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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



PRINCIPLES TO BE OBSERVED IN SAND CONTROL WORK. 



Sand dune control is expensive and is justifiable only where an 

 economic necessity demands it, or where the initial expense is justified 

 by the consideration of future production and profit from the land. 

 Under the first case would fall such objects as the encroachment of 

 dunes upon highways and railways, the blocking of channels and harbors, 

 the burial of land within municipal corporation boundaries and areas 

 valuable as city forests and parks, aud the encroachment upon valuable 

 orchards and farm land. The second class includes those farm lands 

 which should be made to yield periodic crops of short rotation timber 

 and also those large areas of wild land which are now held for invest- 

 ment or future development. 



Figure 11. Destructive action of sand blow during the late winter. Sand has covered the 

 Bnow to a depth of a foot or more, resulting in the burying of large numbers of smaller 

 trees and shrubs. These results are alwaj's found on the lee edge of the drift. 



In any case where sand blows occur the question of the future value of 

 the property is in direct relation to the productive capacity of the land 

 in the years to come. A sand blow yields nothing to the owner, and 

 must always lie on the market as non-productive land. A sand blow 

 planted and controlled by timber cover becomes an asset as soon as 

 the cover is established. It at once becomes productive land and its 

 future value increases. To what degree its selling value will increase 

 depends upon various factors such as accessibility and desirability as 

 resort or estate property and upon its timber value. 



METHODS OF CONTROL, 



Many plans of control have been worked out for the Cape Cod Dunes, 

 the dunes along the Columbia River in Oregon, and European dunes. 

 None of these methods can be applied to the Michigan dunes, because 

 either the work was too costly, too intensive, or required immediate com- 



