REBOISEMENT. 123 



of the cultivated area, and also near to what may, strictly 

 speaking, be called Vordunen Platzes, he sowed grasses of 

 the same kind. 



' This was beyond question the first Prussian systematic 

 Dunenbau, or culture of sand-drifts ; and there is not 

 a little which is interesting in its subsequent history. 



' By the end of 1796 a great deal of the work was com- 

 pleted. Meanwhile, dunes to the west of the village of 

 Neufaehr were extending themselves to the Vistula, and 

 beginning to pour their masses of sand into the bed of the 

 river. In consequence of this it became necessary in the 

 beginning of 1797 at once to concentrate the whole 

 working power upon this point. 



' From this time onward the work of arresting and con- 

 solidating these sands, the cost of which, partly at first, 

 and latterly entirely, had been met from the State 

 Treasury, made regular and well defined progress ; and 

 they proceeded to the planting of the sands with the Kiefer 

 or Scotch fir. In the time elapsing up to 1804 inclusive, 

 the high dunes up to the village of Bohnsak were fixed ; 

 and thus all anxiety in regard to the Vistula was 

 removed. The years 1806 and 1808 were devoted 

 more especially to sylviculture ; then were planted 

 in the hollows, Salix arenaria and S. fusca, the downy 

 mountain willow, and the brown-stemmed willow; and 

 with them the Alnus incana, the hoary leaved alder, by 

 means of cuttings. And from Bohnsak eastward the 

 upper portion of the strand was sown with the sandrohr 

 to produce a Vordune for a defence in advance of the 

 works. 



' In the course of the eleven years occupied with opera- 

 tions suggested by Bioern there were expended on fixing 

 the sands 38,826 guilders* advanced by the town, and 

 48,807 guilders advanced by the State: in all, 87,633 

 guilders, or on an average 8000 guilders a year, The 



* The guilder is equivalent to la. lid., or about 2s. British money. 



