HYGIENIC VALUE OF FORESTS 9 



causing avalanches, which cover up with masses of 

 rock and debris valuable agricultural land down 

 below. Woods are also useful in arresting areas of 

 shifting sand, also destructive to agricultural lands ; 

 and in stopping coast erosion. 



Good work of this nature has already been under- 

 taken by planting up areas in the Moray Firth 

 in Scotland, on the West Coast of England, and else- 

 where in this country. In France we have the fine 

 example of the maritime pine forests on the Landes in 

 Gascony. Large sums of money were spent in the 

 formation of these woods, but they have since proved 

 a gold mine to the French Government, although 

 originallyplanted for purelyprotective purposes. And 

 we ourselves have benefited in the past, and are doing 

 so at present, for much pit wood comes from there. 

 Woods also afford shelter, as we have seen, to the 

 crops and stock of the farm, and their utility in this 

 respect is well understood in this country. Their 

 planting and management has left much to be 

 desired in the past however, and many of them could 

 be replaced by well-ordered masses of forest worked 

 on commercial principles and grown on areas at 

 present all but unproductive. Woods also afford 

 shelter to game and useful birds. Another impor- 

 tant indirect use of forests is to be found in their 

 hygienic value, a point but little understood or 

 valued in the past in this country. It is an indisput- 

 able fact that the air on wooded and mountain sides 

 has certain healthful properties which exert their 

 full influence on the jaded human being worn out 

 with work, high living, and the incessant excitement 



