a drought, because the vapour of the subterranean water 
 could not pass through the stratum of ortstein. But here and 
 there, where the ortstein was awanting, or had been broken through, 
 places might be seen which were not so water drenched ; on these 
 grew wood very well, and showed that the barrenness was not 
 attributable to the composition of the superficial layers. 
 
 The level of the subterranean water is about 3f feet below the 
 surface. Water for drinking brought from that level is yellowish in 
 colour, and harsh to the taste ; it is only when brought from a depth 
 of from 12 to 15 feet that the water begins to be drinkable. 
 
 In the wet localities described no oak can grow, for during the 
 season of spring the whole heat is required for the evaporation of 
 the water lodged there, and the oaks then expand their buds, and if 
 these retain vitality at all it is only in the end of May, when the 
 excess of moisture has disappeared, that they can burst forth, and 
 then the delicate buds are exposed to the summer heat, and they 
 succumb to the scorching sun of July. 
 
 The maritime pine has also its buds ; and the period of its vege- 
 tation is also reduced by about two months by the stagnant waters ; 
 and by the ground ever passing through the alternation between exces- 
 sive drought and excessive moisture, this tree also suffers in its growth, 
 and on spots which do not become dry until the middle of summer 
 it does not grow at all. 
 
 The importance of effects produced by the ortstein, of which men- 
 tion has previously been made, under its local designation, alios, calls 
 for some additional information being given in regard to it. 
 
 In writing of the Water Supply in South Africa, I have had occa- 
 sion to refer to an impermeable layer in the sands of Xamaqualand and 
 other districts operating as does the ortstein here. There travellers, 
 when driven to extremity for water, have found, on hollowing out a 
 basin in the sand, that at a little depth they reached a layer of other 
 matter ; and after a time, more or less protracted, water collected in 
 this basin, draining thither from and through the permeable sand, and 
 retained there by the impermeable stratum, often not thicker than a 
 penny, formed probably of clay, lime, and other matter washed down 
 from the superincumbent sand. It is impermeable to water ; 
 
84 SAND-WASTES OP FRANCE. 
 
 but great care has to be taken not to fracture it, as whenever this 
 happens the water is lost, draining off to a lower depth. 
 
 In the Landes the stratum of impermeable matter spoken of by 
 Herr Wessley, and there known as alios, contains iron in its composi- 
 tion ; it has been spoken of as bog-iron-ore, and has been mentioned 
 (ante p. 66) under this name among the products of the Landes 
 exhibited by M. Leopold Javal. 
 
 The origin of this has been discussed by M. Faye, Director-General 
 of the Administration of Forests in France, in a paper which appeared 
 in the translation of the Academie des sciences, from a notice of 
 which, in the Athenaeum, it appears that M. Faye was engaged to 
 level a portion of the Landes between the lakes on the coast 
 and the basin of Arcachon, and made use of the opportunity to 
 study the peculiarities of the soil. According to this notice : " At 
 about three feet below the surface of the Landes, there lies every- 
 where an impermeable stratum called alios, a stony substance of a 
 brown colour, variable in thickness, which is nowhere great, and 
 covering an indefinite bed of sand, identical with that which lies above 
 it. This invisible waterproof stratum has always had a great influence 
 on the health of the inhabitants of the country. Retaining the pro- 
 ducts of vegetable decomposition from the upper soil, where there 
 was scarcely any slope, the alios has for centuries fixed intermittent 
 fever in and around the Landes ; but reclamation has driven away 
 the fever, and the alios seems now to have no other effect than that 
 of forcing the roots of the marine pines to grow horizontally instead 
 of vertically. The sand of the Landes is white, intermixed with a 
 few black grains, containing peroxide of iron and oxide of manganesia. 
 Washed, first by the water of the ocean, and afterwards by rain for 
 centuries, it holds no soluble matter, and the alios, which is of a dark 
 reddish brown colour, sufficiently compact to require a pick-axe to 
 break it up, is a stratum of the same sand cemented together by some 
 organic and slightly ferruginous substance. In the summer a hole 
 made in the soil down to the alios fills gradually by lateral infiltration 
 with yellowish water not fit for drinking ; but if the alios is pierced 
 an abundant supply of perfectly limpid water is obtained. 
 
 " The question is — How is this alios formed 1 It is evident that it 
 was produced in situ, and the presence of the organic matter already 
 mentioned leads to the supposition that the latter plays some part in 
 the formation of this peculiar stratum. 
 
 " The alios is found everywhere in the Landes except in the marshes, 
 on the banks of ponds, and in the downs, even when the latter, 
 
FORMATION OF THE ALIOS. 85 
 
 protected by old forests, have never been swept by the winds for 
 centuries. Soundings, and the knowledge of these exceptions, led M. 
 Faye to the discovery of the mode in which the alios was formed. 
 In winter and early spring the nearly level surface of the Landes is 
 covered with rain-water, but during summer the level of this water 
 descends by evaporation, to the depth of one or two metres, a level 
 which also corresponds with that of the ponds which border the chain 
 of downs. If now we take into consideration the decomposition of 
 vegetable matter which takes place in the water, and the deposit 
 which must be produced at the lower level, it is easy to see why an 
 agglomeration of sand and organic matter should take place at the 
 depth already mentioned. This operation being repeated annually 
 during many centuries, an increasing stratum of alios is naturally 
 formed, which doubtless continues to grow at the present moment. 
 
 " It is not surprising then that no alios is to be found in the 
 marshes which are always under water, nor in the downs which are 
 not inundated, like the Landes, by a periodical sheet of water carried 
 off regularly by evaporation, the rain as it falls being earned away 
 by the slopes to the sea. 
 
 "But Whence come the traces of ferruginous matter which aid in 
 the agglomeration of the alios and in giving it its red tint 1 It was 
 shown long ago that the decomposition of roots and other vegetable 
 matter brings the peroxide of iron contained in the soil into a state 
 of inferior oxidation, and renders it liable to be attacked by the weak 
 acids resulting from vegetable decay; more recently, M. Daubree 
 attributed the formation of the limonitic iron of the Swedish lakes to 
 this chemical action, showing that iron thus rendered soluble over 
 great areas is collected together by springs and rivulets, re-assumes 
 its primitive oxidation, when the waters come in contact with the air, 
 and is then deposited in the form of slime, and forms mineral strata 
 of great richness. The same effect, but produced on the spot, would 
 account for the small quantity of iron found in the alios. Vegetable 
 decay has, in fact, produced in places the identical effect on the 
 blackish portions of the sand of the Landes ; where a fall in the level 
 has caused a great accumulation of water there has been a concen- 
 tration of iron, and in past times a certain number of furnaces worked 
 up the iron, which is now exhausted. 
 
 " M. Faye, having explained the origin of alios, showed what effect 
 an impermeable subsoil has on the salubrity of a district ; the escape 
 of the water is stopped, the subsoil becomes a centre of putrefaction 
 and infection, and endemic malaria devastates the country. In the 
 
86 SAND-WASTES OP PRANCE. 
 
 Landes the evil has been remedied by cutting rather deep drains to 
 carry off the water, and the roots of fern and other plants, which 
 partly perish every year, have been replaced by those of the maritime 
 pine. Thus the contamination of the air by the subsoil has been 
 stopped, and with it the intermittent fevers which had given to the 
 inhabitants a peculiar character of debility. M. Faye, after much 
 observation, arrives at what he believes to be a principle, namely, 
 that wherever an impermeable subsoil is found at a depth of two or 
 three feet from the surface there will always be intermittent fever if 
 the soil be contaminated by vegetable putridity, and fevers of a 
 typhoidal character if animal decomposition be present. As to the 
 remedy, it consists evidently either in draining, as adopted in the 
 Landes, or in the removal of the vegetable or animal decomposition." 
 But of this stratum, Marsh says : " The alios, which, from its 
 colour and consistence, was supposed to be a ferruginous formation, 
 appears from recent observations to contain little iron, and to owe 
 most of its peculiar properties to vegetable elements carried down 
 into the soil by the percolation of rain-water. See Revue des Eaux et 
 Forets, for 1870, p. 301." 
 
 Whatever the source of the material and the process of its forma- 
 tion, the effects of its presence on the moisture of the sand-wastes 
 and on vegetation there is great. 
 
 And from what has been advanced it appears that, in so far as 
 moisture is concerned, dunes and sand plains are not always so 
 devoid of water as they seem, and as the common expression Dry 
 Sand would suggest. 
 
 Marsh, in connection with a remark made by himself, in which he 
 says in regard to sand hillocks : " it is observed that from capillary 
 attraction, evaporation from lower strata, and retention of rain-water, 
 they are always moist a little below the surface," cites in a foot-note 
 the following observations : " Dunes are always full of water, from 
 the action of capillary attraction. Upon the summits one seldom 
 needs to dig more than a foot to find the sand moist ; and in the 
 depressions fresh water is met with near the surface. Forchhammer 
 in Leonhard und Bronn for 1841, p. 5. 
 
 " On the other hand, Andresen, who has very carefully investi- 
 gated this as well as all other dune phenomena, maintains that the 
 humidity of the sand ridges cannot be derived from capillary 
 attraction. He found by experiment that a heap of drift sand was 
 not moistened to a greater height than eight and a half inches, after 
 
ABSORPTION OP WATER. 87 
 
 standing with its base a whole night in water. He states the mean 
 minimum of water contained by the sand of the dunes one foot below 
 the surface, after a long drought, at two per cent. ; the maximum, 
 after a rainy month, at four per cent. At greater depths the quantity 
 is larger. The hygroscopicity of the sand of the coast of Jutland he 
 found to be 33 per cent., by measure, or 21*5 by weight. The 
 annual precipitation on that coast is 27 inches, and, as the 
 evaporation is about the same, he argues that rain-water does not 
 penetrate far beneath the surface of the dunes, and concludes that 
 their humidity can be explained only by the evaporation from 
 below. Om Klit formationen, pp. 106-110. 
 
 " In the dunes of Algeria water is so abundant that wells are 
 constantly dug in them at high points on their surface. They are 
 sunk to the depth of three or four metres only, and the water rises 
 to the height of a metre in them. Laurent. Memoire sur le Sahara, 
 pp. 11, 12, 13. 
 
 " The same writer observes (p. 14), that the hollows on the dunes 
 are planted with palms which find moisture enough a little below the 
 surface. It would hence seem that the proposal to fix the dunes 
 which are supposed to threaten the Suez Canal, by planting the 
 maritime pine and other trees upon them, is not altogether so absurd 
 as it has been thought to be by some of those distinguished philan- 
 thropists of other nations who were distressed with fears that French 
 capitalists would lose the money they had invested in that great 
 undertaking. 
 
 " Ponds of water are often found in the depressions between the 
 sand hills of the dune chains in the North American desert." 
 
 I have had occasion, in the volume on " Reboisement in France," to 
 refer to certain experiments by.Thurmann, in which cubes of different 
 minerals, thoroughly dried, weighing each 100 grammes, were im- 
 mersed in water for five minutes. He states that these gave the follow- 
 ing results : — Liassic triassic, compact Jurassic, liassic triassic, and 
 oolithic limestones, granite, serpentine, basalt, dolerites, trachytes, 
 &c, gave a mean absorption of 0-50 grammes of water. Similar mine- 
 rals, including gneiss and compact marl schist somewhat disinteg- 
 rated and changed, gave a mean absorption of 1-50 grammes ; lime- 
 stone still further decomposed, ferruginous oolites of Mt. Jura, liassic 
 schists and grits from the Vosges, and eruptive rocks perceptibly 
 changed, a mean absorption of 4 grammes ; variegated grits, green 
 coloured grits, calcareous chalks, gravelly clay, and sands, 7 grammes ; 
 and clays, Oxford marls, and kaolin, an absorption of from 10 to 30 
 grammes. 
 
88 SAND-WASTES OP FRANCE. 
 
 These observations, I there stated, Marchand considered indi- 
 cative of the absorption of water being proportional to the state of 
 sub-division of the material composing- the rock ; and this effect he 
 resolved into their hygroscopicity and their capillarity — the former, 
 the power of each molecule of the rock to retain around it a layer of 
 moisture difficult to withdraw — the latter, the property possessed by 
 many molecules of earth, to retain, in interstices by which they are 
 separated, small globules of water. 
 
 From experiments and observations cited by Wessley, it appears 
 that, of all the constituents of soil, sand manifests the least capa- 
 bility of absorbing water into its composition. 
 
 According to experiments by Schuebler, recorded in his Agricultur- 
 Chemie (1830), a cubic metre of the following substance contained of 
 water the quantities stated : 
 
 Kilogrammes. 
 Quartz sand, 499 
 
 Pure grey clay, 875 
 
 Fine carbonate of lime, 808 
 Humid acid, 935 
 
 Field earth, 745 
 
 Garden earth, 821 
 
 The size of the grains of sand has an influence, and the capability 
 of absorbing moisture is increased with the fineness of the grains, — 
 but much more by the admixture of clay and lime, and most of all by 
 the addition of humid acid. 
 
 Pure quartz sand has no power of attracting moisture from the 
 atmosphere, but it gains this power by the admixture of other sub- 
 stances ; and the operation is promoted by the reduction of the size 
 of the grains. 
 
 According to statements in Heyer's Forstliche Bodenhunde, founded 
 on investigations by Schuebler, 5 grammes of the following sub- 
 stances spread out over 360 square centimetres, attracted from the 
 air in 72 hours the affixed number of centi-grammes ; and the pro- 
 portions would have been the same whatever weight had been taken : 
 Pure quartz sand, 
 Pure grey clay, 
 Powdered carbonate of lime, 
 Humid acid, 
 Field earth, 
 Garden earth, 
 
 In Weight. 
 
 In volume 
 
 •25 
 
 •50 
 
 ■70 
 
 •87 
 
 •85 
 
 •81 . 
 
 1-90 
 
 •94 
 
 •52 
 
 •75 
 
 •89 
 
 •82 
 
 24-5 
 
 17-5 
 
 60- 
 
 11-6 
 
 26- 
 
MOISTURE OP SAND. 89 
 
 Again we find the effect intensified most of all by the admixture 
 of humus, the operation of which is some three-fold that of clay and 
 lime. Sand again is desiccated more rapidly than the other sub- 
 stances mentioned. 
 
 According to Schuebler, of 100 parts of absorbed water, reduced 
 to the extent of 90 parts by exposure to a temperature of 15°, these 
 substances yielded it up in the following times stated : 
 
 In one hour. In four hours. 
 
 Pure quartz sand, 
 
 4-07 
 
 8S-4 
 
 Pure clay, 
 
 11-28 
 
 31-9 
 
 Powdered lime, 
 
 12-83 
 
 28- 
 
 Humid acid, 
 
 17-55 
 
 20-5 
 
 Field earth, 
 
 11-25 
 
 32- 
 
 Garden earth, 
 
 14-82 
 
 24-3 
 
 Further, it has been found by experiments by Kerner, that the 
 finer the sand the longer does it retain moisture. And the observa- 
 tions cited show, that while this property is increased by an admixture 
 of clay or lime, it is increased most of all by an admixture of humus. 
 
 The rainfall sinks quickly into porous sand. When rain falls 
 slowly we find no puddles ; the rain is drawn off to feed subterranean 
 waters, while, when it falls in deluges, it falls faster than it can sink, 
 and, instead of flowing away over the surface, it flows away, carrying 
 the sand with it, and often depositing this on ground at a lower level, 
 to its utter devastation. 
 
 The coarser the sand the more quickly is it permeated by water. 
 Kerner, in experiments, found the time to vary with this from two to 
 twenty minutes. 
 
 With sand soil manured for agriculture it is otherwise. Grouven 
 found, on experiments with turnip ground of diluvial sand, that in 
 two hours 72 grammes of water dropped through an 8-inch layer, but 
 he found the quantity in five other specimens to range from 15 to 62 
 grammes only ; while in five others it was doubled, ranging from 117 
 to 119 grammes; while in four other specimens it was fourfold as 
 much, ranging from 261 to 286. 
 
 The capillary attraction manifested by sand is remarkable. It not 
 only operates quickly, but more quickly from below upward than 
 water sinks from above downward when it falls in quantity. 
 
 According to Meister, quoted by Mayer in his Agricultui'-Chemie, 
 1871, the ascent of water by capillary attraction in different sub- 
 stances was as follows : 
 
 M 
 
90 SAND-WASTES OP FRANCE. 
 
 
 In \ an hour. 
 
 In 2\ hours. 
 
 In 21£ hours. 
 
 Clayey soil, 
 
 34 
 
 115 
 
 200 
 
 Humus, 
 
 40 
 
 114 
 
 177 
 
 Garden ground, 
 
 29 
 
 98 
 
 161 
 
 Quartz sand, 
 
 44 
 
 97 
 
 117 
 
 Peaty soil, 
 
 27 
 
 57 
 
 114 
 
 Sandy soil, 
 
 45 
 
 66 
 
 90 
 
 Chalky soil, 
 
 6 
 
 54 
 
 70 
 
 In consequence of this, it is remarked by Wessley, the level of the 
 subterranean water stands high in drift sand layers ; and standing or 
 running waters can with ease diffuse themselves sideways in sand 
 layers. 
 
 The power of absorbing nutritive elements of vegetation is 
 possessed by sand in a degree remarkably limited in comparison 
 with the degree in which it is possessed by other soil. According to 
 experiments by Grouven, 1,000 grammes of pressed northern diluvial 
 sand, field soil absorbed : 
 
 Of potash, ... ... ... 24*1 
 
 Of ammonia, ... ... ... 18*6 
 
 Of phosphoric acid, ... ... 6*4 
 
 And the same quantity of loamy northern diluvial sand, field soil 
 absorbed : 
 
 Of potash, ... ... ... 22-5 
 
 Of ammonia, ... ... ... 21*5 
 
 Of phosphoric acid, ... ... 2 1'5 
 
 While 22 samples of turnip field soil of different kinds absorbed : 
 Of potash, ... ... from 66 to 137 
 
 Of ammonia, ... ... from 35 to 134 
 
 Of phosphoric acid, ... from 32 to 135 
 
 The power of absorbing ammonia from the atmosphere is, we see, 
 possessed in the lowest degree by sand. Clay, mergel, and humus 
 surpass all other soil in this. It is the same with the power of 
 absorbing carbonic atmosphere from the air possessed by all of these 
 substances in a wet state ; this is least of all in sand, but it exists 
 in the greatest degree in humus. 
 
 This power of the sand increases with the fineness of its particles ; 
 it may be observed to be proportional to the minute sub-division 
 of the bodies operated on, and this property may be intensified 
 in the sand by the admixture with it of the other substances 
 mentioned. 
 
COMPOSITION OF SAND. 91 
 
 The size of the grains of sand is very different in different places. 
 The largest grains measure about a cubic millimetre, but the averages 
 in different drift sands vary from 0"02 millimetres to 0*47. 
 
 The coarsest sands in Europe are those of the Northern Binnen 
 Sands ; those of the strand are disproportionately finer ; in sand 
 basins the particles are finest in the direction in which the diluvial 
 waters found their exit ; the sand is finer in dunes than in the blown 
 out hollows between them; and in an extensive sand-waste the 
 particles are finer at the extremity towards which the wind blows 
 than at that by which it comes. The size of the particles has an 
 influence, we have seen, not only on the degree to which it is liable to 
 drift, but in the degree in which it may manifest many properties 
 important to soil, amongst others, those of retaining moisture, one 
 which is absolutely necessary to vegetation. 
 
 In accordance with what has been advanced is the testimony of 
 Clave : 
 
 "Composed of pure sand resting on an impermeable stratum 
 called alios, the soil of the Landes was for centuries," writes Clave\* 
 " considered incapable of cultivation. Parched in summer, drowned 
 in winter, it produced only ferns, rushes, and heath, and scarcely 
 furnished pasturage for a few half starved flocks. To crown its 
 miseries, this plain was continually threatened by the encroachments 
 of the dunes, vast ridges of sand thrown up by the waves, for a 
 distance of more than fifty leagues along the coast, and continually 
 renewed, were driven inland by the west wind ; and as they rolled 
 over the plain they buried the soil and the hamlets, overcame all 
 resistance, and advanced with fearful regularity. The whole 
 province seemed doomed to certain destruction when Bremontier 
 invented his method of fixing the dunes by plantations of the 
 maritime pine." 
 
 The mobility of the sand is also most effectually arrested and 
 prevented by moisture, and it is only renewed as desiccation takes 
 place. 
 
 It may have been remarked that the sand on the sea-shore does 
 not begin to drift so long as it is moist — that it only does so when it 
 has become thoroughly dry ; and that it ceases so soon as it is again 
 moistened, whether by rain or by the rising tide. But what is 
 mainly contemplated here is simply to show how it comes to pass 
 
 * Etudes Forestieres, p. 250. See also Reclus. La Terre, L, 105-106. 
 
92 SAND-WASTES OF FRANCE. 
 
 that vegetation can be extended over sand-wastes — even moisture 
 existing there. 
 
 The alios is met with in the sands of the Landes of the Gironde, 
 at a depth of about three feet below the surface. It is often about a 
 foot in thickness, and underneath this is sand of unknown depth. 
 Diggings have been made to a depth of upwards of 60 feet without 
 reaching other material. In the winter season these Landes are 
 covered with water which has no fall, and cannot sink through this 
 layer ; but in summer neither pool nor moisture is to be seen, the 
 water having been evaporated, and the layer preventing an ascent of 
 moisture from below. But, as has been intimated, there are spots 
 where this stratum is awanting or has been broken, and on these 
 grow bushes and trees, the ground neither being drenched in winter 
 nor altogether devoid of moisture in summer. 
 
 Both in connection with notices of the drift sands of the Landes on 
 the coast, and of the sand-wastes of La Sologne, mention has been 
 made of peat lands and of marshes. These are found on sand-wastes 
 in so many lands that the existence of them in such lands appears to 
 be the rule, and the absence of them the exception. Suffice it here to 
 state that a sand ridge may prevent escape of the waters by flow, 
 and a stratum of alios or ortstein, or clay, or other impervious substance, 
 may prevent escape by percolation. 
 
 From the treatise by Herr Wessley entitled, Der Europaische 
 Flngsand und seine Kultv/r already cited, much information may be 
 gathered in regard to the composition and condition of the sand- 
 wastes of Europe. 
 
 In regard to the general appearance and composition of the drift 
 sands of Europe, he says that in all places they consist in a vastly 
 preponderating degree of fine somewhat rounded grains of quartz, 
 with which only a small percentage of other materials are com- 
 mingled. 
 
 The admixture consists primarily of felspar, which in old sand has 
 for the most part experienced the disintegrating and decomposing 
 effects of weathering, of lime, mostly fragments of shells \ of mica ; of 
 magnetic, or Titanian ironstone; and finally, of different other 
 minerals, hornblend, augite, hypersthen, basalt, and carbon. 
 
 The separate grains are more or less covered with a fine mould, 
 on which depends next the fertility of the drift sands. For this 
 depends in general on an admixture of products of the weathering 
 just spoken of, or on those which the sand, the natural vegetation 
 
SPECIFIC GRAVITY OP SAND. 93 
 
 and watering, or the culture, produces or attracts, of appropriate 
 nutriment of plants. 
 
 The drift sand, strictly speaking, though variegated by a sprinkling 
 of somewhat rare grains of darker coloured substances, is a mass of 
 a light colour. Amongst the lightest coloured is the washed out sand 
 of the north, which is of a greyish white. Amongst the darkest is the 
 drift sand of the Bannat in Hungary, covered with a strong mould 
 containing iron, which is of a yellowish light brown. In a wet 
 state all drift sands are of a dark hue. So far as the surface is 
 acquiring or has acquired a covering of vegetation of some years 
 standing, it appears of a darker colour, varying with the kind of 
 plant, with the richness of the vegetation in humus, and with the 
 age of this, varying, for example, from a light grey brown to a 
 black brown hue. 
 
 Many drift sands have also an admixture of a coarser form of 
 sand, which on sea strand dunes is as large as pearls, and in inland 
 situations goes indefinitely beyond this : round pieces, even to the 
 size of blocks ; concretions of lime of the most varied forms ; shells of 
 snails and of mussels; cemented clods; and the whole layer is hardened 
 like stone. These larger sized materials are altogether absent in the 
 wind-raised dunes. Such is the European drift sand in general. In 
 individual cases, however, the character varies with the district, 
 the origin and the thickness of the layer, and the transformations 
 occasioned by geological changes, by vegetation, &c. 
 
 He reports the specific gravity of the different constituents, which, 
 with the exception of the humus, which, on the authority of experi- 
 ments by Schuebler, recorded in his Agricultur-Chemie, he gives as 
 1 "370, ranges from 2*468 to 2-722; and he shows that the differences 
 between 1*370 and 2-468 of specific gravity in sands, may be attri- 
 buted to varying quantities of humus or products of vegetable decay 
 in their composition. 
 
 As the result of numerous detailed experiments cited in an 
 appendix embracing the composition of sands existing in numerous 
 parts of Germany and Austria, he gives the specific gravity of the 
 sands of North Germany as 2*5-2*9; average, 2*7; of the sands of 
 Hungary, as 2*1-2*65 ; average, 2*5 : attributing the greater weight 
 of the former to the smaller quantity of lime, and the greater 
 quantity of iron-ore, and mica in their composition. And, for 
 comparison, he gives, on the authority of M. Schuebler, the specific 
 gravity of arable laud generally as 2-401, and of garden ground as 
 2"332 ; and on the authority of Hauer, that of the celebrated fields 
 of Banat as 1*8-2 *5 ; average, 1*18. 
 
