200 France. 



reclamation of waste lands, of which in 1879 it was es- 

 timated there were still 20,000,000 acres in extent. Es- 

 pecially the "reboisement" work in the Alpine districts 

 as a result of the law of 1882 has become celebrated. 



As late as the 18th century, after the forest area had 

 already been reduced to a relatively small proportion, we 

 find laws enacted encouraging clearings for farm use. 

 The famine years of 1762-1766 gave rise to such legis- 

 lation; the "declaration" of 1766 exempted those who 

 cleared land for farm purposes for 15 years from all 

 taxes. As a result of this invitation some 750,000 acres 

 were cleared, and the practice of clearing for farm use 

 continued until the middle of the 19th century. In this 

 way, by inconsiderately exposing soil which would not 

 everywhere be found adapted to farm use, wastes natur- 

 ally existing were greatly increased. The movement 

 for recovery of these waste lands dates ""rom the begin- 

 ning of the 19th century, and to-day reforestation by 

 state, communal and private effort encouraged by legis- 

 lative acts during the last sixty years, has restored more 

 than 2,500,000 acres of lost ground to forest production. 



There are four definite regions of large extent in 

 which systematic effort in this direction has been made, 

 namely, the sand dunes of Gascony, the Landes of 

 Southwestern France, the sandy plains of La Sologne, 

 the limestone wastes of Champagne, and the mountain 

 slopes in the Vosges and Jura-Alps. 



The sand dunes on the coast of France comprise 

 round 350,000 acres, those on the coast of Gascony in 

 Southwestern France alone have an extent of nearly 

 250,000 acres, these being the most important and hav- 



