308 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



workers, where almost every boy knows how to use a hatchet 

 and a saw. 



Although the Landes are in the latitude of Nova Scotia, the 

 climate is milder than that of Southern Jersey, so that the resin 

 industry is possible. Arcachon is the combined Lakewood and 

 Atlantic City of France. The largest city in the vicinity is Bor- 

 deaux. Just north of Bordeaux, between the Gironde and the 

 Bay of Biscay, is the Medoc, famous the world over for its wines. 

 The soil of this region is, I believe, not unlike that of the Cape 

 May formation of South Jersey. At Verdon, on the point across 

 from the seashore resort of Royan, is a beautiful forest of pine 

 and locust on the dune sand, which was planted by Bremontier. 

 In the forest of La Teste, near Arcachon, is a red marble monu- 

 ment in honor of this famous engineer a fitting memorial to the 

 man who fixed the sand of these shifting dunes. 



In the Landes, in addition to naval stores and timber, oyster 

 culture and apiculture are important industries. Small quanti- 

 ties of cork are also produced. Sheep raising is also an import- 

 ant occupation, and the mules and horses which are produced 

 there, although small in size and tough, are gentle and excellent 

 in quality. 



Here and there men and women may be seen spreading boughs 

 and twigs in the ruts of the roads and in the pathways to 

 improve their condition. 



The population of this part of France has rapidly increased. 

 Just as reckless deforestation inevitably leads to idleness, want 

 and moral degeneration among those dependent upon the woods, 

 so does afforestation have the opposite effect in the same if not 

 greater proportion. In the Landes, for instance, before the 

 planting of forests a man could buy a farm for a few francs, it 

 required over two acres to support one sheep. In less than a 

 century the population sextupled, while that of a large part of 

 the rest of the country either remained stationary or decreased. 

 A few miserable shepherds were replaced by wood-workers, resin 

 collectors, workers in establishments for refining the product 

 and for impregnating wood, pleasure and health seekers, besides 

 others who were attracted to do other business produced by the 

 change of conditions. The population of a country generally 

 increases in proportion to its natural resources. The fecundity 