94 SAND-WASTES OF FRANCE. 
 
 The coherence of sands of varied composition, as determined by 
 Schnebler and others, give the following result : 
 
 " Taking perfectly dry, pure quartz sand as zero, a mixture of 4 per 
 cent, of water gives it so much consistency that it may be pressed in 
 the hand and cease to be driven of the wind ; and this latter result 
 follows an admixture of 4 per cent, of clay or 16 per cent, of lime, 
 or 10 per cent, of humus. But what is thus gained by an admixture 
 of humus, clay or lime, is lost by its being frozen in a moist state, 
 on its being thawed, a peculiarity which it shares with all soils. 
 
 This, if it be so, may be attributable to the affinity of these sub- 
 stances for moisture, of which sand has little or none, leading to their 
 absorbing all the free moisture, and leaving the quartzose sand dry 
 and free to be blown away. 
 
 The commixture of lime and of clay with sand, so beneficial to 
 the latter, has also this bad effect when it is considerable — that after 
 heavy rains, followed by rapid desiccation, sometimes there is left 
 on the surface of the sand a crust detrimental to vegetation. 
 
 Pure sand does not shrink in bulk in drying. 
 
 The following table, prepared in accordance with observations re- 
 ceived by Schuebler, will make apparent the difference between pure 
 sand and other earthy matters : 
 
 Pure sand loses in bulk in drying, 
 
 Fine carbonate of lime, 
 
 Pure clay, 
 
 Humid acid, ... 
 
 Field earth, ... 
 
 Garden earth, 
 
 The latter numbers are indicative of there being contained in these 
 bodies, as found on sandy regions, an admixture of humus or of clay. 
 
 Reference has been made to the effect of moisture in arresting and 
 in preventing the drifting of sand. In view of the effect of heat in 
 desiccating sand, and also in view of the effect of temperature on 
 vegetation, the degree in which the properties of absorbing and 
 of transmitting heat are possessed by sand deserve consideration. 
 
 The following results of experiments by Schuebler show the com- 
 parative capability of becoming heated possessed by sand. In the 
 month of August, with an atmospheric temperature in the shade of 
 from 22° to 25° R., 81° to 88° Fahr., the temperature of the following 
 substances exposed to the bright sunshine were, according to the 
 scale of Reaumeur : 
 
 per cent. 
 
 5 „ 
 
 183 „ 
 
 20 „ 
 
 12 „ 
 
 15 „ 
 
Wet. 
 
 Dry. 
 
 37-2 
 
 44-7 
 
 37-4 
 
 44-6 
 
 397 
 
 47-4 
 
 36-9 
 
 44-2 
 
 37-5 
 
 45-2 
 
 TEMPERATURE OF SAND. 95 
 
 Quartz sand, pure yellowish grey in colour, 37*2 
 Pure clay, yellowish grey, 
 Humid acid, brownish black, 
 Field earth, grey, 
 Garden earth, blackish grey, 
 This table shows, first, that the power of becoming heated 
 possessed by pure sand may be appreciably increased by an admix- 
 ture of humus, apparently in consequence of the dark colour of this 
 substance. The dry sand becomes heated some 21°, and the wet 
 13° R., 79° and 61° Fahr. above the temperature of the atmosphere; 
 and while the sand is a bad conductor of heat, the heat does not 
 penetrate to a great depth ; much more is communicated by conduc- 
 tion and radiation to the superincumbent stratum of air. Kerner 
 found on still warmer days than these on which Schuebler experi- 
 mented that the temperature of drift-sand at Pesth half an inch 
 below the superficial stratum was only 40° odds, and at three inches 
 deep only 25° odds. 
 
 The faculty of retaining heat, or, in other words, the rapidity with 
 which it is discharged, is something different from the capability of 
 absorbing it, and the result of experiment by Schuebler, shows that 
 representing the time required for cooling by lime as 100, the time 
 required by other substances compared with it was as follows : 
 Quartz sand, ... ... ... 96 
 
 Pure clay, ... ... ... ... 67 
 
 Fine carbonate of lime, ... ... 61 
 
 Humid acid,... ... ... ... 49 
 
 Field earth,... ... ... ... 70 
 
 Garden earth, ... ... ... 65 
 
 After sunset the temperature of the superficial layers of the drift 
 sand sinks very rapidly. Kerner saw on a broiling day in June, on 
 the drift sand at Pesth, a thermometer sunk half an inch deep, which 
 at sunshine showed 35|°, within three hours had sunk to 16°, 
 from 112* to 68° Fahr. 
 
 The most superficial layer of the Hungarian drift sand shows 
 the extraordinary great variation of temperature of from 40° to 45° R., 
 122° to 133° Fahr. But at the depth of only three inches the 
 variation is only 25°, or 88° Fahr., and at four inches, at which 
 depth the temperature in winter does not sink below the freezing 
 point, the vai-iation of temperature does not exceed 20°, 77° Fahr. 
 But at the depth of three fathoms the annual variation does not 
 
96 SAND-WASTES OP FRANCE. 
 
 amount to |° or 1° Fahr., and at that depth, at the elevation of about 
 300 feet above the sea level, the temperature is almost stationary at 
 10° R, or 541° Fahr. 
 
 By directing our attention to the sand drifts of Sologne, and the 
 sand drifts of the Landes of Gascony, we find we have had two 
 different phases of sand drifts bi-ought under our consideration ; and 
 as these two phases of these are to be met with again and again, 
 sometimes in the same countries elsewhere, or the one and the other 
 of them presenting themselves in lands which are far apart, the 
 opportunity may be taken, before proceeding further, to consider 
 at some length an important point in which they differ. 
 
 Of the two forms of sand deposit thus brought under considera- 
 tion, " The one," to quote Marsh, " is that of dune or shifting 
 hillock upon the coast ; the other that of barren plain in the 
 interior. The coast dunes are composed of sand washed up 
 from the depths of the sea by the waves, and heaped in more 
 or less rounded knolls and undulating ridges by the winds. The 
 sand with which many plains are covered appears sometimes to 
 have been deposited upon them while they were yet submerged 
 beneath the sea ; sometimes to have been drifted from the 
 sea coast and scattered over them by wind currents ; sometimes to 
 have been washed upon them by running water. In these latter 
 cases, the deposit, though in itself considerable, is comparatively 
 narrow in extent, and irregular in distribution, while in the former 
 it is often evenly spread over a very wide surface. 
 
 "In all great bodies of either sort, the silicious grains are the 
 principal constituent, though, when not resulting from the disintegra- 
 tion of silicious rocks and still remaining in place, they are generally 
 accompanied with a greater or less admixture of other mineral particles, 
 and of animal and vegetable remains; and they are also usually 
 somewhat changed in consistence by the ever varying conditions of 
 temperature and moisture to which they have been exposed since their 
 deposit. Unless the proportion of these latter ingredients is so lai'ge 
 as to create a considerable adhesiveness in the mass, in which case 
 it can no longer properly be called sand, it is infertile, and, if not 
 charged with water, it is partially agglutinated by iron, lime, or other 
 cement, or confined by alluvion resting upon it. It is much inclined 
 to drift, whenever by any chance the vegetable network which in 
 most cases thinly clothes it, and at the same time confines it, is broken. 
 " Human industry has not only fixed the flying dunes by plan- 
 tations ; but by mixing clay and other tenacious earths with the 
 
TERTIARY SANDS. 97 
 
 superficial stratum of extensive sand plains, and by the application 
 of fertilizing substances, it has made them abundantly productive 
 of vegetable life." 
 
 From the information supplied, it appears that many inland expanses 
 of sand drifts may be considered a resuscitation of sand deposits, 
 which may have been quiescent for ages, fixed naturally by a similar 
 mantle of vegetation to that by which man is artificially arresting 
 and utilizing the same sand drifts or others situated elsewhere. 
 With sand drifts on the sea coast it is to a great extent otherwise, 
 though in some, even of these, there may be seen a resuscitation of 
 sand previously partially fixed by vegetation in some of the earlier 
 stages of the operation whereby extensive regions of sand dunes have 
 for ages been confined. 
 
 Several of these are spoken of as belonging to the Tertiary forma 
 tion, in explanation of which tei'rn it may be stated : 
 
 Geologists, in classifying the stratified layers of mineral substances 
 covering the granite, consider that those of gneiss, and schist, and 
 clay slates, were first deposited, and these are described by them as 
 primary formations. Following these in order, and in many cases 
 superimposed on them, are sandy slates, Silurian limestones, and 
 what is known as the old red sandstone. These are described by 
 them as transition formations. They are followed by mountain lime- 
 stone, coal beds, magnesian limestone, new red sandstone, shell lime- 
 stone, lias limestone, oolite limestone, chalk beds, and green sand ; 
 and these are designated secondary formations. Above these are 
 found blue and plastic clays, marls, and limestones, sands, and 
 calcareous grits ; and these are spoken of as tertiary formations ; and 
 above this, indicative of a later deposit, are diluvial clay deposited 
 from seas or lakes, and boulders, alluvial clay deposited by rivers, 
 and sand and gravel ; and overlying these, the vegetable soil resulting 
 from the decomposition of vegetable mould, and the admixture of the 
 products with the superficial mineral layer. 
 
 From this it appears that the sand now spoken of is supposed to 
 have been deposited in times long past. 
 
 An account has been given, cited from Boitel, of the way in 
 which, on the Landes of La Sologne, heaths on these old sands are 
 planted with the maritime pine. In other inland situations we find 
 these sands of the tertiary formation throughout extensive districts 
 covered with forests of trees of other kinds, varying according to 
 conditions and circumstances — such, for example, is the famous forest 
 
 N 
 
98 SAND-WASTES OP FRANCE. 
 
 of Fontainbleau, visited constantly by many of the visitors to Paris. 
 
 The forest of Fontainbleau covers an area of about 64 square 
 miles. But it by no means corresponds with the idea generally 
 entertained of a forest ; it is anything but an old, shadowy, leafy, 
 and almost impervious forest. To quote the description given of it 
 by Mangin : " Despite its enormous trees, its rudely broken surface, 
 its stags and roebucks, reserved for imperial sport ; despite its few 
 adders and problematical vipers, it is now little better than a rendezvous 
 for amateur artists and listless idlers. Its well-kept avenues resound 
 with rapid wheels, and you can scarcely stir a step without finding 
 the associations of the place interrupted by the stalls of vendors of 
 cakes, or the apparatus of itinerant gamblers — a profanation to be 
 regretted, for the forest exhibits many landscapes of surpassing 
 interest in the rocks of Frauchart, the glens of Apremont, and, above 
 all, that Sahara in miniature, the sands of Arbonue." 
 
 An article by M. Clave in the Revue des Deux Mondes for May, 
 1863, on La Foret de Fontainbleau, contains much valuable and 
 interesting information in regard to this forest, and in regard to 
 matters connected with it. " Oaks," says he, " mingled with birches 
 in due proportion, may arrive at the age of five or six hundred years 
 in full vigour, and they attain dimensions which I have never seen 
 surpassed ; when, however, they are wholly unmixed with other trees 
 they begin to decay, and die at the top at the age of forty or fifty 
 years, like men old before their time, weary of the world, and long- 
 ing to quit it. This has been observed in most of the oak planta- 
 tions of which I have spoken, and they have not been able to attain 
 to full growth. When the vegetation was perceived to languish, they 
 were cut, in the hope that the new shoots would succeed better than 
 the original trees ; and, in fact, they appeared to be recovering for 
 the first few years. But the shoots were attacked with the same 
 decay, and the operation had to be renewed at shorter and shorter 
 intervals, until at last it was found necessary to treat as coppice-woods 
 plantations originally designed for the full grown system. Nor was 
 this all : the soil, periodically bared by those cuttings, became im- 
 poverished, and less suited to the growth of the oak. ... It 
 was then proposed to introduce the pine, and plant with it the 
 vacancies and glades. ... By this means the forest was saved 
 from the ruin which threatened it, and now more than 10,000 acres 
 of pines from fifteen to thirty years old are disseminated at various 
 points, sometimes intermixed with broad-leaved trees, sometimes 
 forming groves by themselves." 
 
INDIGENOUS FORESTS. 99 
 
 The soil of the forest of Fontainbleau is composed almost entirely 
 of sand, interspersed with ledges of rock. The sand forms ninety- 
 eight per cent, of the earth, and it is almost without water j it would 
 be a driftiug desert but for the trees growing and artifically propa- 
 gated upon it. 
 
 In reference to such superficial sand formations, the following 
 remarks are made by Wessley : 
 
 " It is scarcely to be supposed that all inland sand drifts have 
 been lying exposed, and drifted about since anti-diluvian times. On 
 the contrary, we find almost everywhere that diluvial sands, by a 
 slow but ever advancing natural process, become gradually covered 
 with herbage, and ultimately with bush or forest, whereby they 
 become so fixed as to be unmoved by the wind. And this process 
 goes on all the more rapidly if man do not disturb it — if he do not 
 promote it. 
 
 " And what has been effected thus in pre-historic times, is both 
 denser and more during that what has been effected in later years : 
 as the soil of that is richer in humus than is any planted by the hand 
 of man. And these oldest plant-bearing sands may be described, as 
 we sometimes describe nations, as the aboriginal vegetation of the 
 ground on which they are found." Such seems to be the case with 
 the oak forest of Fontainbleau. 
 
 Other forests growing indigenously on sands of the tertiary 
 formation might be cited ; but it is considered that one case of such 
 is sufficient to show that forests may be produced and grow 
 permanently on sands, and to give some idea of appearances pro- 
 duced by these. 
 
 What was at one time in the world's history, the natural state of 
 these lands of La Sologne, a country more or less covered with forest 
 trees, is what sylviculture is seeking to reproduce there, and to pro- 
 duce artificially on the Landes of Gascony and elsewhere ; and what 
 has been effected by self-sown seed may be effected again by artificial 
 culture, if the natural history of the trees employed be known. 
 
 We have seen the good effect with which this has been done in 
 Belgium, and on the Landes of the Gironde and of Gascony ; and with 
 what similar effect it has been done on the Landes of La Sologne. By 
 Jules Clave, a student of forest science of world-wide fame, it is stated 
 in a paper in the Revue des Deux Jfondes for March, 1866, that the 
 district of Sologne, flat and marshy as it is, was salubrious until its 
 forests were felled. It then became pestilential, but of late years its 
 healthfulness has been restored with its forest plantations. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Natural History and General Culture op the Scotch Fir ih 
 France. 
 
 Of the trees spoken of as cultivated on the sand-wastes of France, 
 the principal are the maritime pine (pinus maritima), and the Scotch 
 fir (pinus sylvestris), the former on the new dunes and drift sands of 
 the coast, the latter on the more consolidated old sand-wastes of the 
 tertiary formation in the interior of the country. Besides these have 
 been mentioned several varieties of the oak, the birch, and the 
 chestnut, as grown on spots of greater or lesser extent within these 
 sand-wastes ; and in other countries a much greater variety of trees 
 are raised upon sands and sandy soil. But it is the pine plantations 
 alone of which this volume treats. 
 
 Mention has also been made of the modern system of forest 
 management having been adopted in France ; the Fachwerke Methode 
 of Hartig and Cotta, known in France as La methode des compartiments, 
 whereby are secured in combination a sustained production of 
 material by the forest, a progressive improvement of the state of the 
 forest, and a natural reproduction of it from self-sown seed. As this 
 method of forest management, now practised generally on the continent 
 of Europe, and of late years introduced iuto the management of 
 forests in the Indian Empire, differs entirely from the system known 
 as Jardinage, followed in some of our colonies, and in what are called 
 policies in Britain, and from the method a tire et aire, previously 
 practised in France, resembling in some respects the method adopted 
 with plantations of coniferous trees in Scotland, the following details 
 are given in view of its application to the different species of pine 
 trees grown on the sand -wastes of France. 
 
 And on the assumption that it may be more acceptable to my 
 readers, as well as in more perfect keeping with all besides advanced 
 in the volume, that I should give the natural history of the trees 
 mentioned as this is given in France than as it is given elsewhere, 
 I shall follow this course. 
 
 Of the Pinus Sylvestris, the Pin Sylvestre of France, M M., Lorentz, 
 and Parade, wrote in a volume entitled, Corns elementaire de culture 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE TREE. 101 
 
 des Bois cree a VEcole Forestiere de Nancy. " This tree, the Pinus 
 sylvestris, of Linnoeus, is known under numerous names — the wild 
 pine, the pine of the north, of Riga, of Hagenau, and of Geneva, 
 the pinasse, &c, and it is one of which the red pine or Scotch pine is 
 only a variety, recognisable by its shorter leaves, by its cones being 
 smaller and grouped in whorls, and by the reddish tinge of its young 
 shoots. It constitutes the principal tree in a great many forests of 
 considerable extent in which it is found mixed with the oak and birch. 
 "Climate, Situation, and Fxposicre. — The temperate climates are 
 those in which it manifests greatest vigour of growth ; but cold coun- 
 tries are not inimical to it, for in the north of Europe, in Russia more 
 especially, and in Sweden, it acquires most valuable qualities and 
 dimensions, and by itself alone covers great extents of country. It 
 grows on the plain as well as on slopes ; but high elevations do not suit 
 it. In these situations the snow and hoar-frost accumulate in great 
 quantities on its leaves, and that to a greater degree than on the 
 other resinous trees of cold countries, whereby often branches are 
 torn off, and sometimes the trunk itself is broken. 
 
 " It succeeds on all exposures, not exclusive of the full south, when 
 it is undertaken to replenish wide spaces, or deteriorated forests with 
 a south exposure. It is a tree greatly in demand, not only because 
 it is satisfied with a poor and dry soil, but because the young plants 
 better sustain the sun's heat than do those of the other coniferae." 
 But they remark that in saying this they are only speakiug of the 
 more temperate districts of France ; that the departments in the south 
 of France have other trees which grow there, such as the maritime 
 pine, and the Alleppo pine ; and that it is probable that the pin 
 sylvestre would succeed ill there unless at elevations at which the 
 heat is less intense. It is mentioned that in the Pyrenees it is found 
 at an altitude of 1,200 metres. 
 
 " Terrain, or Soil. — It demands a deep light soil, it is found even 
 on sand entirely devoid of cohesion, and the wood produced on such 
 ground is of better quality than is that grown on more substantial 
 soil ; compact earths are unfriendly to it ; and, although it does 
 succeed on marls, its growth on these is much inferior to what it is 
 on silicious ground. 
 
 " It is sometimes found on moist and turfy spots ; but its vegetation 
 there is in a languishing condition, and it there presents itself 
 ordinarily in so peculiar an aspect that it has been taken for a totally 
 different species of tree. 
 
 " Flowering and Fructification, — The flowers are monoeceous ; they 
 appear in April or in May, according to the temperature. 
 
102 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " The strobile or cone remains very small during the first year of its 
 appearance. In the following spring it begins to enlarge, and it attains 
 its full development towards the end of summer. It is ripe in the 
 beginning of November ; but it does not open its scales to allow the 
 seed to escape until the spring following, so it requires in all at least 
 eighteen months to ripen, or about two years to mature and drop 
 the seed. 
 
 " The first warmth of the spring acts on the cones ; the scales open 
 without detaching themselves from the axis, and thus they allow the 
 seed to escape ; this is small and winged. 
 
 " The tree attains its complete fertility towards the fortieth year of 
 its age ; the fruit appears about every two or three years. 
 
 " Young Plants. — These are very robust from their first appearance; 
 but they do not stand a protracted shade. In general they may be 
 reared without shelter ; but on ground which is very dry, or with a 
 complete southern exposure, it would be beneficial to have them 
 shaded during the first year of their growth. 
 
 " Leafage. — The leaves are somewhat long ; but as they rarely re- 
 main on the tree above three years, it follows that it creates only a 
 lightish shade. 
 
 " Roots. — These are strong and disposed to bury themselves. 
 When the soil permits the tap-root descends a metre or more, although 
 a less depth can suffice to ensure the tree a pretty fine vegetation. 
 In ground which is moist, or poor, or deficient in depth, the tap-root 
 disappears almost entirely, and the lateral roots run along the 
 surface and manifest a disposition, as do some other coniferae, to 
 introduce and fix themselves in the fissures of rocks ; but this super- 
 ficial growth of the roots is not so favourable to the growth of the 
 tree. 
 
 " Growth and Longevity. — The vegetation is very rapid from the 
 first years of its growth ; when the soil is adapted to it, it lengthens 
 sometimes in its youth a metre or more per annum. It lives for 200 
 years, and attains to a height of 33 metres and more, with a diameter 
 of from 1 metre to 1 metre 20 centimetres at the base." 
 
 I have met with few trees more extensively diffused over Europe 
 than is this. I have met with it in different countries under different 
 names, but the tree was the same, and the botanical designation 
 everywhere the same. The specific sameness of varieties or sub- 
 varieties presenting very different appearances, has been demonstrated 
 by M. de Vilmorin, on property belonging to him at Barres, in the 
 
l'eCOLE FORESTIERE DEB BARRES. 103 
 
 department of the Loiret, which is now maintained by the Govern- 
 ment as LEcole Forestihe des Barres. This, strictly speaking, is a 
 Forest School ; while that at Nancy, strictly speaking, is a School 
 of Forestry. 
 
 The designation Ecole ForestiZre, or Forest School, was given to 
 the establishment apparently in contradistinction, on the one hand, 
 to Nursery, a designation borrowed from domestic life ; and in contra- 
 distinction, on the other hand, to a plantation or forest, it being a 
 collection of trees raised from seed obtained from forests, or from 
 nurserymen and seedsmen of note, and reared with a view to the 
 study of their habits, their identity, and their differences. 
 
 The design of M. de Vilmorin and the results of his operation 
 we learn from himself. He died in March, 1862, a venerable man, 
 full of years and of honour, — Membre de la Societe Imperiale et 
 Centrale d 'Agricidture de France, and Correspondent de Vlnstitut. 
 
 The Bureau de la Societe d! Agriculture, in collecting documents, of 
 which they might avail themselves in preparing a historical notice 
 of their honoured colleague, learned that he had written a history of 
 his experiments, and procured from his family a copy of this docu- 
 ment, with permission to publish it in their memoirs. 
 
 In the introduction to this record, which related exclusively to 
 this establishment, which was only one of many experiments and 
 related researches with which his valuable life was occupied, he 
 says : — " The work or treatise, of which this is but the first part, 
 has for its object to report collected observations made during a 
 long course of years on the trees composing the collection forestiere, 
 which I have made on my estate of Barres. Studies of this kind 
 have at this day a much greater interest for France than they ever 
 have had before. 
 
 " The forests which, in a former day covered a great part of her 
 territory, are, if not entirely destroyed, at least so much reduced 
 that the products are far below her actual requirements. 
 
 " For a long time now France has been dependent on the foreigner 
 for a considerable portion of the timber requisite for the maintenance 
 of her navy, and more especially for wood suitable for masts. 
 Throughout nearly the whole of the last century masts for the navy 
 were only to be found in the Baltic ports, and chiefly in Riga, and 
 now that timber of very great dimensions fit for this purpose is only 
 to be obtained at great price, we find it necessary to draw a great 
 portion of our supplies from the United States. 
 
104 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " This condition of things is not only a heavy burden on the 
 treasury, but it may become matter of grave concern in case of 
 eventualities against which it is necessary to provide. 
 
 " France, by the single fact of her geographical position, with her 
 two hundred leagues of coast on two seas, with her colonies, and 
 Algeria, and her distant commerce to protect in all parts of the 
 world, cannot avoid being a maritime power of the first order — it is 
 one of the necessaries of her existence. She can no more relieve her- 
 self of an imposing naval force than of an army. 
 
 " But for the construction and maintenance of numerous vessels of 
 war, it is needful that she be able to find on her own soil the needed 
 timber. 
 
 " Those portions of the soil which have been conquered from the 
 forest by agriculture cannot be recovered. But France still 
 possesses considerable resources besides these. For instance, a large 
 extent of the mountains have been despoiled of forests ; the 
 re-covering of these with trees is acknowledged by every one to be 
 an urgent and indispensable measure ; besides, there are hundreds 
 of thousands of hectares in one district of the west and of the south 
 central France which have continued hitherto in a state approaching 
 utter unproductiveness, which are capable of bearing beautiful timber 
 forests of resinous trees. It is on these lands, and by the employ- 
 ment for the purpose of resinous trees, and more particularly of 
 pines, that we must operate to restore our forests. And it is at this 
 point especially that a knowledge of the different species of pines, 
 and of their principal varieties, becomes important ; we may, indeed, 
 according as we employ one or other of these, create on the same 
 soil forests of the poorest or of the greatest value. 
 
 " This holds true especially of the Pinus Sylvestris. 
 
