250 FRENCH PLANTING OF TIMBER ON POOR SOILS. [Aug. 



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their value, and then re-sold possibly to small proprietors. Half of 

 tins land would be suitable for culture ; and a large quantity of the 

 remainder would make exxellent pasture-land ; while we assume 

 forests would form part of the scheme. Thus 4000 acres might 

 be reclaimed from the estuary of the Sligo at a cost not exceeding 

 £25 an acre, while the land so reclaimed would be worth £50 per 

 acre. The climate would at the same time be improved. He 

 strongly recommended the jDlanting of willows between the banks of 

 the rivers and the rivers themselves. This would have the effect 

 of protecting the banks from the injurious effects of wind waves, 

 and would shelter the land behind. Such efforts had been most 

 useful in several parts of Limerick. When he was a boy a great 

 basketmaking trade was carried on in Ireland, and willows were 

 extensively grown in the lowlands ; but this trade had almost 

 entirely disappeared. There were, in his opinion, many sand-hills 

 in Ireland which were now barren, and which might be utilized by 

 planting in the same way as planting had been carried out in 

 some parts of France. If they planted these sands witii trees, the 

 flow would be stopped, and much of the land behind could be 

 brought under tillage. He knew that in some instances the planting 

 of fir trees under these circumstances had failed to produce timber, 

 but shelter had been given to the land, which in itself was of 

 much benefit. In France, where there had been a failure to produce 

 timber, the trees had yielded large quantities of turpentine and 

 pitch, and he saw no reason why trees should not grow as well in 

 Ireland, notwithstanding climatal differences. 



The carrying out of a thoroughly scientific plan of forestry and 

 land reclamation on lines embracing climatal amelioration through 

 Ireland, by numerous local organizations, is apparently the bourne 

 to which this evidence tends. 



FRENCH PLANTING OF TIMBER ON POOR SOILS. 



IN the June inid-Bulldin of the Society of French Agriculturists, 

 M. Eenard shows that it is better to plant poor sandy soils 

 now mostly covered with heather and furze, rather than to reclaim 

 them for the cultivation of cereals or other root crops. In M. 

 Eenard's estate of the Park of Enbas, near the town of Houdan, 

 the returns from root crops were small and irregular, only obtain- 

 able after large and constant application of artificial manures, while 

 the frost of a night or so might destroy the husbandman's hopes 



