Reforestation Work. 227 



A similar plantation on moving sands, of 35,000 

 acres, is found north of this tract. 



To the eastward of this region of dunes stretch the 

 so-called Landes, a territory triangular in shape, 

 containing 2,000,000 acres of shifting sands and 

 marshes, on which a poor population of shepherds (on 

 stilts) used to eke out a living. In 1873, Chambrelent, 

 an engineer of the administration of bridges and roads 

 (administration des ponts et chausses), conceived 

 the idea of improving this section by reforestation, 

 and at his own expense recovered some 1,200 acres 

 in the worst marsh by ditching and planting. The 

 success of this plantation invited imitators, and, by 

 1855, the reforested area had grown to 50,000 acres. 

 This led, in 1857, to the passage of a law ordering 

 forestation of the parts of the land owned by the state 

 as well as by the communities, the state at the same 

 time undertaking the expense of building a system of 

 roads and making the plans for forestation free of 

 charge. The communities were allowed to sell a part 

 of the reclaimed land in order to recover the expense, 

 and sold some 470,000 acres for 2.7 million dollars, 

 of which less than $300,000 were used to forest the 

 250,000 acres belonging to them. From 1850 to 1892, 

 private owners imitating the government and com- 

 munal work, altogether nearly 1,750,000 acres were 

 covered with pine forest at a cost of $4.00 to $5.00 

 per acre, or, including the building of roads, for a 

 total expenditure of around $10,000,000. In 1877, 

 the value of the then recovered area was estimated 

 at over $40,000,000, this figure being arrived at by 

 calculating the possible net revenues of a pinery under 



a 