 " In the greater part of the woods of resinous trees formed on a 
 pretty large scale in Maine, in some parts of Brittany, and more 
 recently in Sologne, it is to the Pimis Maritima that a preference has 
 been given, because its growth is rapid, successful culture is easily 
 ensured, and the seed is abundant and cheap ; but, as is known to 
 all foresters, the Pinus Sylvestris is capable of furnishing products 
 infinitely superior in quality, in dimensions, and in value to those 
 which can be obtained from the Pinus Maritima. And in connection 
 with this subject there is a question which it is very important should 
 be resolved, it is that relating to the relation of the Riga pine and 
 the varieties of the Pinus Sylvestris. The comparative culture, on 
 the same land, of trees, of which it is desired to determine the 
 
i/fcOLE FORESTIERE DBS BARRES. 105 
 
 identity or the difference, is what I have undertaken and carried into 
 execution, as may be seen by statistical details relative to these 
 species. 
 
 " I have brought together, in clumps more or less extensive, 
 according to their importance, the pinus sylvestris of every variety 
 indicated by authors, and all those which, by whatever name known, 
 it appeared to me might prove useful in this collection. In regard to 
 the Riga pine, I have not been confined to a solitary lot : independent 
 of seeds which I procured from the north, from sources the most 
 certain, wherever I had knowledge of old plantations in France, 
 known or presumed to have had the same origin, I have managed to 
 obtain seeds or plants which, added to the lots introduced, directly 
 furnished the means of studying further the question. 
 
 " These plantations have had for their special object the solution 
 of numerous questions of botany and of forest economy, of which 
 some are of great importance to France. 
 
 " Commenced thirty years ago, and with this view, and augmented 
 every year since, they form now perhaps one of the most interesting 
 and most useful collections of this kind in any country. They com- 
 prise, amongst other species, an assemblage of more than thirty lots 
 of the pinus sylvestris, obtained from as many different quarters and 
 sources, for the study of the varieties of the species, and more 
 particularly of the mast pines, or Riga pine, of absolutely certain 
 origin, planted to admit of comparison with other varieties of the 
 pinus sylvestris, by means of which might be cleared away the 
 doubts which have hitherto existed in regard to this tree, so im- 
 portant for naval architecture ; an ecole of pinus mugho, pinus 
 pumilio, and pinus uncinata, a necessary complement to the other 
 in view of forest study ; all the pines of the series of the Laricios, 
 trees of great interest in sylviculture, but trees in regard to which 
 there exists at this time in books great confusion. The clumps of 
 this series constitute one of the most beautiful portions of the plan- 
 tations at Barres ; one variety hitherto little known, the Laricio of 
 Calabria, commands attention by its great vigour and beauty, as does 
 also the Pine of the Pyrenees, a very beautiful tree of recent intro- 
 duction ; a plantation of Cedar of Lebanon, growing r«8&o&Uy among 
 the pines, is thriving well ; a collection of the forest oaks of South 
 America, amongst which the most important, such as the Quercitron, 
 the Red Oak, &c, have established themselves in massive plots; 
 plantations of American Nuts, of Bouleau & Canot, of the Alnus 
 Cordifolia, and of other exotic trees, the qualities of which and their 
 
 O 
 
106 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 vegetation on the soil of France cannot yet be known, from the 
 limited numbers under cultivation; plantations of various oaks, 
 particularly schools of oaks of Europe and of Asia, amongst which 
 are worthy of note, Quercus Fastigiata, Gerris, Tauzi, Aegilops or 
 Velani, in the avenues and borders ; some new and remarkable 
 poplars, &c. 
 
 " These plantations, if not complete, at least very extensive, will 
 furnish to the man of science and to the practical man great means 
 of study. The opinion, on this subject, of foresters and of dis- 
 tinguished agrinomes who have visited them have almost made it 
 obligatory to publish the results I have obtained ; and, having to 
 some extent anticipated this, I fulfil the duty now with the more 
 satisfaction, seeing that my conviction has always been in accordance 
 with that which has been expressed to me. To make plantations of 
 this sort fulfil the design of them, or to have the chance of doing so, 
 supposing they should exist their full terms, it is necessary that the 
 lots of which they are composed should be found with ease and with 
 certainty when those who have created them shall be no more : for 
 this every necessary arrangement has been made." 
 
 As has been stated, the one principal object aimed at by M. 
 Vilmorin in the establishment of this Experimental Forest was to 
 determine the varieties of the pinus sylvestris and the properties of 
 each, with their adaptation for culture in different districts of 
 France; but other trees received also a large share of his attention. 
 
 I had the privilege of visiting the plantation and seeing it 
 under the guidance of M. Henri Vilmorin, grandson of the founder, 
 the honoured representative of three successive generations of 
 noble-minded men, who distinguished themselves in this field of 
 labour. 
 
 Of the Scotch Fir (Pinus Sylvestris) there were rows of trees, raised 
 from seed or seedlings received from different parts of the Continent 
 and from Scotland, representing thirty varieties or sub-varieties of 
 the tree ; and rows of other coniferae, representing the products of 
 nearly a hundred different parcels of seeds or seedlings received from 
 various parts of the world ; rows of oaks, representing the products 
 of upwards of sixty different parcels of acorns and seedlings collected 
 from all quarters ; and rows, or one or more single trees, representing 
 upwards of a hundred and fifty other hard-wood trees. There were 
 in all some two hundred and twenty-five different species and varieties 
 of trees, and numerous specimens of some of these, selected, some for 
 
l'ecole forestiere des barres. 107 
 
 their worth, some for their renown, and some for purposes of com- 
 parison and experiment ; and they were planted alone or in clumps 
 as might be necessary to bring out their characteristic points. 
 
 Since the death of M. Vilmorin, the founder, the portion of his 
 estate containing the experimental forest has been purchased by the 
 Government, that it may be maintained as a national establishment. 
 
 Of the pinus sylvestris, M. Vilmorin reports : — " Of the different 
 questions which I have proposed to myself to solve, by means of the 
 Barres plantations, none is more important from a practical point of 
 view than that concerning the varieties oi pinus sylvestris. 
 
 " At the sametime there is not one on which more contradictory, 
 and sometimes inexact, notions are to be found in books ; so I shall 
 be obliged, before proceeding to the direct observations which I give, 
 to enter into rather full preliminary observations in regard to It. It 
 is an unhappy necessity, but circumstances render it inevitable. 
 
 " It being of importance that this should be well understood, I 
 shall first speak of the pine and whence it comes. I shall then show 
 the principal opinions advanced on this subject, stopping at those 
 which, establishing errors essentially hurtful in practice, demand dis- 
 cussion ; then, lastly, I shall arrive at the special work which is the 
 object of this memoir — viz., the examination of the collection which 
 I have gathered together at Barres. 
 
 " The pinus sylvestris, the most widely diffused of those which form 
 the pine forests of Europe and the north of Asia, is at the same time 
 one of the best and most useful. Robust, and somewhat indifferent 
 in regard to soil, it succeeds in sands too damp, and in situations too 
 much exposed to frost for the maritime pine, and, by a remarkable 
 contrast, on lime and chalk soils, where the latter cannot live. 
 
 " Its wood, strong and durable, at the same time light and elastic, 
 is much used in civil and naval constructions, for it is principally it 
 which furnishes the excellent pine masts of the north, of which no 
 other pine offers the equivalent. 
 
 " But with these remarkable qualities this tree has one peculiarity 
 which tends to diminish its value, and which has created much con- 
 fusion, in reports concerning it — viz., its being liable to change and 
 vary to such a degree that perhaps nothing similar exists in any 
 other species. 
 
 " Thus, whilst in the forests of Russia aud Lithuania it attains the 
 size of the largest firs, and furnishes admirable trunks, which sell in 
 our ports and in those of England for from 1,000 to 5,000 francs and 
 
108 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 more. A large number of the trees which grow in Switzerland and 
 Germany are middling trees, badly formed, often incapable of fur- 
 nishing even a passable plank ; in short, having no resemblance in 
 anything to those of which we have just spoken. This great 
 diversity of the pin%s sylvestris, noticed in the middle of the last 
 century, has given place to questions and doubts regarding it on which 
 opinions are still much divided. Some have thought that the 
 pine or Scotch fir, as it was then called, did not form a single species 
 as was pretty generally believed, but formed several which had been 
 mistakenly united till then ; two or more have been described and 
 named accordingly ; others have explained this diversity in the species 
 by the existence of varieties or races which are reproduced in suc- 
 cessive generations. Others rejecting every distinction of this nature 
 have maintained that the differences, however great they may be, 
 which are to be seen in the p'»»s sylvestris are entirely owing to the 
 soil, to the climate, and to the influence of exterior circumstances. 
 These contrary opinions have been often reproduced for nearly a 
 centux-y, without deciding the question. It has even become more 
 confused and complicated through the discussions, and it remains still 
 almost entirely yet to be resolved. 
 
 " As a fact, it is now almost generally admitted that the species is 
 one, and that of this there are varieties. To every one is known, at 
 least the names, Riga pine, Haguenau pine, and Scotch fir, &c, but 
 if one seeks in books for the differences between these, they are not 
 to be found ; there are also vague descriptions, or rather, what is 
 worse, botanical descriptions which, under their precise and scientific 
 form, are inexact and contradicted by the trees themselves, when 
 one tries the application on a sufficient number of specimens which 
 are unlike. Such an uncertainty is evidently troublesome and injurious 
 on an essentially practical subject. It is more so than ever now, when 
 the condition of forests in France naturally entails that the culture of 
 pines should be considerably increased, and that, on the other side, 
 the pinus sylvestris, more appreciated than formerly, begins to be 
 associated with the maritime pine, or even to replace it in the 
 construction of composition of woods of resinous trees. It is then 
 evidently necessary to arrive at some notions more precise than those 
 which have existed till now in regard to it. 
 
 " The English have advanced far before us in the culture of the 
 pinus sylvestris. It is in England also that the remarkable differences 
 between the individuals of this species have been remarked. The 
 first printed notice is to be found in a treatise on forest trees, 
 
l'^colb forestiere des barres. 109 
 
 published in 1760, by a great Scottish, proprietor, the Earl of 
 Haddington. 
 
 " Here is what he says on the subject : 
 
 " ' Although I have been assured that there is only oue species of 
 Scotch fir, and that the differences which are to be found in the wood 
 of these trees are due only to their age, and the soil in which they 
 have grown, I am nevertheless convinced that it is otherwise, and 
 here is the reason. When I ordered the pines planted by my father 
 to be cut down because they were too near the house, several men 
 still lived who remembered to have seen them reared. The seed 
 had been sown in the same bed, removed to the nursery, and after- 
 wards planted on the same day. Then I saw that when I cut the 
 trees, I found that some had white and spongy wood, and others red 
 hard wood, and they were examined within a few days of each other. 
 This observation has had such an effect on me that I have ordered 
 the cones to be only gathered from the reddest trees.' 
 
 " It is a very remarkable thing that the first observation which was 
 made on this question has pointed out the solution, the truest, in my 
 opinion at least, first as to the principle that natural varieties exist 
 independant of the soil and climate, and then as to the practice, that 
 in choosing between two varieties, the one good and the other bad, only 
 the first should be chosen for reproduction. 
 
 " One might say that these two ideas of the Earl of Haddington 
 contain a complete theory and practice in connection with this great 
 question of the spontaneous variation of species applied to the wants 
 of man, and to the advancement of rural economy. 
 
 In France, where the question was opened rather later than in 
 England, it has been much more discussed : the botanists have 
 interfered, and each has settled it in his own way. Bosc, in studying 
 the pinus sylvestris, thought he had discovered four very distinct 
 types, which he has described as so many species : first, the pinus 
 sylvestris, properly so called ; second, the Scotch fir ; third, the 
 Riga pine, or pine suitable for masts; fourth, that of Geneva or 
 Tartary. This opinion not having been adopted by any one, except 
 in regard to the Scotch fir, I will not discuss it. But another 
 opinion, which it is more necessary to combat, is that which places 
 the pinus sylvestris on the one side, and the pinus rubra of Miller on 
 the other. It has been supported principally by M. Deslongchamps, 
 and by M. de Candolle. With the authority which these two names 
 give to it, especially that of M. de Candolle, or rather because of this, 
 I feel that I must combat it, being convinced that it is an error. 
 
110 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " The first remark to be made is, that Miller never pretended in 
 establishing his species, pinus rubra, to make any distinction from the 
 pinus sylvestris of the authors who preceded him ; it is only a new 
 name, which, for some reason, he has given to this species. The 
 sentences from Ray, from Bauhin, from Duhamel, which they quote 
 as synonymous, leave no doubt as to this. Nevertheless, the pinus 
 rubra of Miller, by a singular error, has been regarded as a second 
 species, made by him in the pinus sylvestris. This fact may be 
 explained naturally enough by the following circumstances : At 
 the same time that he established the pinus sylvestris under the name 
 pinus rubra, Miller almost beside it described another species under 
 the name pinus sylvestris, and among the numerous synonymes which 
 he assigns to the latter is to be found pinus sylvestris, No. 471, 
 Bauhin, wild pine of Geneva. For all readers, a little hasty in 
 forming a judgment, and there is no lack of such even among 
 botanists, there was here an indication, or even an evident proof that 
 Miller had established two species in the pinus sylvestris. Now, when 
 one reads the text even of the article relative to his No. 1, he sees 
 that the latter is no other than the maritime pine, or pine of Bordeaux. 
 In spite of the evidence of this fact, the contrary version has 
 prevailed, and some botanists, having to treat of the pines, have 
 adopted as distinct the two species, pinus sylvestris and pinus rubra. 
 This basis adopted, it was necessary to find characteristics for the 
 latter ; now Miller did not furnish any, as with him the pinus rubra 
 being identical with the pinus sylvestris of all authors, he had applied 
 to it the characteristics of the latter. 
 
 " Hence have come distinctions which I will not call imaginary, 
 for doubtless they are applicable to individuals, but certainly not 
 to all, nor do they possess the generality or the comprehensiveness 
 of specific descriptions. 
 
 " This may be judged of by the examination which I am going to 
 make of the characteristics attributed to the P. rubra in the new 
 Duhamel and in the French Flora. 
 
 " Differences between P. sylvestris and P. rubra. — Let us quote the 
 new Duhamel : 
 
 " First, the wood of the first is rather reddish — no observations 
 to make on this point. 
 
 " Second, the leaves are in general of a more glaucous green. 
 
 " There are in my plantation several lots of the P. rubra of the 
 north, coming from different provinces of Russia, and as well 
 characterised as possible. Their leaves are plainly less glaucous than 
 
L'fcOLB FORESTIERE DBS BARRE8. Ill 
 
 those of the common P. sylvestris of France and of Germany, planted 
 comparatively near them. 
 
 " Third, their cones are almost always arranged in whorls of three, 
 four, and five ; according to the same author, in the sylvestris they 
 are often by twos. I have many times, in all the lots of sylvestris in 
 the school, counted as many cones. 
 
 " I have constantly found in all, however different they may be, 
 some individuals with one, two, or three cones, very rarely with four : 
 nay more, this variety is often to be found on the same tree, some 
 branches bearing single cones, whilst on others they are grouped by 
 twos or threes. I have also noticed that this varies decidedly on one 
 tree in different years, apparently according to whether the flowering 
 has taken place during favourable weather or not. This characteristic 
 then is of no use whatever. 
 
 " Fourth, the projecting part of the scales form a more decided 
 pyramid in the P. rubra, and the lozenge formed by its base has its 
 greatest diameter in the vertical direction. 
 
 " In the P. sylvestris, on the contrary, the greatest diameter of the 
 lozenge, according to the same author, is horizontal. 
 
 " I have made, with a view to recognise the characteristics, nume- 
 rous examinations of the cones coming from different trees belonging 
 to the two supposed species, and here is what I discovered — first, 
 that the projection of the scales, though variable in both, formed a 
 much less decided pyramid in the cones of the P. rubra than in those 
 of the P. sylvestris, which is precisely the contrary of what the author 
 says ; second, that in the same lot, either of P. sylvestris or of P. 
 rubra, and sometimes on the same tree, the greatest diameter was 
 sometimes in a vertical and sometimes in a horizontal direction, so 
 that this characteristic is useless as a means of specific verification. 
 
 " Fifth, Bosc and De Candolle give as characteristic to their Scotch 
 fir, or P. rubra, that it has the young sprouts red. 
 
 " Now the most freely planted lots of the red pine of the north in 
 my school are, on the contrary, distinguished by the tender green of 
 their sprouts in the spring. I have besides amongst my lots a con- 
 siderable number of Scotch firs coming directly from Scotland. The 
 trees in it are extremely varied in character. One finds among them 
 types of all the P. sylvestris possible, except the specimens with red 
 sprouts, which, far from being in the majority, are only met with as 
 rare exceptions ; the great mass have green shoots. 
 
 " Besides, if Miller had recognised this as a characteristic of his P. 
 rubra, he would have given it, and he says nothing of it. It is not 
 
112 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 then from this that the author must have taken this specific name. 
 Apparently it was for him only a translation and introduction into 
 botanical language of the name of the pine or red fir (red deal), 
 under which it is generally known in the trade, and in the ports of 
 England, and the Baltic, the wood of the P. sylvestris coming from 
 Russia and Lithuania. The result of this description is that the P. 
 rubra cannot be admitted as distinct and separate from the sylvestris." 
 
 There follow details of the varieties of trees composing VEcole des 
 Pins sylvestre, with the observations made. Of these details the 
 following is a free translation in which I have deemed it expedient to 
 alter in some places the order in which some of the trees are 
 described, and to abbreviate or abridge in some cases the details 
 given : 
 
 " This collection is composed of all the specimens of the pinus 
 sylvestris of different districts and countries I could procure. I sought 
 especially that it should comprise those in regard to which doubts 
 and discussions have arisen, and still more especially those which 
 having received the names of varieties are more generally regarded as 
 distinct. The Pin de mdture, or red pine of the north, and those of 
 Hagenau, of Scotland, and of Geneva, have supplied in this respect 
 the first foundation of the plantation ; and the first of these (le pin de 
 mdture), mast pines, the red pine of the north, those of Hagenau, 
 of Scotland, and of Geneva, the basis of the plantation. The first of 
 these (le pin de mdture) being the most important, is that in regard 
 to which I have exerted myself to multiply as much as possible the 
 means of studying. Through the assistance of my connections, and 
 the obliging co-operation of many French and Russian amateurs, 
 I have obtained from different provinces of Russia, and of Lithuania, 
 celebrated for the production of these pines, seeds, the products of 
 which are to be seen in the plantation. To these lots obtained thus 
 direct from the localities have been added many others produced from 
 plantations made in France, at previous times, the Russian origin of 
 ■which was well established ; and further, with a view to multiplying 
 as much as possible the means of comparison, I have added specimens 
 of the pin sylvestre from different parts of France. 
 
 "The whole presents a collection of some thirty lots, but to prevent 
 the formation of an exaggerated idea of these, it may be stated that 
 they are not all equal in strength, age, or extent, nor are they in 
 some other respects susceptible of exact comparison ; they are on 
 the contrary, unequal in the extreme. Some form masses more or 
 
l'ECOLE FORESTIERE DE8 BARRES. 113 
 
 less considerable, while others consist only of some single trees ; their 
 ages range from that of ten or twelve years to that of thirty years 
 and upwards. This inconvenience is inevitable in a creation of a 
 plantation of this kind. To reduce as much as possible the dis- 
 advantages of this inequality, I shall take care to indicate in the 
 details given of each lot the differences which may have an influence 
 on the actual appreciation of their character." 
 
 In regard to his practical classification of the varieties in l'Ecole, 
 he says : " The differences, be it between individuals or between 
 masses growing together, sufficiently marked to enable one to find 
 on them the distinctions of varieties are of two kinds : those which 
 relate to the appearance and conformation of the tree, and those which 
 relate to the botanic characters furnished by one or more of these 
 characteristics, or to the appearance and conformation of their organs, 
 cones, flowers, leaves, <fec. 
 
 "Botanists who have taken up this question have in general given 
 a preference to this last basis of classification. This, however, I 
 have not adopted, and that for the following reason : Varieties 
 founded on differences which are exclusively or principally botanical, 
 may not be such when viewed from the stand-point of forest economy. 
 Thus, for example, let a pin sylvestve have the summit of the scale 
 formed in the manner of that of the P. mugho, or have three 
 leaves in place of two in the sheathe of a cone more or less pro- 
 jecting, bent as in a hook ; let the greater diameter of the losenge 
 formed by the sides of the cones be horizontal or vertical ; let the 
 side of the anthers in the male flowers be more or less projecting — 
 that would be a curious variation, very interesting botanically in 
 being a departure from the general character of the species ; but if, 
 besides this, this tree and those reproduced from its seed did not 
 present in their vegetation and in their physical qualities marked 
 differences from those amongst which they were growing, the exis- 
 tence of this variety would remain outside of every useful practical 
 application ; it would be only an interesting fact of natural history. 
 
 " It is altogether otherwise with distinctions founded on the bear- 
 ing and conformation or habit of the trees. In these, differences 
 represent qualities or defects, or rather they are, in reality, the one 
 or other. Between a pine of an elongated trunk perfectly straight, 
 with a regular head, and one with a crooked trunk, knotty, with head 
 diffuse and spreading, there is all the difference between a very good 
 tree and a bad one. 
 
 P 
 
114 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " This mode of determining varieties is then one in direct relation 
 •with the views of forest culture, and may contribute efficaciously to its 
 good result. It is in this respect one, for our purpose, very much pre- 
 ferable to that of which I have spoken as adopted by the botanist. 
 But this is not its only advantage ; instead of minute characteristics, 
 often difficult to catch by the eye without the assistance of a lens, 
 there are thus given characters of an order less recondite, call them 
 even vulgar, if you will, but they are easily caught by anybody and 
 everybody. And, in fine, another consideration in favour of the 
 adopti»n of them is, that they are at least as constant as those of a 
 nature more strictly, and essentially scientific, or botanical. But by 
 this remark I mean not to condemn these last." 
 
 These reasons, says he, have led me to adopt the mode of classifi- 
 cation described in comparing together, and grouping according to 
 their analogies, the numerous lots constituting VEcole ; and proceed- 
 ing to detail the classification of the pin sylvestre, in the collection 
 formed and studied by him, he says : 
 
 " The direction taken by the branches, according as this may be 
 ascending or horizontal, has ever appeared to me to be the character- 
 istic most generally connected with the good or bad quality of the 
 trees, and I have adopted this as the basis of the classification of 
 the lots. 
 
 " From this have resulted two principal divisions — first, that of 
 trees with ascending branches ; and second, that of trees, with 
 horizontal branches. 
 
 " Then, some sub-divisions being still required to bring together 
 trees presenting analogies of secondary importance, and to obtain 
 groups less comprehensive, I have introduced three into the first and 
 two into the second of these grand divisions, and these give the 
 following five series or divisions : 
 " I. Branches ascending corresponding to P. sylvestris var-rubra. 
 
 " A. Ascending, close, and pyramidal branches. 
 
 "B. Ascending, scattered branches, with a regular crown. 
 
 " C. Ascending, scattered branches, with an ir-regular crown, and 
 the branches often qourmandes, or overgrown, as if feeding rapaciously 
 on the sap of the tree. 
 " II. Branches horizontal corresponding to P. sylvestris var-vulgaris. 
 
 " D. Horizontal branches in successive tiers or stages. 
 
 " E. Horizontal branches, thick-set and regular." 
 
 These five divisions correspond to local varieties generally recog- 
 
CLASSES OP PINES. 115 
 
 nised ; and he gives again the same divisons under the names of 
 these as shorter and more precise : 
 " Ascending branches. 
 
 " A. Pin de Riga, pyratnide-elance, elongated tapering pyramidal. 
 
 " B. Pin de Riga, pyramide-elarge. 
 
 " C. Pin d'llaguenau ; Pin d'Allemagne, irregular expanded 
 pyramidal. 
 " Horizontal branches. 
 
 " D. Pin de Geneve elancd-etale, tapering, but straggling. 
 
 " E. Pin de Geneve ramassi, Pin des Hautes Alpes, ou de Briancon, 
 thick-set and compact." 
 
 Of the first of these types, the Pin de Riga pyramide elance, 
 elongated tapering and pyramidal, he gives the following characters : 
 
 " The trunk is very vertical, sustaining well its great size, often 
 almost cylindrical through upwards of half its height. The branches, 
 of moderate strength, manifestly of equal growth amongst themselves, 
 form a series of regular and symmetrical crowns the tout ensemble, 
 of which, by its pyramidal form, recals the habit of the Italian poplar. 
 The bark is of a decided reddish yellow, from 1 or 2 metres above 
 the base." 
 
 Under this type he places in his pinetum, pines raised from two 
 different parcels of seed of the Riga pine, received by him from 
 Russia, and a Witepsk pine, raised by him also from seed received 
 from Riga. 
 
 Of this he writes : 
 
 " Of the different lots which I have received directly from Russia, 
 the Riga pine, raised from seed furnished by M. Zigra, is that which 
 offers the most complete type of the elongated tapering pyramidal 
 variety. The mass presents the following characters : The trunk is 
 in almost all perfectly vertical, sustaining well its great bulk, and it 
 is often almost cylindrical throughout half its height or more, the 
 crown is regular and symmetrical, composed of branches somewhat 
 strong, and of manifestly equal growth ; the general form recalling 
 the habit of the Italian poplar. The bark is of a decided reddish 
 yellow from about 1 or 2 metres from the ground, and scaling off; 
 that of the base is not so good, and it is not so rent with cracks as 
 is the case in the greater part of the other lots. 
 
