520 



1872. 



Quantity. 



Average 

 price. 



Quantity. 



Average 

 price. 



Beef kilograms 



"Veal do.. 



Mutton do.. 



Pork do. . 



Butter do. . 



Eggs thousand 



5, 747, 033 

 7, 614, 979 

 2, 638, 971 

 2, 149, 675 

 10, 228, 933 

 232, 195 



Francs. 

 1.43 

 1.56 

 1.58 

 1.43 

 2.90 

 78.63 



6, 956, 5.50 

 8, 454, 683 

 4, 024, 595 

 2, 728, 447 

 10, 349, 421 

 213, 413 



Francs. 

 i.37 

 1.37 

 1.33 

 1.30 

 3.18 

 81.85 



lu addition to the above there were sold at the Marche de Ihibattoir 

 (le la Villette, of beef, 238,093 kilograms, at 1.29 fraucs, in 1872, and 

 209,703 kilograms, at 1.14 fraucs, in 1874; of veal, 75,819 kilograms, at 

 1.24 francs, in 1872, and 92,870 kilograms, at 1.22 francs, in 1874 ; of 

 mutton, 14,242 kilograms, at 1.42 francs ; of pork, 20,323 kilograms, at 

 1.23 francs, in 1872, and 31,006 kilograms, at 1.14 francs, in 1874. The 

 total quantity of meat marketed in 1872 was 18,499,140 kilograms, or 

 40,784,708 pounds ; in 1874, 22,540,879 kilograms, or 49,690,729 pounds. 



French experiments in fixing drifting sands. — Along the coast 

 of the departments of Gironde and Laudes, in ihe southwest of France, 

 dunes, or hills made by drifting sands, extend from the mouth of the 

 Garonne to that of the Adour. The distance is one hundred and twenty 

 miles, and they had attained an average breadth of about three mile.^. 

 They thus covered a surface of 200,000 acres. By the action of winds* 

 they were steadily widening. In their progress they not only buried 

 the soil, but all the improvements, including the buildings. At Soulac, 

 these drifting sands had left only the belfry of the old church above the 

 surface. In the sections where the winds have the clearest sweep, the 

 hills thus formed had attained a height of 300 feet. All attempts to 

 stay their overwhelming advance had failed, until a plan for covering 

 them with a forest, designed and proposed by M. Bremontier, was tried. 

 That, at a very small outlay compared with the beneficial results, has 

 proved permanently effectual. Its essential features were as follows: 

 beginning at the foot of the dunes on the west or shoreward side, a plat, 

 not exceeding in extent the means at command for the required treat- 

 ment, was sown with 18 pounds per acre of pine-seed and 7 of broom- 

 seed, to which in case the location was specially exposed to the winds, 

 were added 4^ pounds of goi\rhet-iieed,{CaJamagrostis arenaria.) Imme- 

 diately after the sowing, was laid on a covering of small brushwood, cut 

 so as to lie entirely flat, and made to lap like the feathers of a bird. At 

 points where necessary, a further temporary protection was added by 

 fences of boards or wattled fencing. The former was constructed of 

 inch boards, 6 or 8 inches broad, 5 feet long, inserted in the sand 2 feet, 

 with intervening spaces of f of an inch ; in the latter, the stakes were 

 about 2^ inches in diameter and 5 feet in length, inserted 20 inches deep 

 and 20 inches apart. The gourbet is described as a very hardy i3lant, 

 unaffected by heat or cold, or proximity to the salt-water, grow- 

 ing at all seasons, and having the peculiarity of continuing a thrifty 

 upward growth, however deeply the sand may drift around it. It is 

 rei)orted as growing vigorouslj^ through a layer of sand, above the sur- 

 face on which it was planted, over 8 feet deet deep. The broom comes 

 uj) much sooner than the pine, and, before the covering of cut brushwood 

 fails, snpijlies its place with a vegetable growth. At the same time it 

 serves as a ])rotection for the later germinating and more slowly grow- 

 ing pines. But within four or five years after the planting, the pines 



