S TREE-PLANTING. 



woods, in the purest sand, is now upwards of fourteen 

 inches, and contrasts favourably with that of plants 

 in apparently better soil, more solid, but over- 

 spread with a naked surface of the natural grasses ; 

 thus illustrating the advantage of planting in a loose 

 open soil, with a clear surface, whether poor or rich. 

 These plantations being now from six to ten feet 

 high, many parts are fit to yield a large supply of 

 thinnings, which are well adapted for reclaiming the 

 sands, and limiting the encroachment of sand-drift on 

 the more valuable soil. These thinnings, or brush- 

 wood, are valuable for the purpose of being spread 

 over the newly-planted sands in the roughest ex- 

 posures by overlapping, or spreading the brushwood in 

 an imbricated position, which causes it to stick on the 

 surface, and thus it affords shade and shelter to the 

 young plants, in situations where they would otherwise 

 perish." 



These remarks of Mr. Grigor were penned up- 

 wards of twenty years ago, a few years after the time 

 upon which experiments upon a large scale were 

 made of sea-side planting, when the subject was com- 

 paratively a new one, and naturally excited a good 

 deal of attention. The difficulties attending the 

 operation have been satisfactorily solved, not only in 

 this country, but also abroad. 



Sea-side Planting at the Gulf of Gascony. In 

 1811, the commission appointed by the French 

 government reported on the pineaster forests formed 

 by M. Bremontier, of the Administration of Forests, 

 who in 1789 commenced his operations at the Gulf of 

 Gascony, where the downs offered nothing to the eye 

 but a monotonous repetition of white wavy mountains 