 " The shoots are more forward in spi-ing than those of the Haguenau, 
 and much more, to the extent even often of fifteen days, than those of 
 the Geneva pine, the pine of Ardeche, and their analogies. It is of a 
 pale green and in no way of a reddish hue, the leaf is not so glaucous, 
 
116 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 not so long, and not so straight as that of the Haguenau, and it stands 
 more erect against the branches. 
 
 " It is, on the contrary, longer and narrower than are those of 
 the Geneva variety. 
 
 " The cone is smaller and shorter than that of some others, more 
 particularly than that of the Geneva pine and some of its analogies ; 
 it is generally grey, and sometimes, but rarely, of a somewhat purplish 
 hue. 
 
 " The bud or young shoot varies in hue from yellowish to reddish- 
 it is smaller and less resinous than it is in the greater part of the 
 lots of the varieties having horizontal branches ; the colour of the 
 male catkin varies from a yellowish hue to that of a pale red." 
 
 Of Riga pines, raised from seed obtained from Riga through M. 
 Helmond, he writes : 
 
 " This is identical, or almost absolutely so, with those just described; 
 with which I could with all propriety have united it, but I mention 
 it apart, because it forms on the grounds separate very marked 
 clumps of trees, of the same origin, but of different years' growth ; 
 the proportion of trees with scattered branches, or even horizontal 
 ones, is much greater than in those just described. I shall have 
 occasion to revert to this fact of which the Russian series of pines 
 presents other examples." 
 
 In 1838 he writes : " M. Wagner, nurseryman and seedsman in 
 Riga, sent to me some cones produced in four of the provinces of Russia 
 known to furnish beautiful pine masts. Although the trees raised from 
 them are few in number and younger by ten or fifteen years than 
 my older Russian pines, I consider that I ought to classify them, 
 provisionally at least, according to their actual appearance." And of 
 one of these lots, that of the pine of Witepsk, he says : " By the 
 regularity and the very decided ascending direction of its crowns, and 
 by the tout ensemble of its characteristics, it belongs evidently to the 
 section of the elongated tapering pyramidal varieties ; it will probably 
 prove identical with the Riga pine first described. 
 
 " Intermediate between this class and the second, are the Smolensk 
 pine, the Wilna pine, the Tschernigoff pine, and the Volhynia pine 
 from another province of Russia, Riga pines raised from seeds collected 
 **, Barres from trees raised from the first mentioned parcels of seeds 
 received from Russia, and a pine tree raised from the seed of a 
 pyramids,} tree at Verrieres, near Paris, which, from its port or 
 bearing, might be included in the first section, and from its bark in 
 the second," 
 
EXPANDED PYRAMIDAL RIGA PINE. 117 
 
 The second division is described under the head of the expanded 
 pyramidal Riga pine, of which he writes : 
 
 11 The principal characteristic by which this section differs from 
 the preceding consists in this, that the branches, longer, stronger, 
 and more separated from the trunk, form a more expanded pyramid. 
 The trunks in the greater part of the lots of this series are larger at 
 the same age than those of the elongated pyramids, and they are at 
 least as high; but the proportion of trees perfectly straight and 
 regular is less than in these. The colour of the bark is also less 
 uniformly reddish. In fine, in the tout ensemble of their characters 
 the natural grown trees are less elegant, less perfect in general in 
 their proportions than those of the elongated pyramids, but more 
 vigorous, and appeared destined to acquire greater dimensions ; it 
 is amongst them more especially that we should find trunks of the 
 exceptional dimensions, which serve for masts to vessels of the first 
 rank. They present then, in this respect, as much interest as do those 
 of the first section." 
 
 The pine of Smolensk was raised from some of the cones ob- 
 tained from M. Wagner. " This," says M. Vilmorin, " was dis- 
 tinguished from the others thus obtained in having the direction 
 taken by its branches very much diversified. Of the nine individuals 
 of which the lot consists, three have these horizontal, and very 
 prolonged ; of the six others, two are excellent types of the elongated 
 pyramidal series, and four belong to the series of regular expanded 
 pyramidal form. Notwithstanding these differences, all, with perhaps 
 one or two exceptions, present thus far the essential characteristics 
 of the best Pins du Nord, the trunk is clean and elongated, the 
 crowns regular, the bark, in fine, is thin, delicate, and of a decided 
 reddish colour. 
 
 " The mixture of trees with horizontal branches," he adds, " gives 
 to the lot, limited in number though it be, a particular interest for 
 subsequent study." 
 
 Of the Wilna pine, raised also I suppose from the seeds supplied 
 by M. Wagnei*, there were only seven specimens. " Their crowns '' 
 writes M. Vilmorin, " are in general regular, but they are manifestly 
 stronger, larger, and more clothed with leaves and bx-anches than is 
 the case with any which have been yet described. The base of the 
 trunk is more clumsy and covered with a bark more brown and more 
 cracked ; altogether, it is a very vigorous pine, but one which, if an 
 opinion may be based on the observation of a number so small, will 
 furnish a smaller proportion of perfectly regular trunks than will 
 these already mentioned. 
 
118 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " Its proper place should have been towards the end of section B, 
 amongst those which constitute a connecting link between that 
 section and the pines of Haguenau (section C, with crowns too ir- 
 regular for comparison with one another), but I have thought that it 
 would be better to keep together all the lots obtained directly from 
 the Russian produce." 
 
 The pine of Tschernigoff is another of these. The lot consists of 
 12 trees, generally good or very good. They come near to the 
 Witepsk pine, and I had, says M. Vilmorin, in my first verifications 
 placed them next in order amongst the elongated pyramidal pines, 
 but their crowns, although remaining regular, having latterly assumed 
 more strength and extension, the tree finds or would find now a more 
 appropi'iate place amongst the expanded pyramidal shaped pines of 
 which it may be taken as one of the good types. 
 
 Of the pine of Volhynia, he writes : 
 
 " Volhynia being one of the Russian provinces, which, according to 
 information for which I am indebted to M. de la Roquette, furnishes 
 the most beautiful pines for masts. I am delighted to have met 
 personally with a proprietor from that country, M. Camille Petrowski, 
 an enlightened and obliging amateur student of the pine, who has 
 kindly sent to me seeds from the district. 
 
 " The trees raised from these are by far the youngest of those 
 raised from seed received directly from Russia. They have now 
 been but ten years planted, but it may already be foreseen that they 
 will be amongst the best in the collection. In the first years of their 
 growth they presented so striking a resemblance to what had been 
 the appearance of the Riga pines already described when they were of 
 the same age, that I had then no doubt of their being of the same 
 race ; but within the last two or three years they have begun to 
 assume an aspect peculiar to themselves. From having an appear- 
 ance of feebleness and suffering, which they presented at first, they 
 have become extremely vigorous, their leaves have become greatly 
 elongated ; their tint, which was of a pale green, has become on the 
 branches of the year's growth of a decided glaucous shade ; and 
 many, the first crowns of which had been very symmetrical, have 
 produced of late years very vigorous feeders, gourmancles, and this 
 to such an extent as to show a tendency to deform the trunk. 
 
 " I attribute this change to this, that the roots must have passed 
 through the bed of pot clay, which is very near the surface in this 
 
EXPANDED PYRAMIDAL PINE. 119 
 
 ground, and come to a sandy sub-soil, eminently favourable to their 
 growth ; it may be also attributed to this, that, planted as they have 
 been in a long row directly facing the south, this position may have 
 helped to give to one portion of the branches an extraordinary 
 development. Notwithstanding these unfavourable circumstances, 
 the greater number have thus far preserved in their trunk, their 
 crowns, and their bark, the characteristics of the best Pin da, Nord ; 
 and in view of everything, while regretting much that they have not 
 been planted in a close clump, I do not doubt that one portion of 
 them at least may one day be the most beautiful pins sylvestres in the 
 school. On the other hand, this lot will be all the more interesting 
 to examine in their after growth — that it exists in sufficient extent to 
 supply studies somewhat conclusive ; it comprises about 400 trees." 
 
 Under this second head he classes a Eiga pine raised from seed 
 which had been sent to him by M. Noel, gardener of the Jard'm 
 botauiqice de la marine, which had been gathered on a plantation at 
 Guiparaz, near Brest, which again had been raised from seeds brought 
 from the north in 1802 by an officer of marine ; a Riga pine raised 
 from seeds brought originally from the north by the late M. Penna- 
 nech, of Morlaix, with which he formed a plantation on his property 
 at Bretagne ; a Riga pine from seed raised by M. Pousson, d'Hollande 
 of Bergerae ; a Riga pine from seed raised by M. Batelat, of Vie ; and 
 trees of P. sylvestris, raised from the seed of a tree in the garden 
 of M. Picot-Lapeyrouse. 
 
 Of Riga pines, raised from seeds yielded by trees grown from seed 
 obtained from Russia, he writes : 
 
 " When my Puga pines, raised from seed obtained directly from 
 the forests, began to yield seeds, I caused these to be collected, with 
 a view to ascertain whether the race would reproduce itself with its 
 peculiar characteristics. The plants which have been thus produced, 
 though they cannot be yet judged with certainty, have in general a 
 decided analogous appearance to that of their parents. A certain 
 number, however, presenting some defects in the trunk, or having 
 their crowns too strong, I do not wish to place them in the first 
 series, but would rather put them provisionally in the second series, 
 which contains many lots which are still young, and upon which an 
 approximate judgment only can be formed. Whatever may be the 
 definite place of these, the mass promises thus far to be very good." 
 
 The second series, Riga pines of expanded pyramidal outline, 
 have the branches ascending and spreading, and the crown regular. 
 
120 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 Of the first of these, the Eiga pine, from a plantation at 
 Guiparaz, near Brest, of which there were in the school several 
 clumps, he says : " Their trunk is in general very vertical and 
 elongated, but the branches are perceptibly longer and stronger than 
 are those of the first and second mentioned Riga pines, described as 
 of elongated pyramidal outline. The crowns are, however, regular in 
 the greater part of them. The red coloured bark begins a little 
 higher than in the elongated pyramidal series. It is of a tint rather 
 more pale, but sufficiently decided to show that the pine certainly 
 belongs to the red pines of the north. It is, moreover, remarkable 
 for its great vigour, and it constitutes in its tout ensemble one of the 
 good samples of a variation from the elongated pyramidal type. The 
 leaf is longer and more glaucous than those of the specimens referred 
 to, and resembles somewhat those of the pine of Haguenau ; the cone 
 also is more elongated and narrower in the upper half." 
 
 The Riga pine, furnished by M. Pennanech, is like the last, a pine 
 of Russian origin, raised by culture in Brittany, and resembles it in 
 most particulars. It differs from it chiefly, that amongst the trees 
 raised horizontal crowns are more numerous, and the bark is more 
 uniformly and more decidedly red in hue, and it approximates that 
 of the two first mentioned. 
 
 During the first years of growth the lot of Riga pines had a 
 marked resemblance to the Scotch fir, obtained from Aberdeen, which 
 will be afterwards described. 
 
 Amongst the variations seen in the lot, which are numerous, 
 more particularly in regard to the direction of the branches, one 
 meets here and there individuals which are perfect models of the 
 elongated pyramidal type. Altogether, the mass is very good, not- 
 withstanding the want of uniformity which has just been noticed. 
 
 Of the Riga pine from Bergerae, he writes : " The sowings of 
 Russian pines, made by M. Pousson, de Hollande, on his estate near 
 Bergerae have been known long from the mention made of them 
 by M. Delamarre, in his work entitled, Traite Pratique de la Culture 
 des pins. His son has had the kindness to give me seeds gathered 
 from the trees thus raised, and it is of trees produced from these 
 that I write. These pines, planted in 1840, cannot yet be classed 
 with certainty. They are very vigorous, too vigorous even, and 
 belong probably to that variety of the Pins du Nord, which seed, 
 through excess of strength, and tend to approximate this race to that 
 of Haguenau. The proportion of regular specimens in that is at all 
 
l'ecole porestieee des barres. 121 
 
 times, as at present, sensibly greater than in this. This lot, when it 
 shall be older, it appears to me, is likely to approach nearly in its 
 quality that of Guiparaz." 
 
 Of the pin sylvestre, supplied by M. Picot-Lapeyrouse, M. Vilmorin 
 writes : " This lot, which does not consist of above a dozen of trees, 
 though not numerous, deserves a somewhat detailed notice in 
 consequence of the interest attaching to itself, and of the uncertainty 
 attaching to its forest origin. 
 
 " At a time when I was much occupied with researches on the 
 genuine pinus uncinate of Raymond, I addressed myself amongst 
 others to M. Ferrieres, chief gardener of the botanic garden at 
 Toulouse. He replied that he could certainly procure it for me, 
 seeing that in the garden of M. Picot-Lapeyrouse there was a tree 
 of this species brought back by that botanist from one of his 
 excursions in the Pyrenees, and which was producing cones. I 
 accepted his offer, and he sent me some. These cones resembled in 
 every respect those of the pinus sylvestris ; but I sowed them, and, 
 when the plants made apparent that there must have been a mistake 
 somewhere, I planted a row of them in the school. The trees, which 
 are now twenty-eight years of age, and about 15 metres (50 feet) 
 in height, ai*e very beautiful red pines of the north, and of the 
 section expanded pyramidal. They resemble much the Riga pines 
 of Guiparaz, to which they may be likened. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the disappointment which they have occasioned 
 to me, I have always felt a great interest in these trees, and that 
 more especially from the question to which their first origin has 
 given rise. It may be supposed that the tree in the garden of M. 
 Picot-Lapeyrouse had been brought by him from the Pyrenees, as 
 believed by M. Ferrieres, in which case it follows that on some place 
 on these mountains there were pins sylvestres, in every respect like 
 those of Russia, and belonging to the same race. If, on the contrary, 
 the tree was pi'oduced from a plant of the Pins du Nord, received by 
 M. Lapeyrouse, it matters not whence, (he had, as director of the 
 botauic garden, widely extended connections with establishments of 
 the same nature, and with amateurs), the consequences which would 
 follow would not be less importaut, namely these : that a pine of this 
 race, planted and reared in the climate of Toulouse must have so 
 preserved sufficiently its original character, that trees produced from 
 it are at this day in the plantations at Barres bearing comparison 
 with the good lots produced directly from Russia. 
 
 Q 
 
122 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 "These questions, it may be seen, touch closely upon practical 
 applications, and so warrant my pausing to give these details. 
 
 " It so happens that an accidental circumstance adds to the interest 
 awakened by these pines. They are planted contiguous to a small 
 clump of r pines of Briancon, or of the High Alps, to which they 
 present a most striking contrast. A glance at these two clumps 
 planted on the same day would suffice to convince the most 
 incredulous that there exist of the pin sylvestre well marked varieties, 
 independent of the differences due to the effects of soil and of 
 climate." 
 
 Intermediate between this class and the third class he places 
 a pin sylvestre from a plantation near Louvain, presumed to be 
 of Russian origin. Of this he writes : " The seeds from which this 
 lot was produced were sent to me by an amateur at Louvain, M. 
 Stuppaert, as the produce of a very beautiful plantation, the produce 
 of seeds brought from Russia. The character of the trees confirms the 
 probability of the account. 
 
 "Of two parcels sent to me at different times, one has produced 
 trees which stand much too far apart, occasioned by numerous blanks, 
 which are veritable Haguenaux, of a very strong trunk, but often 
 deformed by enormous overgrown branches ; the other, sown where 
 they grow, bas, on the contrary, generally the trunks very straight 
 and elongated, well proportioned, the crowns also lai-ge and strong, 
 but symmetrical, and the bark fairly reddish ; in fine, the characters of 
 those pins die Nord, which the excess of vigour renders very 
 unequal, but which evidently belong fundamentally to the race ; and 
 therefore the tree has found its place in this series." 
 
 Intermediate between the same class, and the fourth class, he 
 classes a Scotch fir, the seed of which was furnished by Mr James 
 Reid, of Aberdeen ; and another, the seed of which was furnished by 
 Mr W. Malcolm, and a pin sylvestre, from the seed of a tree with 
 semi-horizontal branches growing at Verrieres, near Paris. 
 
 Of the first of these he writes : 
 
 " Tbe Scotch fir ought necessarily to make part of the collection 
 of which I am here giving a report, since it is considered the type of 
 the species, at least it is that which has furnished the common 
 name under which for a long time it has been known, a name 
 still much used, especially in England. I have accordingly obtained 
 seeds and plants from Scotland. These have not by any means all 
 
LECOLE FOREST1ERE DES BARRES. 123 
 
 grown. The principal lot has been raised from seed furnished by Mr 
 James Reid, a highly esteemed nurseryman iu Aberdeen. 
 
 " Of all the lots of sylvestris in the school, this is perhaps the most 
 difficult to class. It does not conform itself well to any of the divisions 
 which I have established. It shows an intermixture of elongated 
 pyramidals, but these in but a small proportion, and of expanded pyra- 
 midal, some regular, others with strong gourmandes crowns, and 
 finally, of those of the race of Geneva, with horizontal branches ; the 
 bark in a pretty great number of specimens is of a questionable red 
 mixed with grey, a slightly preponderating proportion approach more 
 to the expanded pyramidal type than the others, and those I class 
 amongst the last lots of that division, in which I have been influenced 
 by this, that notwithstanding the extreme diversity seen in them 
 the Scotch firs have pretty generally the vertical trunks, and the crowns 
 of these, though strong, are rarely deformed by gourmandes as in the 
 Haguenau. In regard to quality this is upon the whole rather good 
 than bad. 
 
 " Such is the estimate as exact as I could form it of the principal 
 lot of Scotch firs at Barres. I must however repeat what I have said 
 elsewhere, and speaking only of those trees which I have under my eyes, 
 I do not intend by any means to express an opinion in regard to all 
 the pines on Scottish soil, nor even of those of the county of Aberdeen 
 whence these were obtained." 
 
 The Scotch firs, raised from seed furnished by M. Malcolm, and also 
 lots, consisting one of the ordinary pines, and the other of the 
 horizontal pine of Europe, which he has classed here, were all too 
 imperfect to warrant the expression of an opinion in regard to them. 
 
 Of the trees raised from the seed of a pyramidal specimen grown 
 at Verrieres, and of another lot which he has classed among the lots 
 intermediate between the first section and the second connecting 
 itself with the first by its habit, and with the second by its bark, 
 he says : 
 
 " These were planted with a special view to determine by experi- 
 ment if the natural variation seen in individual trees would reproduce 
 themselves in their descendants in proportions so considerable that 
 there might be deduced from this useful applications in practice. It 
 is generally so in nature, but all species do not comport themselves 
 absolutely the same in this respect, and one cannot be assured in 
 regard to how it will happen with each but by direct proof. 
 
 " This I had in my power to try with two trees of very different 
 
124 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIB. 
 
 habits which I had under treatment in a garden at Verrieres near 
 Paris ; the one forming a pyramid a little heavy and spreading, but 
 going up well and regular ; the other, extending its branches 
 horizontally in such a way as to leave the trunk bare between the 
 crowns. I caused to be collected and sown separately the seeds of 
 these two trees, and their produce, planted opposite each other, are 
 now to be seen in the school. Both have preserved their original 
 characters in a very marked degree. Two thirds and more of the 
 individuals have the crowns ascending and pyramidal in the first 
 lot, while they are horizontal and spreading in the second. This 
 result being by much the most interesting aspect of the experi- 
 ment, I shall enlarge but little on what concerns it beside. 
 
 " The pyramidal pine, from Verrieres, presents generally good and 
 promising trees, with a straight trunk and a regular crown ; the 
 bark is only one degree less marked than on excellent Rigas, which 
 approximates it to the pine of Guiparaz, or perhaps still more to 
 selected specimens of the Scotch fir, raised from seed supplied by Mr 
 Reid." 
 
 The third series, the German pine and the pine of Haguenau, is 
 characterised by having the branches ascending and extended, the 
 crowns irregular, and the branches often overgrown gourmandes. 
 
 Of the typical tree of this series he writes : " Though more 
 vigorous than those of the preceding series, the Haguenau pine is 
 not so good as they. Its crown is too dense and too strong, often 
 intermixed with overgrown branches, which tend to destroy the regu- 
 larity of its trunk. It also frequently shows knees or defects which 
 greatly diminish its value. 
 
 " The bark is reddish in most specimens, but it is not so uniformly 
 so as it is in the first section, or even as it is in the greater part of 
 the lots in the second ; that of the base is more brown and more rent. 
 
 " The leaf is longer, more glaucous, and less pressed against the 
 twig than that of the elongated pyramidal section. The bud is less 
 forward in spring by eight or ten days." 
 
 Under this third head he classes a pine from the forest of Haguenau 
 spin sylvestre from Darmstadt, and a pinus sylvestris maritima received 
 also from Darmstadt. 
 
 Of these he writes : 
 
 " There are many clumps produced from seed obtained directly from 
 Haguenau, some sown, others planted, from 1823 to 1831. 
 
l'^COLE FOEESTIERE DES BAKRES. 125 
 
 " The characteristic feature and the principal defect of the Haguenau 
 pine consist in excess of vigour, and, above all, of a vigour ill distri- 
 buted, which is carried often into the branches, to the detriment of 
 the trunk. It is in this that it differs essentially from the true Riga 
 pines. Its trunk is in general much less vertical and less regular, 
 often crooked, warped, or abruptly falling off in size, in consequence 
 of the enormous overgrown branches, which grow out to a great 
 distance, and destroy all regularity in the tree. In one variety 
 which is often met with the tree is more compact, and the general 
 habit more regular ; but the crowns, much too strong, transform the 
 summit into a pyramid excessively dense and bushy, in the middle of 
 which the trunk is almost lost. On the other hand, the reddish 
 colour of the bark is less uniform and less decided than in the good 
 lots of the Riga pine ; it commences generally 1 or 2 metres higher ; 
 pretty often indeed the bark throughout the whole body of the tree is 
 grey, or much mixed with grey rather than reddish. That at the 
 base of the trunk is more brown, more thick zoned, and more full of 
 rents. 
 
 " Such are in general the Haguenau pines in the school of Barres. 
 And from this it may be seen that this variety is not identical with 
 the mast pine of the north, as has been thought by Bosc, and many 
 foresters with him; and that, on the other hand, notwithstanding 
 its superiority in vigour and in rapidity of increase, it is much 
 inferior to it in quality. 
 
 " Truth requires it should be stated that there are to be found in 
 the mass of the Haguenaux some individual trees which constitute 
 an exception to the rest, being quite regular in trunk and in crown, with 
 a bark fairly red, and retaining, at the same time, the superiority of 
 vigour belonging to the race. These may be compared to the best 
 pines of the north of the series of strong crowns (those of the 
 elongated pyramids). Also, when one shall come — if that happen 
 — to create, by choice of individuals, the best possible races, certain 
 varieties of these may present, at a pinch, very good points of 
 departure from the characteristics of the most to lead to that 
 result. 
 
 " Independent of the differences which I have indicated above, the 
 pine of Haguenau is distinguished from the Rigas, and from those 
 more especially of the first series, by its having the leaf longer, more 
 spreading from the branch, ordinarily a little curved or rounded 
 off, of a more glaucous green about the shoot, and later in spring to 
 the extent of about eight days. The bud is a little more coloured, 
 
126 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 the cones of a less uniform grey, often of a slightly violet coloured 
 tint, dull or reddish; but the characters, be they taken from the 
 buds, be they taken from the cones, are not sufficiently marked, nor, 
 above all, sufficiently constant to furnish good^eans of distinction — 
 at least I have not found them such. 
 
 " It is then essentially on those characteristics which I have given 
 above that I have founded my separation of the Haguenau from the 
 Rigas, and made it the type of the third series. 
 
 "Of the pin sylvestre of Darmstadt some were sown in 1831 and 
 others planted in 1838. They have the same faults and the same 
 qualities as the preceding ; form disorderly and irregular ; trunk 
 thickened and vigorous, but often knotty and deformed by gour- 
 mandes ; the bark scarcely red, sometimes even grey, throughout the 
 whole height. As in the Haguenau, so in this, there are individuals 
 exempt from the faults of the mass, and promising for the future 
 very fine and good trees, or which are such already ; but these are 
 few in number. 
 
 " Of the pimcs sylvestris var-montana, received also from Darm- 
 stadt, a row was planted in 1833. 
 
 " These, from their descent, and the greater part of their characters, 
 it appears to me, cannot be classed otherwise than amongst the 
 Haguenau, but in a rank below both of the preceding. 
 
 "Although their crowns may be less gourmandes than theirs, their 
 trunk is still more faulty — not so large in the first place, and very 
 much bent in half and more of the trees, and the bark is grey or 
 brown in almost all. This pine is one of those which show clearly 
 that there exist local varieties and bad varieties of the pin sylvestre, 
 which it is of importance to avoid in the formation of woods of this 
 pine." 
 
