Canadian Forestry Journal, February, 1919 



61 



His Majesty, King George, congratulates a Canadian lumberjaclv on his 

 uncommon sivill in felling a tree. 



THE MIRACLE OF GASCONY'S PINE 



By Brigadier-General J. B. White, D.S.O., 



in Command Canadian Forestry Corps 



in France. 



How Pine Planting Converted an Out-at-Elbovvs 

 Desert into the Richest French Department. 



Note: One hectare = 2.47 acres. 

 The history of the planting of the pine in the 

 Land?s of Gascony is a very interesting and won- 

 derful object lesson, due to the fact that in 

 about 70 years this great area of over 2'/? 

 million acres was changed from practically a 

 barren waste of no value, into a huge forest 

 which at the present time is valued at from 10 



Human Conditions Changed. 



About the end of the eighteenth century the 

 Landes consisted of a vast sand waste, support- 

 ing only a scanty vegetation of small plants, 

 with here and there at distant intervals, small 

 islands of short, brushy Maritime Pin.^ In the 

 winter, the season of greatest rainfall, the 



dollars per acre on recently cut over land to 500 country was a series of lakes and marshes, while 



dollars per acre for timber almost mature in 50 in th? summer the hot sun dried up the scanty 



years. In the same length of time the popula- vegetation and left the place practically a desert. 



tion increased from 70,000 to 300,000, and the In this country the social conditions were piti- 



department of Landes was changed from being able. Living in crude shelters with no trans- 



the poorest department in France to the richest. portation, little food, and no medical attendance. 



