THE NEW FORESTRY. 153 



produce excellent crops of certain kinds of timber, and 

 numerous examples are recorded on both poor inland sands 

 and on sand banks at the sea shore consisting of pure sand. 

 On the western coast of France great tracts of sand dunes, 

 once barren wastes, are now clothed with fir forests that yield 

 great quantities of excellent timber and other products, and 

 on not a few places on the British coasts are now established 

 thriving plantations, extending almost from high-water mark, 

 consisting chiefly of Pinus pinaster, Scots, Austrian, and 

 Corsican firs ; these species being apparently the most suitable 

 of any for sea side planting. There is indeed no doubt about 

 timber trees thriving on sand banks mostly worthless for any 

 other purpose, and the only difficulty is getting the trees 

 established on drifting sands which are apt to bury the young 

 trees. The French set up wattle hurdles among the plants as 

 screens, and Grigor recommends thinning of fir woods and 

 furze to be stuck in or strewed among the plants, especially 

 near to the sea, in order to break the sand drift for the first 

 few years, after which the trees are well able to protect them- 

 selves, affording shelter also to the land in a way that greatly 

 enhances its value for farming purposes. Probably the 

 common willow would be as good a subject to plant among 

 firs for their protection, as anything in such situations. The 

 following extracts from the " Field " on the value of the 

 willow is worth quoting. It states that : " Between Black- 

 pool and Southport it is extensively planted in belt lines to 

 protect plantations and gardens from the breezes which sweep 

 along that part of the coast with unusual severity. It grows 

 well in the light, sandy soil of the district ; indeed, in some 

 places, it is growing on what were but a few years ago nothing 

 but sand banks. In the well-kept public gardens at Lytham, 

 which extend to within about fifty paces of high water mark, 

 the willow again is planted near the sea for shelter ; and 

 though the soil is poor, the trees in three or four years have 

 grown twenty feet or thirty feet high. The elm, beech, 

 sycamore, oak, laburnam and other deciduous trees become 

 as brown and withered in foliage during the summer as if a 

 severe black frost had passed over them ; but the willow 

 towers aloft, and is green and luxuriant to its topmost 

 branches. In the extensive park around Clifton Hall, and 

 close to the sea, the plantations have all been protected in the 

 same way from the blast. In some places the willows appear 

 to be of good age, and are considerably taller than the spruces, 

 oaks and other trees which they guard from the storm." 