 Intermediate between this class and that which follows, he places 
 a pin sylvestre from Champagne, of which he writes : " Two rows 
 were sown in 1831. The seeds were given to me by M. le Vicomte 
 Einnard, one of the principal planters of pine forests on the chalk 
 soils of Champagne, and were the pi*oduce of these plantations. The 
 trees produced from them have not the character of the race, and 
 cannot be classed in any one of the series which I have established. 
 At first sight they look like a mixture of not very vigorous Haguenau 
 pines and pines of l'Ardeche. Examined more closely, it is seen that 
 the greater part are rather intermediate between the two. In regard 
 
L'ECOLE FORESTIERE DES BARRE8. 127 
 
 to trunks, crowns, and bark, they are in general rather passable, or 
 mediocre than good, or very good." 
 
 The second grand division consists of those with horizontal 
 branches,* among which we find the fourth section, designated the 
 horizontal tapering, of which the type is the expanded elongated pine 
 of Geneva, of which M. Vilmorin gives the following characteristics : 
 
 " The branches, spreading horizontally, sometimes even depressed ; 
 generally very much elongated and flexuous ; united in regular 
 crowns, which leave the trunk bare in the intervals between these. 
 This is rarely very straight ; the curvations not so acute as on the 
 Haguenau ; but, on the other hand, its grossessement is much less. 
 
 " The bark is tolerably red in some of the lots of this race, but 
 more commonly grey, or very much mixed with grey. 
 
 " The leaf is larger and shorter than in all the preceding series. 
 The bud in spring later by from eight days to a fortnight in ex- 
 panding." 
 
 Under the fourth head, the horizontal elongated but straggling 
 Geneva pine : a section of the trees having horizontal branches, he 
 classes — The Ardeche pine ; the Geneva pine ; the Tarare pine ; the 
 pin sylvestre du Maine ; pines raised from the seed of a specimen, 
 having straggling branches, growing at Verrieres ; a pin sylvestre, given 
 as a Riga pine by M. Leblond, of Bordeaux ; and a pinus sanguined, 
 received from M. Barthude, of Toulouse. 
 
 Of the three first mentioned he writes : " Though of different ages, 
 the first sown or planted in numerous masses from 1823-1831, the 
 second planted in mass in 1810, the last planted in row in 1833 and 
 1835, they have always appeared to me identical; I include, there- 
 fore, the whole in the same description. I give the preference to the 
 Ardeche pine, because, being the eldest of the three, and by far the 
 most numerous in the school, it best represents the series to which 
 it belongs, and may therefore give of it the best idea. 
 
 " The trunks in this race are in about half of them pretty straight and 
 elongated, but too much swelling out and drawn out in rat-tail form. 
 The other half present knees more or less decided, but less strongly 
 so, than in the bad types of the Haguenau pine, and in the sylvestre 
 of the High Alps previously described. The branches, excepting those 
 of two or three of the higher crowns, are very generally horizontal, and 
 
 Corresponding to the Pinus Sylvestris Vulgaris. 
 
128 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 at times even declining, not very strong, very much elongated, and 
 often flexuous ; those of the inferior stages almost naked, ramifying 
 themselves in feeble twigs, which carry at their extremity little tufts 
 of short and outspreading leaves, while those of the ascending 
 branches are, on the contrary, very closely pressed towards the branch. 
 The crowns, by reason of their being somewhat equal, are in regular 
 stages, so that they show the trunk bare between them. 
 
 " The bark is in general more grey than red, very often of an unde- 
 termined shade between the two. That of the base is manifestly less 
 thickened, less brown, and less rent than that of the Haguenau. 
 In regard to enlargement, this pine is inferior to the Rigas raised 
 from Russian seed, and much more so than some of the Rigas raised 
 from French seed, but, above all, than those of the lot of Haguenaux, 
 which, at the same age, have almost double the magnitude ; and its 
 increase in height is in a similar measure less than in all those 
 named. It does not, in this respect, surpass any but its analogue 
 the pine of Briancon, to be afterwards described. 
 
 "A botanical character, somewhat constant in the pines of this 
 series, is, that the leaf is shorter, broader, and firmer than in the 
 others, and especially than in the Haguenau. Their bud in spring 
 is behind that of these, and especially that of the Russian pine, by 
 from eight days to a fortnight. 
 
 " The exceptions to the general characters, which I have just noted, 
 consist principally in the following : A small number of individuals 
 are elongated pyramidal, and as regular as some of the best Riga 
 pines first described ; others somewhat more numerous are expanded 
 pyramidal, some regular, others with strong gourmandes branches. 
 The individuals of these variations, almost including the last, have 
 a pretty marked advantage over the others in regard to increase 
 in height, but more in regard to enlargement of trunk; the bark of 
 these is not sensibly better than in the mass. There are found here 
 and there, but far separated, trees of which the bark is of a marked 
 and uniform reddish tinge ; but this exception is not more frequent 
 amongst the pyramidal than amongst the horizontal. 
 
 " To sum up the whole, the Ardeche pine is, or at least appears for 
 the present, inferior in every respect to the red pines of the North, 
 both those raised from Russian, and those raised from French seed. 
 It does not nearly equal in value the Scotch fir, so unequal as these 
 are compared with the Haguenau ; this may be doubted, because it is 
 exempt from the great defects of that race, but it has not the good 
 qualities of that tree ; and, in view of the whole, the first appears to 
 
l'ecole forestiere des barres. 129 
 
 me, in default of a better, preferable for most cases, and that more, 
 especially when it is proposed to plant or sow the pin sylvestre in 
 poor dry lands, whether sandy or chalk." 
 
 Of the pin sylvestre du Maine, of which there is a clump in four 
 rows planted in 1830, he says : 
 
 " The pin sylvestre does not exist in Maine but as a cultivated tree, 
 and the plantations of it which are there met with have necessarily 
 diversified origins, and do not constitute a local race. But the 
 desire of multiplying the points of comparison led me to plant one 
 lot of them, for the seed producing, which I am indebted to the 
 obliging disposition of M. Vetillard. 
 
 " These pines belong to the race of Ardeche and of Geneva, but they 
 pi'esent a very large proportion of good, and of pretty good, trees, and 
 the bark is more frequently of a pretty decided reddish grey. It is 
 a good type of the race, apparently improved in Maine by successive 
 selection of individuals." 
 
 Of the pin sylvestre, raised from the seed of a specimen with 
 spreading branches, existing at Verrieres, of which there were four 
 rows planted from 1832-1835, he says, in reference to the account 
 given of his design in planting these, and others of a pyramidal form, 
 that this also has produced many trees like the parent. Those of 
 this lot have the decided characters of the Geneva pines ; the branches 
 of almost all are horizontal, the bark grey, or very little reddish ; 
 they are further pretty vigorous, and are of the number of those 
 which promise to be the best of this series. 
 
 Under the fifth head, the Thick-set horizontal pine, he classes a 
 pine from Briangon, and a Scotch fir obtained from Mr. Lawson, 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 Writing of the Briangon pine of the High Alps, of which he had 
 planted three rows in 1826, he says : "The tree, which constitutes 
 by itself the fifth section, was given to me by M. Faure (of Briangon), 
 who had the kindness to get seed gathered for me, as being the Pinus 
 suffis of the Briangonnais. This should have been — if Duhamel be 
 not misled in the application of the name — a P. mugho. But, be 
 it a mistake of Duhamel, or of the men who had gathered the cones, 
 the pines produced from this seed are true Sylvestres. On this point I 
 have no regrets, for I am thus supplied in my collection, with the two 
 extreme types (this and the elongated Riga pine), which exist in 
 
 R 
 
130 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR 
 
 the species of pimis sylvestris, a comparison of which shows most 
 manifestly the existence of local varieties and the necessity of dis- 
 tinguishing them. A trunk, thick and knotty, and thick-set, covered 
 with a bark, coarse and much cleft, brown in the lower part, and grey 
 on the rest of the tree ; the crowns horizontal, very much drawn to- 
 gether, lining the tree from its base, composed of strong branches 
 often flexuous, which famish and at times annihilate the trunk, and 
 the ensemble of which forms an enlarged and diffused head ; such are, 
 with about five or six exceptions, among the thirty individuals of 
 which this lot is composed, the pins sylvestres of the High Alps. 
 
 " It may be seen from this that they are amongst the lowest rank 
 of the species to which they belong, and that in the formation of pine 
 woods they should be avoided. But this exclusion ought not to 
 extend to all possible cases ; there is one in which the Briancon pine 
 may not only be useful, but better than all others of the species ; it 
 may be so where plantations are formed on the brows of mountains, 
 or on their plateaux exposed to the violence of winds. The little dis- 
 position manifested by it to attain height, the thickness of its base, 
 the strength of its lower branches, which are persistent for a length 
 of years, almost carpeting the ground, make it more suitable than 
 any other of the pins sylvestres to hold on and grow in such situ- 
 ations ; also when one is re-clothing mountains with woods, the Brian- 
 gon pine may be employed with great advantage conjointly with the 
 Mugho — the former to garnish the middle region of the declivity, the 
 Mugho for the higher zone — for these are the respective places which 
 Nature has assigned them on the brows of mountains." 
 
 In writing of the fivefold series, which he had formed, M. Vilmorin 
 says : 
 
 " These five divisions are not by any means equally good, or nearly 
 BO. The first and the last (the elongated pyramidal Riga pine and 
 the pine of Briancon) present the only two types absolutely distinct ; 
 the others have characters much less decided. This could not be 
 avoided, and pertains to the very nature of the species in which the 
 individuals as well as the local masses differ — one may say indefinitely. 
 And thus between the two opposite types which I have just named, 
 the lots in the school form an unbroken chain, which binds together 
 these two extremes. The sub-divisions, as I have said, were necessary, 
 as may be seen indeed by the definition of the five series adopted. 
 
 " The outline, such as I have been able to give it, does not yet 
 suffice for a convenient classification of all the lots. A certain num- 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OP FORESTRY. 131 
 
 ber present intermediate characters, but too ill-defined to allow of 
 thein being taken as typical forms, and thus to increase the number 
 of divisions ; others have no characteristics of their own, but a mix- 
 ture of many types, without a marked predominance of any. In 
 these two cases I have placed these lots, under supplementary 
 titles at the end of the series to which they most closely ap- 
 proached. 
 
 " In this mode of classification, the two extreme types, the elongated 
 pyramidal Riga pine on the one part, and the Brian^on on the other, 
 are perfectly distinct ; a third and intermediate type, the Haguenau 
 pine, although less characteristic, is yet sufficiently so to allow of my 
 admitting it as such." 
 
 The following are instructions given in the School of Forestry In 
 regard to the exploitation of a forest of Scotch firs ; but there are 
 employed several terms not in general use in speaking of the manage- 
 ment of woods and forests in England, of which it may be well to 
 give some explanation. One of these terms is revolution. This is 
 applied to the time occupied in the complete reproduction of a forest 
 in the state in which it may be at any one time, as, for example, from 
 the sowing, or from the felling of one crop to the sowing or felling of 
 a second. Fellings executed at different periods of the growth of the 
 trees, with a view to the effecting of different objects have different 
 designations given to them. Amongst these are the following : coupe 
 d'ensemencement, a designation given to a thinning of the seedlings or 
 saplings, and of trees left to give shade to seed in germination, and 
 to seedlings in the early stages of their growth ; coupe secondaire, a 
 designation given to a second thinning of the same kind executed 
 seven years later ; and conpe definitive, a designation given to a third 
 felling of the same kind, when all trees of the previous crop left 
 growing to supply shade and shelter to the rising crop are felled, 
 leaving of that crop only such as are destined for the production of 
 seed by which the ground may again be sown, to which standards the 
 designation Baliveaux Anglice, staddles, is given. 
 
 There are other technical designations given to fellings or thinnings 
 in other circumstances, with a view to the accomplishment of other 
 objects; but with these we do not here come in contact. There are, 
 however, other terms which it may be well to explain, such as Bois 
 blane, Morts-bois, and Gualis. The first designation is applied to 
 wood of little value, such as that of willows and poplars, etc., the 
 second is applied to worthless brush-wood, or undergrowth, junipera, 
 
132 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 hazles, elders, cornels, etc. ; the last, to perches and poles, from which 
 the lower branches have fallen through want of nourishment. 
 
 To resume then our account of the instruction given in the School 
 of Forestry at Nancy, in regard to the exploitation of a forest of 
 Scotch fir. 
 
 " In countries in which this tree, pinus sylvestris, is very common, 
 they do not allow it to become aged. In effect the annual increase 
 of forest masses of this tree attains its maximum when it attains 
 the age of 60, 70, or 80 years ; then, after maintaining this for some 
 20 years, it begins to diminish with the advance of age. "When then, 
 the primary object is to procure firewood, it is best to fix the revolution 
 cycle, or crop, at from 80 to 90 years. And this may be worth 
 attending to in countries in which this is the perdominating tree ; 
 but even in such a case, parts of the forest should be submitted to 
 a more protracted revolution to get useful timber of good quality. 
 
 " In France, where timber is more scarce than firewood, the State 
 cannot fail to profit by delaying the exploitation of the pine. At the 
 period of its maximum increase, its wood is not of the best quality. 
 It is only at a later period of growth that the grain of the wood 
 becomes compact, that it becomes charged with condensed resin, and 
 thus acquires the elasticity and durability which makes it valuable in 
 the construction of great works, and more especially for the navy. 
 In view of such considerations, it would be well to apply to it a 
 revolution of 120 years on lands on which its growth is active, and 
 not to exploit it till it have attained the age of from 140 to 160 
 years in dry soil of sufficient depth, like the siliceous sands in which 
 this tree delights, and acquires more especially the qualities which 
 fit it for employment in great works. 
 
 " It must however, be remarked, that protracted revolutions have 
 this inconvenience, they compromise the fertility of the soil. After 
 a time, in the course of this protracted cycle, the pine forest no longer 
 constitutes a close mass, and it comes at an advanced age to be 
 converted into something like a glade. It follows that in course of 
 time it becomes covered with hurtful undergrowth, the wind disperses 
 the bed of dead leaves, and at the termination of the cycle the ground 
 finds itself sodden, dry, impoverished, and in circumstances most 
 favourable for the multiplication of very hurtful lepidopterous 
 insects, the caterpillars of which only earth themselves in the 
 driest soils. 
 
 " When then a cycle of 120 years or upwards is decided on, not 
 only should all deciduous broad-leaved woods, which naturally come 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 133 
 
 up uuder the pines, be carefully preserved, but it may be well to 
 introduce towards the middle of the cycle a subsidiary tree, designed 
 to protect and to ameliorate the soil. The yoke elm, the beech, or 
 the Norwegian pine, would prove well adapted for fulfilling this 
 function. The last mentioned especially, placed in a second range, 
 gives to the growth of the pine a magnificent upward growth. 
 
 " Fellings preparatory for a succeeding crop. — With a view to a 
 natural resowiug of the soil, it is not necessary that a deep shade be 
 preserved, and, without disadvantage, the trees left standing may be 
 so dispersed that the branches of them may be from 5 to 6 metres 
 distant. 
 
 " In selecting trees to be reserved, it is not the straightest and 
 tallest which are to be preferred ; it is more advantageous to reserve 
 those which are of a medium height and branching; such are 
 ordinarily more fertile in seed, and they better resist the winds. In 
 the actual state of the forests in France there is as yet little room 
 for choice j but it is expected that after a time, when the forests 
 shall have felt the effect of regular management, there will be found 
 not only on the outer skirt of the forest, but over the whole area, 
 trees of a medium height loaded with branches. 
 
 " In spacing out the trees to be reserved, precautions must be taken 
 against the havoc of the winds, and the invasion of herbs or hurtful 
 plants. The pine sends down a tap-root, and otherwise roots itself 
 firmly ; but, nevertheless, on parts very much exposed to the wind, 
 and where experience has proved that this tree with difficulty resists 
 it, it may be well to leave a pretty dense reserve. The second in- 
 convenience is frequent in pine forests, and on some grounds almost 
 unavoidable. It may, however, be mitigated by not making the 
 coupe oV ensemencement , or first felling, excepting when assured of an 
 early and abundant fructification, which, in the case of the pines, is 
 pretty frequent, and may be foreseen eighteen months in advance. 
 Further, in the autumn or the winter preceding the scattering of 
 the seed, it may be well to proceed to the extraction of the stumps, 
 and to till the ground in rays, or in narrow furrows, at the bottom of 
 which it may be stopped, and shall find a mobile fresh earth favour- 
 able to the germination of it and to the growth of the young plant. 
 
 " In the majority of cases these labours will not be uuremuuerative, 
 for the stumps of pines, from the resin which can be extracted from 
 them, are a nure lucrative product than are those of other trees. 
 
 " After the coupe oV ensemencement, when the replenishing is com- 
 plete, and the young plants have attained to near the height of from 
 
134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 16 to 24 centimetres, it maybe proper to proceed to the coupe de- 
 finitive. It may be imagined that the vigorous nature of the young 
 plant renders unnecessary the coupe secondaire, and that it is necessary 
 to hasten the withdrawal of the covering which is altogether contrary 
 to its requirements. 
 
 " In despite of the prudential measures taken to re-produce a pine 
 forest by self-sown seed, we are driven to acknowledge that it is 
 extremely rare that we meet with complete and satisfactory replen- 
 ishing^ in forests of this pine. To such an extent is this the case 
 that many foresters are disposed to renounce coupes d'ensemenceme?it 
 in pine forests — to make a clean sweep, and to have recourse to 
 artificial sowings, which succeed readily and well. 
 
 " In view of the general facts, it is necessary to say that this 
 opinion is not without good foundation. Let the reserves from the 
 coupe d'ensemencement be numerous or otherwise, let the coupe de- 
 finitive be expedited or delayed, one often sees the best and most 
 complete natural re-sowings come into jeopardy at the end of some 
 years — diminish and disappear in places to such an extent as to give 
 access to the mort bois and to the bois blanc. The cause of this it 
 is rather difficult to ascertain. Some writers attribute it to insects, 
 such as the worm of the Maybug, the Pissode note, and the Hylobe, 
 which attack, the one the stems and the other the roots of the 
 young pines. Mr. Berg thinks, with reason according to my judg- 
 ment, that we must seek the cause or occasion of the evil in the 
 superficial position of the roots of the old pines, the very abundant 
 fibrous tufts of which cover and penetrate the soil in every way, 
 and absorb thus in its entirety the nutritious moisture, being 
 manifestly much more vigorous than the feeble rootlets of the 
 young plants. 
 
 " Accepting this opinion, one is led to conclude that natural 
 replenishings have no chance of success excepting in ground pretty 
 wet and pretty deep, in which the pine, advancing in age, may extend 
 its roots to a lower depth than the layer in which the young plants 
 throw out theirs during the early years of their growth. But it is 
 well known that pine forests occupy in general the less fertile soils, 
 and thus we can account for natural replenishings being rarely satis- 
 factoiy and complete. 
 
 " Were it not the important consideration of the expense of replen- 
 ishing artificially through the purchase of seed, which is dear, and 
 the expense of labour, and further, the risk run of not always pro- 
 curing good seed when it is pu rchased, one would be led, from what 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 135 
 
 has been stated, to lay it down as a principle that the reproduction 
 of this pine ought to be carried on by making a clean sweep of the 
 trees, followed immediately by artificial sowing ; and that coupes 
 cVensemencement ought only to be. practised in exceptional circum- 
 stances, as, for example, on ground on a declivity. Forest science 
 counsels the former mode of procedure ; but financial considerations 
 enforce most frequently the adoption of the latter." 
 
 M. JSanquette states in a note that the most important forests 
 of the pin sylvestre were formerly subjected to the mode a tire et aire. 
 Thus were they treated till 1820, when the system cles compartiments 
 was substituted for this, in so far as the principal fellings were con- 
 cerned. In these fellings there were reserved a certain number of 
 trees, with a view to securing a re-sowing of the ground, and in 
 order to render more certain the natural reproduction. There is laid 
 upon the purchaser the burden of pulling up bushes and mosses, and 
 giving to the soil a slight tillage in alternate bands. 
 
 "Such is, in few words, the treatment formerly given to those forests 
 in which we find to-day woods produced by self-sown seed perfectly 
 complete, and of all ages anterior to 1840. 
 
 " The power of imposing works in connection with fellings having 
 been suppressed, now well nigh forty years ago, they ceased to cultivate 
 le parterre of coupes cVensemencement. But soon they perceived that the 
 fellings were not replenished, or were replenished badly — or at the 
 least that they must wait too long a time before obtaining a sowing 
 sufficiently complete, and at that time they adopted the plan of 
 recovering them by artificial replenishings. 
 
 " The easy execution, and the so to speak assured success of this 
 operation on the one hand, and the unsuccessful issue of coupes cVense- 
 mencement on ground not prepared for them on the other hand 
 gradually gave rise to the conviction that it was for the general 
 interest to substitute in a general way artificial for the natural 
 replenishing. But they were not long in discovering that the new 
 mode of replenishing gave no better results than that it had super- 
 seded, and, as it is much more costly, they returned quite naturally 
 to the old practice of coupes cV ensemencement, and the preparation of 
 the ground for these fellings. 
 
 " A very light tillage, a simple scraping of the moss which spreads 
 over dry ground, the opening of strips or of furrows in the soil too 
 strongly covered with herbage or bushe3, suffices to ensure the 
 natural replenishing of fellings with a little delay. 
 
136 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " The replenishings thus obtained are not generally so thick and 
 so good as can be obtained by hand sowing ; but they offer many 
 important advantages which these do not : in point of fact, the young 
 plants of the pin sylvestre are very robust, and grow with rapidity in 
 their first youth if they be rather sparsely sown ; their lower branches 
 display themselves, the foot of the trunk becomes thick and strong, 
 and by degrees the forest mass forms itself, and becomes so compact as 
 to give a very complete replenishing before arriving at the state of 
 gaulis. 
 
 " The natural sowings, probably because they are less dense, 
 escape almost entirely the grave evil of defoliation which generally 
 comes upon artificial sowings, and often retards their development 
 during many years. 
 
 " Finally, in despite of the advantage which may be had from 
 practising a great clearing amongst the saplings, the difficulty of 
 carrying out this delicate operation on an extensive scale prevents 
 recourse being had to it ; and the artificial sowings, too thick at the 
 first, do not present more when they arrive at the state of gaulis 
 than long weak stems, and often they have not a future because the 
 young pines are liable to bend or break under the weight of snow 
 or of hoar frost, on account of their branches being spread and their 
 leaves long, and also it may be from the snow often falling in large 
 flakes, and in great quantities at a time in the climate inhabited by 
 this tree ; hence it may be concluded that they will stand only a very 
 partial clearing. But this tree, after it has passed the stage of gaulis, 
 sustains but badly a dense mass : branches which cross each other 
 lose their leaves, and are not slow to perish ; the head of the tree, 
 instead of developing, becomes lanky, narrow, and, when this ab- 
 normal condition continues long, most of the tops become deformed, 
 the trunks themselves contract diseases, and the whole mass becomes 
 at times unfit to attain an advanced age or fine dimensions. To 
 prevent this last and grave inconvenience, without at the same time 
 exposing the young pine forest to being destroyed by the snow, the 
 most certain method, the efficacy of which has been tested by ex- 
 perience, consists in executing the first thinning, contrary to the 
 general theory, while the wood is still in the state of thicket at the 
 time when the lowermost branches begin to dry, and in carrying 
 this out unsparingly. In point of fact, it may come to pass in this 
 way that the produce so abundant in the first youth of a pine forest, 
 may find itself restricted or at least diminished ; but this incon- 
 venience will only be temporary, till the remaining stems, having 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 137 
 
 more room to extend their branches, in a short time give to the 
 ground a thick cover, while, on the other hand, they form a fine 
 conical head, such as ensures a good ultimate growth, and at the 
 same time a stem more thick and short, and strong enough to bear 
 up under the weight of the snow. 
 
 "The subsequent thinnings ought to succeed each other at 
 moderate times apart, which will have effect of rendering them less 
 productive ; but in their entirety they will yield more, and exercise 
 on the vegetation of the stems, destined to grow to the completion 
 of the cycle, the salutary influence for which such thinnings are 
 designed. 
 
 " The wood of the pin sylvestre is used both in building and in 
 manufactures, as balks, beams, boards, planks, staves, shingles, etc. 
 When it has attained its maturity it is considered as solid and as 
 durable as that of the oak. In ship carpentry and wooden bridge 
 building it is used as flooring ; and it is almost the only tree of which 
 masts are made. For this use it is obtained in France from the 
 north of Europe. It is only in the higher regions of the principal 
 mountain ranges, where the growth is slow, and the ligneous fibre very 
 dense, that there is a hope of timber being produced of the degree of 
 suppleness and elasticity required for masts. And attention is being 
 given to the seeking out sheltered spots in these regions where the 
 tree will be comparatively safe from snow-loads and hoar-frosts, with 
 a view to the cultivation of forest masses destined to meet this 
 important public requirement.* 
 
 " The firewood furnished by this tree is very superior to what is 
 supplied by some others of the coniferae ; and charcoal produced by 
 it is in demand for forges. 
 
 " The pin sylvestre produces one portion of the pitch and tar made 
 use of in the French navy. 
 
 " It is the stumps and roots which yield most of this, which is 
 abstracted by subjecting them in furnaces to a slow and gradual 
 distillation. 
 
