Injiuence of Forests on Health. 163 



about, overwhelming agricultural districts, and obstructing once navigable 

 rivers, destroying commerce, and often injuriously nflecting the sanitary 

 condition of the country adjacent to the streams. 



Such instances are common in various parts of the world, and their man- 

 agement becomes an important problem in forestry. All must be familiar 

 with the disastrous effects produced by the removal of the forests in regions 

 thus situated. Such results have occurred in Northern Germany, on the shores 

 of the Baltic, and in Holland and Belgium, where the coast-line is exjDosed 

 to the lashing storms of the North Sea. Similar conditions have been ob- 

 served in the Province of Cadiz, Sj^ain, where the coast-line is open to the 

 winds of the broad Atlantic, which seriously aftect the flow of the Guadal- 

 quiver, as is forcibly set forth in a recent pamphlet by Don Salvador Ceron. 



The condition of the country in Gascony, upon the shores of the stormy 

 Bay of Biscay, has become familiar to all modern readers who have seen the 

 graphic accounts of the Hon. Geo. P. Marsh. 



There the mouth of the River Levre has been dammed up by drifting 

 sands, and the whole region, known as Les Landes, is a waste of successive 

 dunes and lagoons. 



This whole region has been much improved by the persevering application 

 of practical skill, directed by the scientific knowledge of Messrs. Bagneris 

 and Bremontier, who succeeded, under the most unfavorable circumstances, 

 in producing valuable forests upon these sand- wastes. The Pmus maritima 

 has here proved most successful on these lands. 



We have similar tracts in our own country that should receive the atten- 

 tion of scientific forestry before it be too late — though we must not be mis- 

 led by those who would advise us blindly to follow the practice of France in 

 its details and sj^ecies, regardless of the climatic conditions of our country as 

 compared with those of the regions lying on the western shores of Europe, 

 between the same parallels. Indeed, one of the most intelligent and exten- 

 sive cultivators of nursery trees admits that he was so taken with the ac- 

 counts of this same Plnus maritima that, many years ago, he imported a large 

 quantity of seed. These vegetated readily and grew apace, in promise ex- 

 ceeding all others, and he was delighted until, at the close of the following 

 winter, he was made a wiser and also a sadder man, by finding that all his 

 beautiful little trees had died. And yet we have again heard this tree re- 

 commended for planting on the sandy shores of Massachusetts ! 



Excuse this digression, Mr. Chairman. It has been introduced simply as 

 an illustration of the great need which exists among us for real and j^ractical 

 knowledge upon almost every point connected with forestry. 



We should not despair, however, for we have many other plants that are 

 equally capable of fixing the blowing sands of these wastes, which exist in 

 many parts of our own country, though generally in limited areas. By ob- 

 serving the natural growths upon such sandy regions, we shall meet with the 

 indications of the means to be applied for the preservation of adjacent lands 

 from the inroads of these moving sands. First in importance, let it be re- 