 "The wood thus deprived of resinous matters is reduced to a 
 charcoal which is used for various purposes. And there are in many 
 countries very productive contract sales of the stumps of this tree, 
 with the privilege to erect such furnaces. 
 
 * A valuable memoir on this subject by MM. Bravais and Martins appeared 
 in the second volume of the Annates Forestieres, 1843, pp. 369-561. 
 
138 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 " In some localities marauders have a practice of cutting deeply 
 notches in the trunk of the tree to remove some portions richly 
 charged with resin which they recognise by a deep yellow colour, and 
 by a strong odour which is exhaled. These portions cut into small 
 pieces are very inflamable, and are sold in place of matches and fire 
 quickeners. It is scarcely necessary to say that this practice is most 
 prejudicial to the trees." 
 
 The authorities of the Forest School of Nancy give the following 
 instructions relative to the collection and preservation of the seeds .- 
 " The collecting of the cones should take place from the month of 
 November till that of March. When it is requisite to make great 
 provision for sowings this should be done as soon as they have 
 attained maturity ; in other cases it is preferable not to collect them 
 until after the cold, as the nearer this action approaches to the period 
 of natural dispersion of the seed, with the greater facility is this 
 extracted. 
 
 " The extraction of the seed may be effected either by solar or arti- 
 ficial heat, but the former is preferable, as thus are obtained seeds of 
 a superior quality ; but the latter is more generally employed, as it is 
 more expeditious and better admits of making collections in great 
 quantities." 
 
 Hartig, the father of Modern Forest Science in Germany, has 
 given a description of the arrangements adopted in such cases, of 
 which the following is a translation : 
 
 " There is used an apartment in the lower storey of a stone 
 building. There are placed in such an apartment one or more stoves, 
 fitted up with grates that they may be heated by the combustion of 
 emptied cones ; and there proceed from these stoves a circuit of 
 pipes conveying heated air as in green-house, hot-house, or stove, 
 that in every part the room may be heated to a sufficient temperature. 
 In this hot-house there are constructed against the walls and in the 
 centre scaffolding on which may be placed trays of wooden lattice 
 work, or of wire work from 1 metre 66 centimetres, to 2 metres in 
 length by 82 centimetres in breadth, in stages of about 16 centi- 
 metres between. Under the lowest range of trays are placed drawers 
 to receive the seed. 
 
 " They then charge the trays with cones, and heat the stove to as 
 high a temperature as a man conveniently can stand, (20° to 25° R.) 
 £0° to 90° Fahr." ; and Cotta, who followed Hartig, says that the 
 
DESCRIPTION OP SEOHERIES. 139 
 
 temperature may be raised to 30°=100° Fahr., or even 35 =112° 
 Fahr., without injury to the germinative power of the seed. "This heat 
 is maintained until the cones open, they are then stirred or shaken 
 briskly in all the trays, commencing with the highest series, that 
 the seeds may fall from tray to tray till they reach the drawers 
 under the lowest tier. To facilitate this shaking of the trays, they 
 have been made moveable on rollers in two grooves, so that, by pulling 
 and pushing the tray, all the cones contained in it may be easily 
 moved. 
 
 " When all the cones have opened as extensively as possible they 
 are withdrawn, and the seeds still remaining in them are collected. 
 For this purpose they are placed in a vessel like a churn, in which 
 there is a suitable opening by which the seeds may pass and be 
 received into a vessel placed beneath. The cones are thus briskly 
 agitated until they are completely emptied of seeds, and the empty 
 cones are employed to feed the fire. 
 
 " When solar heat is to be employed, the scaffolding is supported 
 against the wall of a building on a southern exposure. On this the 
 trays are disposed at such a height between that the sun's rays may 
 fall on all, the highest and lowest alike. Under the lowest trays are 
 drawers, provided with coverings of thick cloth, that if rain fall the 
 seed may be easily covered and kept dry. 
 
 " The whole apparatus is covered with a light roof, the slope of 
 which is towards the north. 
 
 " When there is a powerful sun and great heat the cones are 
 shaken, commencing with the trays in the upper tiers, and proceeding 
 in regular succession to those of the lowest row ; and the seeds are 
 then collected in the drawer. At last, when it is considered that the 
 cones have opened as much as possible, they are taken away and put 
 in a churn such as has been described for the extraction of those seeds 
 which may remain in them." 
 
 MM. Parade, etc., say " that the apparatus employed in connection 
 with solar heat has been practically perfected by attaching to each 
 tray a moveable cover which is closed during the night, and when it 
 rains, and can be opened to varying extents according to the heat of 
 the sun. And that thi3 cover may better reflect the sun's rays upon 
 the cones, the lower surface is painted of a white colour or is varnished. 
 
 " To these houses constructed for the drying of seeds, the 
 designation Secheries is given in France. 
 
 " The Forest Administration of Forests in France has in the forest 
 
140 NATURAL HISTORY OP SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 of Haguenau (Bas-Rhin) an establishment of this kind, which annually 
 supplies seeds of the pine which are shed in the forests of the state. 
 
 " When it is desired to divest the seeds of their wings, they 
 moisten them, and after having put them into a sack, filling it only to 
 the extent of one fourth, they rub it until the wings are detached. 
 Then, after having spread them out in a well-aired place, to expedite 
 their desiccation, they are cleaned completely by means of a winnow- 
 ing fan. 
 
 " Moistening the seed may be avoided, which it is preferable to 
 do, by spreading out the sacks filled, as has been described, on a thrash- 
 ing floor, and thrashing with a flail to beat the seed. 
 
 " The divesting the seeds of wings is advantageous, as it facilitates 
 transport by diminishing both bulk and weight ; and further, seed so 
 treated sows better, and runs less risk of being dispersed by the 
 wind. But, in general, the seeds which have not been subjected to 
 this operation, especially such as are obtained in commerce, keep 
 better than those which have been so treated. In the establishments, 
 more especially those of Germany, where they prepare immense 
 quantities of seed for sale, they sometimes put the seed into a heap 
 after having well moistened it, and leave it there until, on the 
 insertion of the hand, there is felt a slight heat, and then the wing 
 may be detached with the greatest ease. It may readily be seen 
 that such a process pre-disposes the seed for germination ; and if the 
 sowing be delayed it may be found that there are a great many which 
 have lost their power of germination. 
 
 " The seed of this pine designed to be sown may be preserved for 
 three or four years ; but when this is to be done it should not be 
 divested of its wings. And it will be preserved still more certainly 
 if it be left enclosed in the cones, and if these be not gathered till 
 the end of winter. 
 
 " Seed of the pinus sylvestris, when of good quality, is firm and well 
 filled ; its smell on opening it is fresh and resinous. When crushed 
 on the nail, the small kernel leaves there a greasy substance with 
 an oleaginous smell. The seeds of the pine are black or white. 
 
 " A greater number of empty ones are to be found amongst the 
 latter than amongst the others. It may therefore be well, in purchasing 
 seed, if the white be in excess, to test them with the more care. 
 
 "Seed of the Scotch fir should weigh from 120 to 140 grammes 
 per litre if winged ; and from 440 to 500 grammes if divested of the 
 wing." 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 141 
 
 In regard to the sowing of the seed, the following are the 
 instructions given : " The seed may be sown on alternate bands, of 
 from 66 centimetres to a metre in breadth, or by placing a few seeds 
 each in a shallow hole somewhat sheltered, but not much shelter is 
 requisite. In southern slopes covered by heaths, on which the pine 
 is often sown, it is necessary to adopt a particular precaution in 
 preparing the soil, namely, to dig the bands or the holes to the layer 
 of soil below the blank soil found on the surface, and which is 
 generally designated heath soil [peat T\ In sowing the seed on heath 
 soil, which has no firmness, which is incapable of retaining moisture, 
 and which, from its colour, absorbs heat in a high degree, the seeds 
 almost always fail ; and frequently the heath soil contains an acid 
 principle which makes germination completely abortive. 
 
 " It is stated that this is acetic acid, and it has been proposed to 
 neutralise it by employing ecobuage, or burning the turf, which, by the 
 ashes which it produces, would accomplish this end. This operation 
 may suffice to prepare for the culture of certain plants which require 
 little moisture, and for the growth of such as return to the soil 
 almost the whole of the mineral elements of their structure, in such 
 a way as to mix with the layer of earth the mineralogical element 
 of the soil. But for forest trees it would not be the same, for in 
 abstracting from the ground one noxious principle, the ashes would 
 add to the lightness of the soil already too great, and to its 
 defective power of absorbing moisture from the air. 
 
 " The seeds ought not to be covered to a greater depth than from 
 4 to 6 millimetres ; it may even suffice to mix them with the earth 
 by means of a rake. Ordinarily the young plants appear at the end 
 of from four to six weeks, when the sowing has taken place in spring, 
 which is most advisable; but it also often happens when the seeds have 
 been too deeply buried, or too much heated in the extraction, that 
 they do not germinate till the second year. 
 
 " In some parts of Germany, where the seeds of the pine are very 
 abundant, they are accustomed to sow simply the cones in the bands, 
 or in the holes prepared for this purpose ; then, as the heat of spring 
 begins to act on the scales, they shake the cones roughly with a rake, 
 to cause the seeds to fall out and to distribute them as equally as 
 possible. This proceeding has first the advantage of saving the expense 
 of extraction and divesting the seeds of wings ; in the second place, 
 the seeds are generally of the best quality ; and the cones which cover 
 the soil may give some protection to the sprouting plants. But, on 
 the other hand, a portion of the seeds are lost, for they can never 
 
142 NATURAL HISTORY OP SOOTOH FIR. 
 
 succeed in getting all out from the cones ; they are not so equally 
 
 spread over the ground ; and the cones are more cumbersome 
 
 for transport. 
 
 " The quantity of seed to be employed for a partial sowing per 
 
 hectare are : 
 
 Winged seeds, ... ... 12 to 14 kilogrammes. 
 
 Seeds divested of wings, ... 9 to 11 „ 
 
 Cones, ... ... ... 18 to 20 hectolitres." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Natural History and General Culture of the Maritime Pine 
 in France. 
 
 Sect. I. — Commendation bestoived on the Maritime Pine. 
 
 The success which has followed the endeavours of M. Bremontier to 
 arrest and utilise the dunes and sand-drifts of the landes of Gascony, 
 by planting them with the pinus maritima, has led to the name of 
 this pine being closely associated with thoughts of these landes, not 
 only there, but in lands far remote, in which attention has been given 
 to the subject. 
 
 The growth of the maritime pine in France is not confined to 
 Gascony, but is carried out elsewhere as a temporary application of 
 sylviculture to prepare the soil for agriculture, or for the intro- 
 duction of trees better adapted to the climate, or to the wants of the 
 inhabitants of the country adjacent, or more remote. In some of the 
 districts in which this is done the trees do not attain so great an age 
 and size as they do on the landes of the Gironde and adjacent dunes. 
 This is the case on La Sologne, in the district of the Loire and the 
 Cher, where they generally have to be felled after a growth of 
 twenty years, at which age the trees may supply supports for tele- 
 graphic wires, and wood which may be applied to similar uses ; but 
 it is chiefly as firewood that the produce can command a sale, and 
 in such districts special attention has been given to the conversion of 
 these products into fuel. 
 
 M. Boitel says of the maritime pine : " The rapid growth of this 
 evergreen tree has made it a favourite with foresters. What other 
 tree becomes productive at seven or eight years of age, and even 
 then exhibits a strength and beauty which completely chauges the 
 aspect of the country by changing desert ground into a forest ! 
 
 " Add to these advantages that it thrives in light poor soil unfit 
 for any other purpose, and we can easily comprehend how much it is 
 prized. 
 
 " The forester of the Landes or of Sologne exhibits with pride 
 heaths turned into forests by the labour of his hands. So a desert 
 
144 NATURA.L HISTORY OP MARITIME PINE. 
 
 inhabited by a few wretched sheep has succeeded an immense timber 
 forest, supplying in abundance timber, firewood, and resinous sub- 
 stances. 
 
 " Many are the villages which owe their foundation to the intro- 
 duction of the maritime pine, before which there was a dearth of 
 timber and of firewood for baking the bricks and tiles, which are 
 indispensable for building purposes in a country devoid of means of 
 transport. 
 
 " I cannot enumerate here all the benefits to mankind rendered by 
 this tree; let it suffice to briefly notice some of the chief uses of the 
 tree. 
 
 " Immense sandy plains in Gascony, Orleanais, Touraine, and 
 Maine have become profitable through its culture. 
 
 " Certain cantons, formerly desert and uninhabited, owe their im- 
 provement to the maritime pine, which furnishes materials in- 
 dispensable for houses and workshops ; its timber and resin are 
 useful for domestic purposes ; the baker needs firewood, the painter 
 turpentine and varnish, and the sailor tar for ropes, timber and pitch 
 for bis vessels and boats ; and by this tree all these are supplied. 
 
 " On the sea-shore the growth of the Bordeaux pine is the only 
 means of arresting the invasion of the dunes, which, like an ocean of 
 sand with moving waves, lays waste the fields and carries misery and 
 desolation into important populous centres. 
 
 " Its protecting shelter from the caustic action of the salt winds 
 permits cultivation to be carried on in spots where this would other- 
 wise be impossible, and it withstands tempests better than any other 
 tree. 
 
 " The maritime pine is met with all over France \ in fertile ground 
 where it would be the reverse of profitable, it occupies an important 
 place in landscape gardening. 
 
 "To sum up, in cleared land it appears as the first symptom of 
 civilisation and progress, and is connected with one of the most 
 wonderful discoveries of the age, for with two of its relatives it shares 
 the privilege of supporting the wires, which in a second convey human 
 thought to the ends of the earth." 
 
 In another connection he writes thus on the same theme : 
 
 " The maritime pine is at home in Gascony, there it attains the 
 
 largest size, and, provided that sheep are absent, it ] multiplies 
 
 indefinitely when once introduced. Sologne does not suit it nearly 
 
 bo well, it suffers from the inclemency of the climate and the badness 
 
REMARKS BY BOITEL. 145 
 
 of the soil. "Without culture the pine would never have formed 
 forests in that district, and it may be asserted that the plantation 
 would soon disappear if they were not kept up artificially. This tree, 
 which lives for a hundred years in the south of France, often in 
 Sologne, reaches maturity at 25 or 30 years. This great difference 
 naturally involves important modifications of its culture and ex- 
 ploitation. 
 
 " The inhabitant of the Landes who can count on the longevity of 
 his pines, expects them to produce resin and timber, firewood being 
 only a secondary consideration. 
 
 " The Solognese, on the contrary, knowing that his pines are rarely 
 large enough for timber, or to be subjected to regular gemmage, values 
 them chiefly as firewood, Cotrets bourses, charcoal, and charcoal 
 powder are the most important productions in Sologne. Only here 
 and there do some woods situated in deep moist soil furnish trees 
 fit for the carpenter. 
 
 " Of late years, quantities of telegraph poles are supplied by Sologne, 
 for this purpose trees are required about the age of 20 or 25 years. 
 
 " Although wood that has not been tapped appears to last a shorter 
 time under water, not long ago some of the finest trees in Sologne 
 were selected to form piles as the basis of a new bridge lately built 
 at Mayenne. 
 
 " I am led to conclude, from some recent experiments, that 
 it would seem to be advantageous to tap the pines in Sologne, 
 especially those which are to be felled. 
 
 " Gemmage should be practised in Sologne with prudence and 
 circumspection. "We must remember that the tree so far north 
 generally lacks strength and vigour. 
 
 "Too great a gemmage practised on feeble, sickly trees would 
 certainly shorten their lives, and a loss of timber would result, for 
 which the resin obtained would not be compensation. 
 
 " Only trees on the point of being felled should be subjected to 
 the process. As to others, they should be let alone to grow before 
 it is attempted. 
 
 " So soon as the trees appear strong enough to support the operation 
 they should be carefully operated on, only one incision made on each 
 tree, and this incision a small one, this being essential to the health of 
 the tree." 
 
 M. Samanos, in the introduction to his Traite de la Culture du Pin 
 Maritime, says : " There has long been realised In the district of our 
 
146 NATURAL HISTORY OF MARITIME PINE. 
 
 landes the Importance of creating a plantation of the maritime pine ; 
 and yet, for all that, it may be said that but a few years separate 
 us from the time when the Landes of Gascony, veritable French 
 Savannahs, presented to the eye of the saddened traveller only a 
 picture of desolation and of death. Far as his eye could reach he 
 could see only heart-sickening monotony and gloom ; and it seemed 
 to him as if on this bare and naked land sterile Nature had cast her 
 heavy curse. 
 
 "While the whole of France elsewhere expanded herself under 
 the rays of progress, the Landes remained there — always uncultivated 
 and unproductive — always immersed in their unmeasured sadness — 
 giving shade in the brilliant picture of the fruitful conquests of 
 civilisation, and presenting to all men the great and gruesome 
 spectacle of a fatal neglect ; for, as Viscount Izarn-Freissinet remarks, 
 in his Coup d'ozil sur les Landes de Gascogne — ' parce que tout y etait 
 cb faire, rien riy a ete fait.' Because everything in connection with 
 it had to be done — nothing at all in connection with it has been done. 
 
 " Such neglect and such abandonment of the land could not last 
 always. There came at length the day when societies were formed 
 for the clearing and cultivation of these lanies. But those who 
 took the direction of the measures to be adopted were mainly imbued 
 with notions essentially and exclusively agricultural. They wished to 
 establish on a grand scale the culture of vegetables which the 
 geological conditions of our sand-wastes could not support. They 
 were foiled. Advancing with giant steps they landed themselves 
 the more precipitately in ruin, and they were forced to stop, buried 
 as they were under the weight of failure, so much the more over- 
 whelming that it was unexpected. 
 
 " Behold then once more our landes abandoned and uncultivated 
 and alone in their immensity ; they seemed to be for the future 
 doomed to everlasting sterility. 
 
 " But if there had been a want of success it was the fault of man, 
 not of the landes. To change all that, it was only necessary to act 
 more wisely. This has been done, and now it has come about that 
 the four hundred thousand hectares of these desolate landes have 
 become four hundred thousand hectares of young and vigorous 
 forests. Almost everywhere the plough has produced its furrows, 
 and the hand of man has stocked these savage deserts with maritime 
 pines, which will become for the country a fruitful source of wealth, 
 and supply some day the wants of the whole of France. 
 
 " Writings on the maritime pine were for a time quite the rage. 
 
CRITIQUE BY SAMANOS. 147 
 
 Societies being formed for the clearing and sowing of the landes it 
 was needful to give instructions to the sharehollers or capitalists of 
 these companies, and show to them the great advantages which they 
 might derive from this — to make palpable to them the supposition 
 which might engage them to lay out on uncultivated aud arid lands 
 money, of which the interest would be invested on their hopeful 
 promises — to remove from their minds the unwarranted prejudices 
 which seemed to exist against our landes, and to prevent their 
 receiving the attention they deserved ; and it was necessary, in fine, 
 for the success of the enterprises, that by descriptions, always 
 exaggerated, our country should be shown to be another Louisiana, 
 which should be exploited by another law. And this is what our 
 economists have done. The question relating to the improvement of 
 our landes was almost always treated of by men to whom a creative 
 imagination supplemented the lowest modicum of knowledge in regard 
 to the forest culture of our maritime pine ; and these, seizing with 
 itching hand the pen dipped in vapouring exaggerations, extolled 
 the sterile plains which they described, and, by aid of subtile logic, 
 they insinuated into the ideas of their readers ideas which had only 
 for the greater part of the time absurd and incoherent foundations. 
 "With them our maritime pine was the veritable tree bearing apples 
 of gold." 
 
 To expose the fallaciousness of these writings he cites some passages, 
 for which, says he, common sense alone may supply pitiless refutations. 
 
 Delamarre thus writes (Traite de la culture des pins a grandes 
 dimensions; page 306; third edition): "The culture of pines 
 supplies the means of acquiring wealth. As the proprietor of unculti- 
 vated grounds, a hundred Parisian arpents for example (correspond- 
 ing to thirty-four hectares) in extent, more or less unfit for every 
 other crop, may, by a moderate advance of two or three thousand 
 francs, and such attention as should be a work of pleasure, may 
 flatter himself, not only to be reimbursed the outlay, capital, and 
 interest in some ten, twelve, or fifteen years, but of obtaining from it 
 from the first pretty considerable profits, and ultimately, in some 
 fifty or sixty years from the commencement of the enterprise, a 
 wealth to be reckoned by millions for himself, and perhaps as much 
 for those whom, from the very nature of the undertaking, he will 
 find he has associated with himself in the maguificent and honourable 
 benefit which he has given ; for even in localities in which the price 
 of wood does not exceed twenty sous per cubic foot, his personal 
 benefit should exceed fiftee n hundred thousand francs." 
 
148 NATURAL HISTORY OF MARITIME PINE. 
 
 And again in the same work he writes, (page 289) : " Thus 
 one may say explicitly that in maritime pines the creator of woods 
 is more than remunerated his advances, that he is even, in the benefits 
 obtained during twelve years, reimbursed his first advances. I might 
 even say that he is so within from eight to nine years ; for, in the 
 examples I have given, the net produce of the two first thinnings 
 executed, the one at seven years and the other at eight years from 
 the sowing, has been three hundred francs, while at this moment the 
 advances, capital, and interest, have not come to this amount." 
 
 Such statements M. Samanos ridicules, and goes on to say: "J. 
 L. Crinon, in his work bearing the title le Forestier praticien, (page 
 50) writes in these terms : ' I see amongst these, pines which would 
 measure from ten to fourteen cubic decisteres, and which have not 
 been planted more than from forty-five to fifty years. These trees on 
 an average scarcely occupy twenty-five centiares of ground. If we 
 estimate their value at forty francs each — they cannot be less than 
 this in value — and, reckon that there are to be found four hundred of 
 them in a hectare, we shall find that a hectare planted in pines 
 will avail for seventeen thousand francs worth of wood, after from 
 fifty to sixty years ! What is the kind of wood which offers like 
 advantages to this 1 ' " 
 
 " Evidently," says M. Samanos, "it has not an equal ! " But he says 
 it ironically, and goes on to say : 
 
 " I might go on to cite a host of opinions by many authors, such as 
 Emile Beres, Baudrillard, Ballet-Petit, etc, all marked by numerous 
 errors. 
 
 " 'Although the value of these woods,' said, in 1826, M. Bilaudel to 
 the shareholders, ' varies according as the situation is more or less 
 near to the cultivated lands, still, and that according to calculations 
 in which there is nothing taken for granted, there is not even in the 
 actual state of things any speculation in agriculture more sure and 
 more probable than this is.' " 
 
 All such statements M. Samanos condemns. I cite them as views 
 which have been advanced, founded it may be upon isolated cases, 
 but I cite them with the qualification of the critique by M. Samanos, 
 whose treatise is valued highly by my correspondents in France. 
 
 Sect. II.— General Culture and Exploitation of the Maritime Pine. 
 
 The maritime pine, so exclusively cultured on the landes of the 
 Gironde, is nearly allied to the Spardenny, or cluster pine (Pinus 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 149 
 
 pinaster), grown at the Cape of Good Hope, and they have several 
 characterstics in common. By some these trees are considered 
 varieties of one species. 
 
 Much valuable information in regard to the natural history and 
 artificial culture of this tree is given in the volume just cited by 
 M. Eloi Samanos, Memhre de la Sociite $ Agriculture des Landes* 
 But the treatment of the subject in that volume is complete in itself; 
 and I deem it more expedient to refer the student to this in its 
 entirety than to cite passages apart from the connection in which 
 they occur ; and I give here information I have gleaned from other 
 sources. 
 
 The following is the information embodied in the " Cours eUmen- 
 taire de Cidtxire de Bois," at the School of Forestry at Nancy : 
 
 " Le Pin Maritime, the maritime pine (Pinus maritima, Lamarh) 
 forms portions of considerable forests in the Landes in Provence, in 
 Languedoc, and in Corsica. 
 
 " Climate, Situation, and Exposure. — Although this tree belongs 
 more especially to warm climates, it is nevertheless cultivated 
 successfully in the western Departments of France ; but if it be 
 exposed to frosts it does not live long, and the wood is worthless, 
 its height and size are curtailed, and its usefulness is impaired. 
 This is the case with sowings of it made at Fontainbleau, and in the 
 suburbs or neighbourhood of Paris. There is no doubt that the 
 maritime pine could not be acclimatised if planted farther north, as it 
 is very sensitive to cold. 
 
 " In a suitable temperature it thrives on plains, on hills, or even on 
 mountains of medium height. Its tap-root and lateral roots give it a 
 strong hold of the ground, and enable it to resist storms which make 
 it so much the more useful on the sea-shore, where it is planted 
 extensively. 
 
 " Soil. — The maritime pine will grow on poor soil provided there be 
 depth enough. It will even thrive very well on pure quartz sand, 
 such as is brought down by rivers or heaped up on the sea-shore. 
 Stiff and marshy soils are injurious to it. 
 
 " Flower and Fruit. — The blossom is moncoceous, It flowers in 
 March and April in the South of France, and in May in more temperate 
 regions. The seed is larger than that of the Scotch fir, and is furnished 
 with a wing proportionate to its size ; it is ripe about the same time 
 as that seed, and it also falls at the same season. 
 
 * Tr aite de la Culture da Pin Maritime. 
 
150 ' NATURAL HISTORY OP MARITIME PINE. 
 
 " The fertility of this tree is extraordinary ; it bears fruit almost 
 every year, beginning at the age of twelve or fifteen, sometimes earlier ', 
 to ensure, however, the goodness of this, seed should always be 
 collected from older trees. 
 
 " Young Plants. — The maritime pine is hardy from the first ; and 
 all prolonged shelter is hurtful. It is only on the burning dunes of 
 Gascony, and in the warm exposures of the south of France, that shelter 
 is needed for the first few years. 
 
 " Foliage. — Although the leaves of the maritime pine are very long 
 they only cast a feeble shade. They fall in the third year like those 
 of the Scotch fir. 
 
 " Roots. — This tree has a tap-root which buries itself deeply in the 
 ground ; it has besides creeping roots which all along their length 
 throw out long tap-roots; this tendency, along with its rapid growth, 
 makes it very suitable for binding the moving sand on the Dunes. 
 
 " Growth and Length of Life. — The maritime pine grows very rapidly 
 and it attains a large size. In one district of the Dunes of Gascony, 
 where the soil is deep and nutritious, several trees, from which the 
 resin has not been extracted, are to be seen about from 27 to 30 
 metres in height by about 2, 3, and 4 in circumference, at the height 
 of one metre above the ground. The size is well proportioned and the 
 trees have a cylindrical form. They reach an age of 150, or 170, 
 years without showing symptoms of decay. We may therefore believe 
 that the maritime pine may reach an age of 200 in suitable soil. 
 
 " Qualities and Uses. — The wood of the maritime pine is considered 
 inferior to that of the Scotch fir and many other resinous trees. But 
 it is not the less made use of for various structures. In dock-yards 
 it is made into props and stays to support vessels during the process 
 of building. It is also sold for vine props and planks. 
 
 "The firewood and charcoal of this pine are of indifferent quality. 
 
 " We may, however, be deceived regarding the value of the mari- 
 time pine. In order to the formation of an authoritative judgment, 
 it ought above all things to be grown in suitable conditions of soil and 
 climate, and to be treated according to the best methods of exploi- 
 tation, besides which, it should be protected from pruning and the 
 extraction of resin. 
 
 " Now, in the department of the Gironde and of the landes, this 
 extraction, called gemmage, and gemmer, has been carried on on the 
 Dunes for several centuries ; and in districts elsewhere called landes, 
 where the soil is usually poor and gemmage uufrequent, the maritime 
 pine is exploited when very young, either for joiners' work, or for trel- 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OP FORESTRY. 151 
 
 licing vines. In both these cases it is therefore impossible to know 
 accurately the qualities of this tree. 
 
 " The process employed in order to extract the resinous juice of 
 this tree will give an idea of the injury thus inflicted. Gemmage is 
 usually begun when the tree is twenty-five years old, and goes on 
 from April till September. The first thing is to remove a strip of 
 bark from 12 to 16 centimetres in breadth, extending from the foot 
 of the tree to a height of from 33 to 50 centimetres. The incision is 
 deep enough to cut through the alburnum, for the resinous juice 
 issues chiefly from the ligneous trunk, and from between the bark 
 and the wood. Every week the wound is re-opened. These incisions 
 in following years are carried upward to a height of from 4 to 5 
 metres. A new incision at the root of the same tree is then begun. 
 It is parallel to the first, from which it is separated only by a width 
 of from 5 to 6 centimetres ; it, as well as later incisions, extends to 
 the same height. These incisions are carried all round the tree, and 
 are called quarres. 
 
 " This method of gemmage is the most gentle ; it is called gemmage 
 h vie. When it is wished to go to greater lengths two incisions are 
 made simultaneously, one at the top the other at the foot, the first 
 is called quarre haute, the second basson. Sometimes incisions are 
 made all round the tree at the same time. This operation is called 
 gemmer d, mort, or a pin perdxi. Up to the present time the maritime 
 pine is chiefly cultivated for its resinous juice, which furnishes 
 articles of undoubted value, consisting of turpentine, pitch, tar, and 
 lamp-black. As a source of revenue there is no doubt that the 
 present mode of exploitation is the most profitable, and is therefore 
 quite justifiable. But in the departments of Giroude and the Landes 
 they go further, and assert that the maritime pine, if it is to be of 
 any use at all, ought to be resine. It is even affirmed, despite of 
 examples quoted to the contrary, that the extraction of the resin is 
 indispensable for its prosperity and even its existence. 
 
 " "We may easily see that gemmage must interfere injuriously with 
 the growth of the tree. Nature has not given it a resinous juice for 
 nothing, and this juice, independent of the sap, seems, in combination 
 with the latter, to promote nutrition and growth. As a proof of this, 
 when pines which have been gemme are felled, they exhibit very 
 narrow annual layers, which bear witness to a retarded growth, whilst 
 the opposite has been seen in pines which, without having been 
 gemme', have grown in precisely similar conditions ; but it has been 
 ascertained that the timber of resinous trees is more solid, and has 
 
152 NATURAL HISTORY OF MARITIME PINE. 
 
 more resisting power, in proportion as the layers are close and 
 compact. Farther, gemmage promotes an active current of turpen- 
 tine from the centre to the circumference, which leaves a considerable 
 quantity of concrete resin behind in the wood tissues which it has 
 traversed. It can thus be understood that gemmage, by retarding the 
 growth, imparts at the same time to the wood qualities which it would 
 only in a state of nature have acquired at a much greater age." 
 
 In regard to semis, or sowings of the maritime pine, it is stated 
 generally that these have to be conducted in every respect as are 
 sowings of the pirum sylvestris, or Scotch fir ; and the following 
 details are given in regard to the pinus maritima : 
 
 " Examination of the Seed. — The seed of this pine is much larger 
 than that of the Scotch fir ; it is grey or brown upon one side, and 
 shining black on the other ; otherwise it possesses the same character- 
 istics as the seed of the Scotch fir. 
 
 " Putting in the Seed. — All the various methods of cultivation with 
 which we are acquainted are applicable to the maritime pine. The 
 plough is usually employed for preparing the earth, and the harrow 
 for covering the seed ; the seed being larger requires to be covered 
 with a greater depth of earth. 
 
 " The quantity of seed employed per hectare varies much. In 
 Sologne, for example (as reported by M. A. Brongniart), for a full 
 sowing, about 10 to 20 kilogrammes are used. The difference is 
 owing doubtless to the quality of the seed, or it may be according 
 as the trees are to be close together, or the reverse. We think 
 that from 15 to 18 kilogrammes of seed with the wings on, and 12 
 to 14 kilogrammes of seed with the wings off, will be enough, bearing 
 in mind that the seed of the maritime pine is usually of very 
 good quality. For partial sowings these quantities should be 
 diminished by one third. 
 
 " The maritime pine has been cultivated much more extensively 
 lately in several districts in the west and centre of France on account 
 of the peculiar products of this tree. But it is more especially in 
 the Landes and in the La Gironde that it is of chief importance. It 
 is well known that in these departments along the sea-shore from the 
 mouth of the Gironde to that of the Adour, there extends a district 
 called the Dunes of the Gulf of Gascony, which occupies an area of 
 about 240 kilometres in length, by an average breadth of 5 kilometres. 
 The soil of this district, composed exclusively of a very fine quartzose 
 sand deposited on the strand by the waves, becomes so light when 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVES IN SCHOOL OP FORESTRY. 153 
 
 dry that the winds carry it to a great distance. The smallest obstacle, 
 such as a little hillock of soil, a tree, some tufts of broom, or of bent 
 grass (arundo aremria) are enough to stop the sand ; it then 
 accumulates much faster and forms larger heaps than when deposited 
 by the waves, as the winds blow for a long time in the same 
 direction. Such is the origin of the Dunes, of which the height and 
 form vary like the conditions which have created them. Some are 
 to be found from 20 to 30 and even 50 or 100 metres in height. 
 
 " It is by a mixed system of wicker-work barriers and reboisement 
 with maritime pines that the inroads of the sand which threatened 
 the neighbouring communes have been nearly everywhere arrested ; 
 and it is one of the triumphs of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussees, to 
 whom the Government entrusted this great and important work, and 
 who have not only completed the undertaking, but they have by 
 degrees improved and simplified the work and operations required, 
 and have thus brought it within the power of any one to carry on 
 similar work elsewhere." 
 
 To render intelligible to those who are unacquainted with the 
 more advanced system of forest management followed on the 
 Continent of Europe, the additional statements to be made, it may be 
 well for me to state, that it differs considerably from the arboriculture 
 which is generally practised in Britain, and from the Jardinage, and 
 Sartage, practised in British Colonies and in the United States of 
 America, and to supply here the following information in regard to it ; 
 and to repeat in substance what I have already said in speaking of 
 the culture of the Scotch fir : 
 
 In the general management of forests on the Continent, in accord- 
 ance with the most advanced forest science, three things are aimed 
 at, and so far as practicable each is sought to be attained without 
 detriment to either of the others : the sustained production, natural 
 reproduction, and progressive amelioration of the forest. In prosecu- 
 tion of this there is determined, according as quantity, quality, or 
 pecuniary profit may be mainly sought, at what age the trees shall 
 mostly be felled. This in French is spoken of as the exploitability 
 of the woods. But before this age is attained there are several 
 successive thinnings executed, each with a special object, in accordance 
 with which it has a specific designation. 
 
 The wood being the product of natural reproduction, or self-sown 
 seed, there is often required a thinning out of the seedlings . This is 
 known as the coupe d'ensemencement. 
 
 There may be required one or more successive thinnings as the 
 
154 NATURAL HISTORY OF MARITIME PINE. 
 
 growth of the tree advances. These are known as coupes d'ameliora- 
 tion. There are subsequently thinnings executed to leave sufficient 
 ground cleai-ed and open for the reception of seed cast from the trees 
 left standing. These are designated coupes de regeneration. After 
 which follows the final felling, or coup definitive, in which only trees 
 required to give shade to the young seedlings, etc., are left standing. 
 But there are exceptional cases, in which artificial sowing is deemed 
 preferable. In these cases coupes de regeneration are not necessary, 
 and the coupe definitive takes the form of a clean sweep, known in 
 technical phrase as la coupe a blanc etoc. 
 
 In regard to the treatment of the maritime pine, the instruc- 
 tions given at Naucy are in several points founded on those given in 
 regard to the exploitation of the Scotch fir. 
 
 In these instructions we meet with the two terms coupes de regenera- 
 tion and coupe d 'amelioration, in addition to the similar designations 
 formerly explained. The former of these designations is applied to 
 all the fellings or thinnings to which the forest may be subjected in 
 the course of its reproduction ; and the latter is applied to fellings or 
 thinnings carried out with a view to the improvement of the forest in 
 any way. 
 
 The corresponding instructions given in regard to the treatment 
 of the maritime pine are these : 
 
 " Exploitability. — To ascertain what size this tree may attain, and 
 at what period its exploitability should be fixed, it must first be 
 cultivated without any injury being done to its growth, for until we 
 gain light from experience we can only judge by analogy. 
 
 " Trees which grow rapidly when young generally attain their 
 maximum development sooner than do others. This is particularly 
 true of the maritime pine. Nevertheless, in the south, where the 
 climate is favourable, it continues to increase in size for a long time, 
 and on this account it ought not to be exploited for 100 or 120 years, 
 according to the nature of the soil, that the timber may acquire the 
 desired solidity for building and other purposes. 
 
 " Of course, in adopting this revolution, gemmage is not permissible. 
 
 " Coupes de regeneration. — The maritime pine never having as yet 
 been subjected to systematic culture, the method to be followed is 
 uncertain. But from the nature of the seed, the constitution of the 
 young plant, and the arrangement of the roots, we may conclude that 
 it ought to be exploited in the same way as the Scotch fir. At the 
 same time, at the coupe d'ensemencement there may be left fewer plants 
 as this pine is better able to resist the wind. Indeed, the seed is a 
 
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 155 
 
 little larger and heavier than that of the Scotch fir, but the mem- 
 braneous wing is also larger, which favours its dispersion to a distance. 
 The secondary coupe will be unnecessary, on account of the hardy 
 constitution of the young plant and the extreme rapidity of its growth, 
 which lead us to believe that the coupe definitive should follow the 
 coupe aVensemencement as soon as possible, that is to say, in the year 
 after the repewplement, or within two years at the latest. 
 
 " Coupes d' amelioration. — What we have said on this head regarding 
 the Scotch fir, equally applies to the maritime pine. The first 
 thinning should be expedited on account of the rapidity of its growth, 
 aud the intervals between those which follow should be abridged. 
 
 " The rules we have laid down for the exploitation are only 
 applicable when the trees are not subjected to gemmage. When trees 
 are to be gemme these rules should be modified. For, on the one 
 hand this operation diminishes the growth and shortens the life of 
 the tree, and on the other it is not timber, but resin which becomes 
 the chief product of the forest. The first circumstance renders much 
 shorter revolutions necessary ; the other, that the thinnings should be 
 made at very short intervals, according to a method practised in the 
 south of France, of which an account has been given. 
 
 " It being evidently the interest of the proprietor to hasten the 
 period of gemmage as much as possible, it is of great consequence to 
 promote the growth of the stem and summit in every way. For this 
 end the young trees are thinned for the first time, at the age of seven, 
 and afterwards the operation is repeated every six years until they are 
 twenty-five years old, at which age they are supposed to have attained 
 a suitable size. In these operations the pines are isolated by degrees. 
 After the two first fellings the mass, although thinned, should still be 
 preserved so as to promote the development of height ; but after the 
 third the number of trunks is reduced to 700 or 800 per hectare ; 
 and after the fourth only 500 remain; five years later these are again 
 reduced to 400. The 100 trees doomed to fall in the fifth thinning 
 are gemmes a mort, between the fourth and that, the others are 
 gemmes a vie. 
 
 " These 400 pines remain standing from thirty to sixty years, and 
 are gemmes every five years. At the expiry of sixty years, 100 trees 
 are marked to be gemmes a mort, and are then cut down, while the 300 
 still remaining stand until the final coupe at the end of seventy or 
 eighty years, sometimes of one hundred years, according to the state 
 of the timber and the quality of the soil. 
 
 " We have already described how coupes de regeneration should be 
 
156 NATURAL HISTORY OP MARITIME PINE. 
 
 made. But it is believed that usually la coupe a blanc etoc, followed 
 by artificial sowing, will be preferred. Indeed, in both systems 
 the plough is indispensable, for, on account of the great distance 
 between the pines, the ground cannot fail to be covered with all sorts 
 of bushes and weeds ; besides, the seed of the maritime pine costs very 
 little and is easily gathered and winnowed, the quality is almost 
 always good, and the sowings succeed well ; everything tends to make 
 the artificial way the preferable." 
 
 Both in the treatise by M. Eloi Samanos,* and in that by M. Am6de 
 Boitel,t are given details in regard to the culture and exploitation of 
 the maritime pine in Gascony, and in regard to the general culture 
 of it elsewhere, additional to what has been given in this volume, 
 inclusive of what relates to the gemmage or collection of the resinous 
 sap, and the distillation and manufacture of the different products 
 yielded by it. 
 
 * TraiU de la Culture du Pin Maritime. 
 t Mise en valeur des Terrea Pauvres par le Pin Maritime. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Diseases and Injurious Influences to which the Maritime Pine 
 is Subject. 
 
 Sect. I. — Choking by an Over-growth of Local Vegetation. 
 
 Besides failures in the culture of the maritime pine, attributable to 
 bad seed, and to unsuitable soil, it often succumbs to other injurious 
 influences, which operate, not always singly and alone, but in com- 
 bination, and one preparing the way for another. It suffers from 
 cold, from hail, from snow, and from wind. When the tap-root comes 
 upon a subterranean sheet of water, a layer of compact clay, or 
 rocks somewhat coherent and continuous, it becomes covered with 
 mosses and lichens, and it languishes, and dies ; and yet subterranean 
 aridity is not less opposed to its healthy growth. 
 
 In Sologne, where the natural shrubs are destructive to young 
 seedlings, the precaution is taken of sowing the seed on newly cleared 
 land ; and recourse is had to some of the usages of husbandry, and 
 the growth of annual crops, effective in themselves or their culture 
 in cleaning the land, to destroy the noxious plants which might 
 defile the ground to be converted into pineries. 
 
 M. Vilmorin has recorded that in his experience the couch grass, 
 and some other of the grasses, such as the agrostis stolonifera, marsh 
 bent grass, the holcus mollis, creeping soft grass, the agrostis vulgaris, 
 fine bent grass, and many species of festuca, or fesque grass, may so 
 take possession of the ground as to prove destructive to the young 
 produce of sowings of pine trees ; and in Sologne the growth of 
 bromus, or brome grass, starves and kills the seedlings of the mari- 
 time pine, while in Gascony the broom is sown with this pine to 
 shelter and protect it in infancy against the sunshine and the sea 
 breezes ; but there the seedling pines are stifled by a vigorous growth 
 of heaths, such as the erica cinerea, the fine leaved heath, and calluna 
 vulgaris, the ling or heather of Scotland. 
 
 Sect. II. — Destructive ravages by Birds, and Squirrels, and Insects. 
 
 Many birds, remarks Boitel, are destructive or injurious by eat- 
 
158 INJUKIES TO MARITIME PINE. 
 
 ing up seed not completely covered ; and the squirrels which abound 
 in pine woods gnaw the cones and destroy the seed while it is yet on 
 the tree. But these do also still greater damage, by eating away the 
 bark near the sprout, whereby not only is the growth arrested, but 
 the stem enfeebled at this point is often broken across by the wind. 
 But, contrary to what occurs in Sologne and some other districts in 
 which the tree is of feeble growth, and the ravages of the squirrel are 
 most detrimental, in some places on the coast, where the growth is 
 luxuriant, the finest trees are found on places where the squirrel 
 abounds. This is attributed to their destroying the cones which are 
 so abundant as to enfeeble trees by their production, and these being 
 destroyed, the vigour, which otherwise might have gone out in pro- 
 vision for reproduction, is directed to the self-development of the 
 tree. Sheep also are destructive to young seedlings, by browsing on 
 the sprout and the more tender buds; this is the work of a few 
 seconds, but the seedling, deprived of the sprout on the main shoot, 
 remains ever after irregular in its growth, stunted and bushy. 
 
 But the most destructive effects are found to be connected with 
 the appearance of certain insects on the trees. It is open to question, 
 however, whether these insects be the cause or the effect of the evil 
 done, or whether, as I think not unlikely, judging from what I have 
 seen in similar cases, with other insects and other trees, their increase 
 be not a result of disease, and the cause or occasion of death. Under 
 the ravages of insects sometimes whole forests suffer, and the entire 
 destruction of all the woods in a province seems imminent, while 
 man is powerless to arrest the evil; and the maritime pine, like other 
 trees, is subject to such damage. 
 
 M. Perris, of Mont-de-Marsan, in the Landes, an eminent French 
 entomologist, who for years found occupation in observing the habits 
 and transformations of insects which there prey upon this tree, so 
 early as 1864 had recorded in the Annates de la Societe entomologique 
 of France, that upwards of 120 species of insects live upon it 
 parasitically. 
 
 Certain of these insects attack the leaves or the terminal buds of 
 shoots, and so produce physiological effects, which enfeeble the tree, 
 and induce a state of disease. Amongst these are the caterpillars of 
 the Bombyx pityocampa, of the Tortrix buoliana, and of the Hylurgus 
 piniperda. Others attack the wood, and betake themselves to the 
 wood and the bark. Amongst these are the Tomicus stenographies, 
 laricis and bidens, the Melanophila tarda, and the Pissodes notattis. It 
 is alleged to be indisputable that the former class attack trees in a 
 
RAVAGES BY INSECTS. 159 
 
 state of health ; it is in regard to some, if not all, of the latter class 
 alone, that there is any question. 
 
 " Authors," says M. Perris,* " seem generally disposed to admit 
 that insects, the larvae of which are developed in the trees, while 
 they are yet growing, are the primary cause of the death of these. 
 There has thus been attributed to the Pissodes notatus the loss of an 
 immense quantity of pines, which covered, in 1835, 190 hectares of 
 the forest of Rouvray. 
 
 " The Marquis of Chambray, in his beautiful woi'k on the resinous 
 trees, speaks of an insect of the genus Bostriche, which, when it in- 
 creases in great quantities, can destroy entire forests of the maritime 
 pine. We read in the Histoire de V administration en France, par 
 A.nthelme Costaz, t. I., p. 248, that in the seveuteeuth aud eighteeuth 
 centuries the pine forests of Germany were so ravaged by the scolyte 
 that the Hanoverian province of the Hartz feared a total loss of fuel, 
 and was delivered from the fear mainly by the effects of several cold 
 and wet winters, which caused the insects to perish in great numbers. 
 
 " As for myself," says he, " I cannot admit that these insects are 
 the primary cause of the death of the trees which they attack, and in 
 fifteen years, during which I have, without intermission, studied their 
 habits in one of the best wooded countries in France, I have observed 
 a sufficiency of facts to justify me in expressing my opinion, which is, 
 that insects in general (not including those which attach themselves 
 solely to the foliage, as miners, etc.) do not attack those trees which 
 are in good health, but they only address themselves to those whose 
 health and functions have suffered, from some cause or other j" and 
 he subsequently expresses it as his painful conviction, that lignivorous 
 insects are only to be dreaded by sickly trees. They are like some 
 mosses and lichens which only attach themselves to enfeebled trees, 
 while healthy, well-growing trees, preserve a smooth bark, and 
 repulse these vegetable parasites. 
 
 " In the department of the Landes," says he,']" where we reckon the 
 pine trees by millions, I have never witnessed, and tradition has not 
 preserved the recollection of a single case of these forest razzias which 
 have afflicted other countries. Now the pine is exposed to a crowd of 
 enemies, aud the number of individuals of the most injurious of these 
 is incalculable, and yet it is but seldom the case that one of those trees 
 perishes, aud I have still to find one which has been actually killed 
 
 * Annal Soc. Ent. France, 2mo Series, X, 513. 
 
160 INJURIES TO THE MARITIME PINE. 
 
 by insects. This comes about, according to my views, from this : the 
 maritime pine being there in its true home, it there developes itself with 
 vigour, then lives in good health, and thus braves the innumerable 
 enemies which surround it, 
 
 " But let the pines become sickly through the effect of a hail storm, 
 or of an insect having destroyed the leaves or the bud, and when, 
 in consequence of the sickliness affecting the roots and spreading 
 itself from one to another, this may invade the whole forest, if by 
 a circular ditch the contagion be not arrested, then those lignivorous 
 insects, divining the morbid condition of these sick trees, even while 
 no external indication betrays the existence of the evil, throw 
 themselves in mass upon their victims, and finish them off in a few 
 weeks. . . . 
 
 " The insects most destructive to the maritime pine," writes M. 
 Perris, " are first the Bombyx pytiocampa, the caterpillar of which 
 devours the leaves of this tree, and may, if it multiply beyond measure, 
 occasion such physiological derangements that there may result a 
 disease, the consequence of which, through the ravages of the 
 xylophages, or woodeaters, shall be fatal ; second, the tomicus steno- 
 graphies, laricis and bidens, the melanophila tarda, and the pissodes 
 notattis, which destroy with great rapidity every so diseased tree. 
 
 " There has been recommended, as precautionary measures against 
 these last mentioned insects, the destruction of all dead woods, the 
 removal of stumps, the working up, or at least the removal of the 
 bark of all felled trees, the placing in different parts of the forests 
 attractive trees to allure the matured insects to lay their eggs there, 
 and then destroying the larvae ; but how can it be effected that 
 these measures shall be carried out simultaneously, that is to say, by 
 everybody at the same time, throughout the whole extent of a 
 department, with many conterminous departments'? Moreover, 
 would the results be very appreciable, when there are in the higher 
 and almost inaccessible parts of trees so many dead or diseased 
 branches 1 And, furthermore, in practice it is impossible to carry out 
 a really successful raid upon the insects ; and this is indisputable 
 with those who are acquainted with the management and exploitation 
 of our forests, with the inadequacy of our agricultural population, 
 and the indifference which, born of abundance and security, ignores 
 all proceedings which involve trouble. 
 
 " With regard to the chenille processionaire, the local name given to 
 the larvae of the Bombyx, which passes the winter in numerous com- 
 munities in large nets of silk attached to the branches, it may be 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE CHENILLE PR0CESSI0XA1RE. 161 
 
 said that it might be easy to master it. The legislative arrange- 
 ments, which relate to the destruction of other larvae, might -with 
 all propriety be extended to this ; and as there are four months 
 during which the work might be carried on, there appears to be no 
 reason why it might not be effected. But, it is well it should be 
 known that the greater proportion of the nests are situated on the 
 extremities of the upper branches of high trees, where it would be 
 almost always impossible to reach them, and always dangerous to 
 make an attempt to do so j it must also be told, that in order to get 
 these nests it is necessary to cut down the branches which bear them, 
 and that if each branch have one of them, as may be seen, it would 
 be as well to fell the tree at once, as to subject it to the deadly 
 operation of cutting off all its branches. 
 
 " "We are then obliged to let things take their course, and to leave 
 it to the birds, to the numerous parasites, and to meteorological 
 phenomena, to bring, and to maintain within proper limits, the multi- 
 plication of devastating insects. 
 
 " There have been some years in which the vast forests of pines, in 
 the department of the Landes, have been invaded by the chenille 
 processionaire iu numbers so prodigious that every branch and almost 
 every twig had its nest of these. Before winter a great portion of 
 the leaves had been devoured, and in spring the larvae coming out 
 of their winter's torpor, finished by browsing on the rest ; so that in 
 the month of March one might have said that a fire had swept over 
 the whole. 
 
 " These ravages, which nothing could be done to prevent, were 
 continued two years, and caused many trees to perish. The people 
 were in a state of excitement ; and for my own part I did not hesitate 
 to declare that if this went on for two or three years longer, this 
 would probably be the case with the greatest number of our pines, 
 the enfeebled condition of which would be followed by organic 
 derangements sufficiently grave to attract the bostriches, the buprestes, 
 the innumerable lignivoi-ous insects always ready to throw them- 
 selves upon diseased trees, and the attacks of which are a signal of 
 death. 
 
 " So, as I have said, this condition of things continued two years. 
 In the third year, what was our astonishment to see that there was 
 scarcely a nest upon the trees ! The Chenilles had, so to speak, 
 disappeared. The titmice, the magpies, the cuckoos, and other birds 
 had doubtless destroyed great numbers, and doubtless some millions 
 had become the prey of carniverous and parasitic insects ; but, in 
 
 X 
 
162 : :v?:i ; :: :;.?:::::z ?:.•! 
 
 reckoning up all the partial destructions of them, we would be 
 from accounting for win - neral plague must 
 
 have fallen upon this innumerable race of devastators, and the 
 following is my conjecture : 
 
 "In the month of II nillts processionair:* bury them- 
 
 ;:■".- 7 s in the ground, there 1 I .nsformed int :> the chrys » state 
 
 but they bury themselves at bat little depth, in order that the 
 
 cfly may experience nog 
 process of organic takes place in the chr 
 
 requires, as is known, that the insects be pro: sted ag 
 aridity; now the months of May and June in that year were 
 remarkable for very intense heat and unbroken drought : the i 
 soil of the pine wood great depth ; 
 
 broiling hot, and the chrys:. ig unable to develope in that 
 
 medium, became almost all abortive. Birth was given to few I 
 flies ; and thence it followed there were few chenille?. Two circum- 
 stances appear to me to justify fully this explanation : thes: 
 first, in woods which were somewhat colder than others, and on 
 margins adjacent to moist places, in the folio wiog year there were 
 found nests in pr^ rg -eeond, since then, two other 
 
 184£ ad 1849, have been marked by an aridity which was. 
 so to speak, exceptional ; and one result of this was, in the winter 
 1849-185 great list uces might be traversed without finding a 
 single nest. In 1851 they ceased to be so rare, and I remember I 
 prognosticated that this would be the case, in consequence of b me 
 rains which fell in June and July, I 
 
 " Thus a drought has sufficed to put an end to disquieting de* 
 tions, against which man had no remedy, and to-day (1851), the 
 number of chenilles p ifl reduced to one of no great 
 
 magnitude ; they are, moreover, surrounded by so many enemies that 
 they have for a 1: : be redoubtable. 
 
 .-art from drought or other meteorological accident, the eke, ' 
 proces- might have found, as has happened with other species, 
 
 in their excessive multiplication itself the cause of ruin and mo: 
 The number might have bee n that fool would have failed 
 
 them before their complete de and then they would have 
 
 perished of hunger before transformation." 
 
 Such were the views advanced by II Perris. Vice-President of the 
 la, and distinguished as an entomologist 
 who had given special attention to the insects living on the maritime 
 pine. 
 
DESTRUCTION OF TREES FOLLOWING CHARCOAL BURNING. 163 
 
 According to the views of M. Perris, in the destruction of many of 
 the trees, they were enfeebled by the destruction of leaves and leaf- 
 buds ; they were thus brought into an abnormal condition, and then, 
 having become f re to lignivorous insects, they died in 
 
 consequence of their ravages. And when other means than the 
 primary ravages of the leaf devouring insects produce like effects 
 to those thus produced by them, like consequences may follow. 
 
 Sect. III. — Destructive Consequences following the Effects of 
 Charcoal Burning. 
 
 Professor Bagneris remarks in regard to a disease to be found in 
 certain plantations : 
 
 " Frequently a pine is seen to wither and die, and the disease then 
 seems to spread in a circular form, the diameter of which gradually 
 increases. I have not been able to find out the cause. In Sologne 
 origins more or less imaginary were assigned to this. May not this 
 disease be caused by a fungus attacking the woody tissue ? The form 
 it assumes would lead one to suppose so, and the curative means 
 employed strengthens the belief. In the Landes, a trench of 
 - 70 metres in depth is dug all round the place attacked, and the 
 circle of disease spreads no farther." 
 
 The following observations throw additional light upon the 
 phenomenon, and seem to reveal the origin of the evil ; if they do 
 not determine also the question raised as to the possibility of a 
 fungoid growth contributing towards the destructive result : 
 
 " In the district of Orleans", says M. Boitel, " the maritime pine does 
 not present that vigorous production which in the south it owes to a 
 soil and a climate which are particularly favourable to it. The sands 
 of the Sologne are often deficient in depth, and when thence it comes to 
 passthat the tap-root of the maritime pine comes upon abed of tenacious 
 and impermeable clay, the tree begins to languish, and its trunk and 
 branches become covered with mosses and lichens. A good many pine 
 woods find themselves in this condition when only fifteen years old. 
 The trees stand out against the evil till they reach the age of twenty or 
 five and twenty years ; but beyond that they become stationary, and 
 if they do not necessitate exploitation they are liable to be invaded and 
 destroyed by insects which become developed in innumerable swarms 
 in the bark and the wood. 
 
 ■ It has often fallen to my lot to ascertain and verify ravages thus 
 
164 INJURIES OF MARITIME PINE. 
 
 committed in the pineries of the Sologne, and more especially in the 
 imperial domains, the forests of which have been under my direction 
 for some time. In the Grillaire, an imperial domain in the vicinity of 
 Motte-Beuvron, the lignivorous insects have carried out their ravages 
 in the middle of an immense forest of pines from twenty to twenty- 
 five years of age. The ravages had taken place simultaneously on 
 a great number of points which served as centres to lacunes in the 
 forest, the extent of which went on augmenting year by year in circular 
 zones concentric with the primal circle ; and in the radii of these 
 concentric circles the trees were more diseased in proportion to their 
 proximity to the centre. 
 
 " At the centre the trees had fallen and strewed the ground with 
 heaps of their debris ; farther away they remained standing, but 
 dried up in all their parts ; finally, at the extreme points of the 
 circumference the leaves and the buds were beginning to get yellow, 
 which announced the invasion of the insects ; and the presence of these 
 it was not difficult to ascertain otherwise, on examining between the 
 wood and the bark, where the wood was literally ploughed up by 
 numerous galleries which the myriads of lignivorous insects had dug 
 and inhabited. In the middle of these gaps, where not a maritime 
 pine was left standing, there were to be seen here and there some 
 Scotch firs, pinus sylvestris, which, respected by the insects, mani- 
 fested an astonishing vigour alongside of the languishing condition of 
 the maritime pine. 
 
 " This fact," says he, " corroborates the opinion of M. Perris, who 
 does not admit that lignivorous insects attack the trees in a healthy 
 state. I accept willingly this opinion, supported besides, as it is, 
 by numerous observations conscientiously made ; and I think, with 
 the distinguished entomologist of Mont-de-Marsan, that the pineries 
 of La Sologne would be spared by these insects if the pines found 
 themselves in circumstances more favourable to their develop- 
 ment. 
 
 " In the Grillaire the circular lacunes ravaged by the insects pre- 
 sent often an area of several hectares. The entire forest would have 
 disappeared under the destructive action of these parasites if measures 
 had not been taken to exploit them at once, and to forward the pro- 
 duce to Paris. 
 
 " It is noteworthy that there is found generally in the centre of 
 each lacune charcoal debris, which marks the site of an old charcoal 
 furnace. The pine is very sensible to the effects of fire and of smoke. 
 In the forest of Villette (Loiret) the maritime pines are dead, from 
 
DESTRUCTION OF TREES FOLLOWING CHARCOAL BURNING. 165 
 
 having been exposed to the smoke of a brick kiln, from which they 
 were distant about 50 metres. 
 
 " Invariably, when there is established a charcoal kiln in the 
 middle of a pinery, there are seen many circular ranges of pines, 
 which, through the effect of the fire and of the smoke, become 
 diseased, and they are not slow to dry up and perish. 
 
 " These diseased and languishing pines become the cradle of 
 lignivorous insects which invade the forest throughout its extent, 
 if after having completed the work of destruction on the first trees in 
 which they were developed, they find themselves in the middle of a 
 miserable pinery, covered with mosses and lichens, the diseased con- 
 dition of which is so favourable to the propagation of these parasites. 
 
 " Sometimes, however, the ravages of the lignivorous insects 
 manifest themselves notwithstanding that there are no charcoal 
 furnaces there, or these are far distant. In these exceptional cases, 
 in Sologne, the primary cause of the disease of the pineries can be 
 attributed only to the humidity or to the unfavourable nature of the 
 soil. 
 
 " After the enfeebling influence which reduces the trees to an 
 impoverished condition, comes that of the vegetable parasites, which 
 carry on farther the enfeebling of the trees ; then come the insects 
 which seize possession of a prey incapable of offering any resistance. 
 According to some observations which I have made, it seems to me 
 that the lignivorous insects occasionally allow themselves to precede 
 those which betake themselves to the leaves, and buds, and young 
 shoots. If this be the case, one may be siruck with the harmony 
 which ranges among the causes which tend to destroy a vegetable 
 from the time that it is in other than the normal conditions of 
 development. First, the soil produces its effect, then follow the 
 parasitic vegetables, and then the lignivorous insects, which, in arrest- 
 ing the circulation of the sap, bring the final coup to the vegetable 
 attacked in its every part. 
 
 " There come into operation in Sologne yet other causes to favour 
 the invasion of the pineries by* insects at the periods of the first 
 thinnings. Great negligence is manifested in the operations earned 
 on with a view to giving to the pine the air and light favourable to 
 its development. 
 
 " Pines growing too densely in their infancy famish one anothei', the 
 more vigorous destroy the more feeble, which become thus the food 
 of the insects ; at a later period, in the expectation that the expense 
 of the thinning will be covered by the faggots obtained, or by the 
 
166 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 
 
 manufacture of charcoal, there are carried on simultaneously and 
 vigorously thinning and pruning, which give to the pine in super- 
 abundance the air and the light of which up to that time it had 
 been deprived. Is it astonishing that trees so ill-treated and 
 mis-managed should experience a physiological disturbance which 
 renders them diseased and accessible to the numerous insects, which, 
 after having multiplied in the faggot, the cords of charcoal, and the 
 twigs with which the ground remains strewed, find later on subjects 
 perfectly prepared to receive them 1 
 
 " In all the circumstances of the case, the proprietors would find it 
 for their interest in every way to secure to the trees that vigour and 
 that health which defends them so well against the attacks of insects. 
 They would ensure thus the duration of their pineries, and not expose 
 them to premature decimation, which compels them to exploit them 
 at an age at which it would be advantageous to maintain their con- 
 servation. 
 
 " Independently of these indirect evils occasioned to proprietors by 
 insects, it is necessary to reckon also amongst the damages done by 
 them those dead trees which rot upon the place, which can no longer 
 serve for the making of charcoal, and it would be reckoned fraud to 
 introduce that dead wood in the making up of the faggots, which, to 
 possess the combustible qualities sought for by bakers, should be 
 composed exclusively of living wood." 
 
 He goes on to say : " The forester has an interest in making him- 
 self well acquainted with the parasitic insects most hurtful to the 
 pine, and in appreciating correctly the ravages committed by them, 
 and the causes which tend to augment or to diminish these. The 
 study of these will show to him that it is useful to give to the pines 
 those periodical attentions which will ensure their vigour and success- 
 ful growth ; and as soon as a devastating insect may appear on his 
 pinery, he will know what redoubtable enemy he will have to combat, 
 and what are the urgent measures imposed upon him with a view to 
 the restriction and diminution of damages very prejudicial to his 
 interests." And he speaks in high terms of the work by M. Pei-ris 
 as supplying requisite instructions. 
 
 Amongst other specimens of the products of the Landes. under the 
 system of sylviculture adopted, exhibited in the Industrial Museum 
 in Edinburgh, were specimens of wood cut up into galleries by the 
 Bombyx pytiocampa, and other lignivorous insects, and specimens of 
 the same restored to healthy growth by a process devised by Dr. 
 
DESTRUCTIVE RAVAGES BY THE MOLE. 167 
 
 Koberts, with specimens of wood treated by M. Courval for similar 
 defects. 
 
 Sect. IV. — Destructive Ravages occasioned by the Mole. 
 
 Another source of trouble in such plantations of the maritime pine 
 is the subterranean galleries created by the mole. In regard to this 
 M. Boitel writes : 
 
 " The mole is to be found everywhere in sand or clay, in dry or 
 damp soil. Its operation seems to be measured by the opposition 
 which the ground makes to its efforts. In light sandy ground it 
 makes very long galleries ; it makes shorter ones where the clay is 
 tenacious. It does not, however, dislike the latter kind of ground ; 
 on the contrary, it prefers it, either on account of the solidity which 
 it confers on the galleries, or on account of the abundance of earth 
 worms in it. Although it can swim, and can easily protect its retreat 
 from water, it does not inhabit low wet places, unless it finds some 
 elevated spot in the midst of the surrounding moisture, such as the 
 edge of a ditch, where it can construct a healthy and convenient 
 nest. It delights in the soil of oases, sometimes found on the edge 
 of bogs, which abound in earth worms. In general it does not care 
 for bare exposed places; it prefers spots sheltered by walls, bushes, or 
 trees. It seems to know instinctively that it is safe where its runs 
 are hidden by vegetation. Mules hidden in the banks of ditches are 
 hopeless to catch. It is easier to catch ten in a field than one under 
 a hedge, or on the wooded banks of a ditch. 
 
 " The mole is remarkably watchful and active. Its hearing is 
 very acute, although its ears are hardly visible amidst its fur. It is 
 frightened by the least noise. The mole-catcher, or the dog that 
 wishes to capture it, must walk very gently else it will instantly dis- 
 appear. It sees perfectly with eyes no larger than the head of a pin. 
 It does not fear water, and can swim in order to reach a desired 
 point. This explains how gardens surrounded with water are not 
 exempt from its ravages. It is a solitary animal when adult. It is 
 said that the female drives away the male from her nest. Moles 
 only pair at one season, when two may sometimes be caught in the 
 same trap. The female takes care of her brood for some time. 
 With these exceptions the mole is eminently solitary. I have tried 
 in vain to induce two moles of different sexes to live in a box filled 
 with earth. They fought continually, and there was no peace until 
 one was killed and partly eaten. The male wars against every in- 
 
168 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 
 
 trader, and fights to the death with other moles, also with weasels 
 and field mice. It is uncommon that both combatants survive. 
 The weasel ever falls a victim. 
 
 "Besides the runs and ordinary mole-hills, moles make large 
 heaps of earth, under which are a kind of special nest, measuring 
 from 0*15 metres, to 0-20 metres across. 
 
 " These are made of the leaves of trees, dry grass, and the green 
 leaves of cereals or other plants within their reach. When they can 
 make a selection they prefer the withered leaves of the oak. They 
 do not, as some say, pull down grass by the roots. They always put 
 out their snouts to collect materials for their nests. They are wise 
 enough to bring their materials from a distance for fear of discovering 
 their retreat, especially when they cut down green corn. It is 
 perfectly proved that everything required for their nests is brought 
 from above ground, and that roots of plants are never made use of. 
 
 " What is called improperly the mole's nest is only a warm and 
 comfortable retreat, where it lives permanently and habitually. The 
 males have their nests as well as the females. This habitation is 
 the central point of all its operations, it is the spot most frequently 
 visited. The mole reaches it by all kinds of ruus, both horizontal 
 and vertical ; it contains its food magazines abundantly supplied with 
 pieces of earth-worms still in life, so as to preserve them for a longer 
 time. This animal, so active and strong in scraping, is never long 
 without visiting its nest, it sleeps and eats there generally. It is 
 often found warm when uncovered by the mattock. The most able 
 mole-catchers have never surprised the mole in its nest. At the first 
 sound they disappear in their deepest and best concealed runs. 
 The nest is often renewed without the position being much changed. 
 Under the same heap of earth may be found three or even four nests 
 of different ages. The same mole has sometimes several central 
 dwellings which it occupies irregularly so as to escape the snares of 
 its enemies. The heap which conceals the nest is always larger than 
 the usual mole heap, they are 0'50 metres in height, nearly 1 metre 
 across. 
 
 " The nest is not always under one of these large heaps which are 
 so easily seen. Sometimes it is placed under an adjoining ordinary 
 sized hill. The female usually makes use of this ruse so as to 
 conceal her young. Nests placed under very large hills are what 
 mole-catchers call false or male's nests. 
 
 " The experienced mole-catcher can easily distinguish the nest of 
 the female, because, not being so strong, they cannot throw up so 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MOLES. 169 
 
 much earth, and their mole-hills are smaller and flatter. The mole- 
 hills furnish valuable indications. An experienced man can divine 
 the sex of the animals from the appearance of the mole-hills ; amongst 
 the numerous runs they can fix on the chief road between two im- 
 portant centres, and the mole can hardly escape a trap placed where 
 it must be passed a thousand times in a day. From these indications, 
 the mole-catcher can deal with the females and young ones so as to 
 suit his own interest, which he never fails to do when he is paid at 
 so much per head. The female has in the year two litters of four 
 or five each. Young moles produced in spring have a litter before 
 the end of the first year. The first litter is produced in the month 
 of April, and it is of great consequence to catch them at that time, 
 as one mother caught means four or five less on the estate. The 
 real nests can be easily detected, as we have said above. 
 
 " I will now point out the best way of getting rid of them. Only a 
 man trained specially will do any good ; others will not pursue the 
 moles with the order, regularity, and intelligence necessary. The good 
 mole-catcher knows the habits and instincts of the animal, and that 
 preliminary knowledge will suggest modes of destruction which would 
 escape any other person. 
 
 "I am acquainted with one skilful mole-catcher; three times a 
 year he comes from Normandy to work on some of the important 
 estates in Sologne. From his zeal and activity, he seems born for the 
 trade. He undertakes to destroy the moles at so much per head, or 
 so much per hectare. If he receives 25 centimes a head (the usual 
 price), he cares more for the number of his victims that for doing his 
 work thoroughly. He tries to catch males rather than females, who 
 are the hope of the future. On this point I may relate what happened 
 to one of my neighbours with the mole-catcher in question. The first 
 time he was employed, it was fixed that he should receive 25 centimes 
 per mole. At the end of two days he brought eighty-nine moles, of 
 which seventy-two were males. It was evident that the females had 
 been spared. It is better to make arrangements by the quantity of 
 ground. In Sologne 1 franc 50 centimes are given per hectare without 
 food. 
 
 "The skilful mole-catcher, when visiting his traps, keeps an 
 attentive eye on the mole-hills and runs. Whenever he sees a mole 
 disturbing the ground, he approaches slowly, with one stamp he inter- 
 cepts the new run in such a way as to cut off all retreat, and one blow 
 of the mattock secures his victim. The mattock is also used in getting 
 
 Y 
 
170 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 
 
 at the nests with young ones ; and it is used for sounding the earth 
 and finding out runs." 
 
 Sect. V. — Destructive Ravages by Forest Fires. 
 
 M. Eloi Samanos, in his volume entitled Traitd de la Culture du 
 Fin Maritime, to which reference has been made, remarks : " One of 
 the greatest scourges to which a pine-wood plantation is exposed is 
 beyond contradiction that of fire ; it reaches a height with such 
 facility, and spreads with such fearful rapidity. 
 
 " There is preserved in our district (apparently that of Cape Breton) 
 the memory of a fire which devastated our forests, on an extent of 
 from five and twenty to thirty kilometres; such occurrences may well 
 suffice to create a most reasonable fear in proprietors, and to urge 
 upon them the adoption of the greatest measures of precaution. 
 
 " Such occurrences are almost always occasioned by workmen 
 who light fires in the forest without seeing to these being completely 
 extinguished ; they may also be occasioned by storms falling upon a 
 forest, as happened in the imperial domain of Solferino. . . . 
 
 " One precautionary measure against fire, adopted by some care- 
 ful foresters, consists in separating resinous woods by planting broad 
 bands of deciduous trees between them. 
 
 " This has been carried out by the intelligent engineer, M. 
 Crouzet, in the imperial domains of Solferino, under his direction, in 
 which he has plantations of deciduous trees dividing the woods of 
 maritime pines. By this means the fury of the fire at least is 
 diminished, and it becomes easy to circumscribe and confine its 
 ravages. 
 
 "Besides this, there is one means employed in ourdistrict to combat 
 conflagrations, known under the name of contre-feu. It is this : when 
 the inhabitants have been congregated on the scene of the disaster, 
 and they judge the extinction of the fire by direct means impossible, 
 they go in the direction in which the fire is advancing, and at some 
 distance from it, having armed themselves with well clothed pine 
 branches, they form in line, and burning there the thorns, heaths, or 
 other dry woods between them and the fire they prevent this fire 
 from spreading in the different directions and smother it ; and this 
 being done, the conflagration, on advancing to that place, finds no food 
 for its continuation, and often dies out." 
 
 To rely entirely on such means, M. Samanos considers inexpedient, 
 and he says : " Plantations of deciduous trees ought also to be em- 
 
DESTRUCTION BY FOREST FIRES. 171 
 
 ployed amongst the precautions taken for the conservation of forests, 
 and it is impossible to do too much to make known and to introduce 
 such a measure." 
 
 In accordance with this account of the contre-feu is the following 
 statement by M. Bartro, in an article on the maritime pine in the 
 Adour, a journal of Bayonne : 
 
 " Resin-yielding forests are extremely combustible. Their soil is 
 strewed with ferns, with brooms, and with dried leaves ; it is covered 
 with trunks of trees, which distil resin, drops of which are seen every- 
 where ; a single spark, or the wadding of a gun, may suffice to set 
 the country on fire. When this misfortune happens the tocsin is 
 sounded in the adjacent communes. The population arm themselves 
 with shovels and hatchets ; they march under the leadership of the 
 mayors, who direct the operations and compose a guard, the duty of 
 which is to work themselves and to prevent desertion by the other 
 workers. They note the wind under which the conflagration spreads, 
 and regulate their procedure accordingly. By this combination of 
 labours the fire finds itself encircled by the population of the different 
 communes, who proceed to extinguish it, and, unless the wind be 
 very strong, and carry the burning flakes behind the workers, in 
 which case they are very much exposed to be themselves surrounded 
 by the fire, they find it pretty easy to master it, and that they do 
 thus : 
 
 " The workers, one after another, furnish themselves with green 
 and branching boughs ; they take their place at what is deemed a 
 proper distance in line in front of the advancing fire ; they set fire 
 to the ferns and other combustibles in front of them, which they 
 extinguish, as they progressively advance toward the fire, by smiting 
 them with their green branches, and covering them with earth by 
 means of their shovels. This is what is called making a contre-feu 
 When the fire comes it finds do food, and it is forced to go out. This 
 is the only means of which use is made to stop the conflagration in 
 forests of resinous trees." 
 
 Boitel, in reference to this, compares it to the homoepathic treat- 
 ment of disease by physicians acting on the principle — Like cures Like 
 — it is fire extinguished by fire, and he goes on to say : 
 
 " Forest fires would be less common if the police were less negli- 
 gent ; if herdsmen, shepherds, resin-collectors, and woodmen did not 
 take pleasure in lighting fires in the heart of the pignadas, or pine 
 
172 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 
 
 forests, for the most trivial objects, the embers of which they keep 
 constantly glowing to supply them with fire for their pipes, for their 
 meture, a preparation of Indian corn, and to broil their salt fish and 
 their sardines, culinary operations which ought to be attended to 
 before leaving their homes. These fires in the open air are left 
 burning on ground covered with combustible matter while the work- 
 men go about their work. Is it surprising then that there should be 
 so many fires 1 
 
 " Insurance companies bring themselves with difficulty to insure 
 pignadas ; moreover, they cannot do otherwise than require a high 
 premium, which the greater part of proprietors will not agree to pay. 
 
 " The provident cultivator, who wishes to protect his forests against 
 a general conflagration, takes the prudent precaution to interpose in 
 his forest masses cultivated clearings sufficiently large to form a 
 barrier which cannot be overleapt by the destructive scourge. This 
 preventative costs less than the premium of insurance. 
 
 " Forest fires occasion more damage in young pineries than in those 
 which are in a state of decadence ; for the old trunks are not con- 
 sumed by the fire, and they have lost nothing of their fitness to yield 
 wood for carpentry work, and the employment of them in this way 
 affords some indemnity to the proprietor ; it is otherwise with young 
 pineries, which the fire destroys without giving any compensation." 
 
 i