Reforesting Wastes. 201 



ing for a long time endangered the adjoining pai^tnree 

 and fields. It seems that the land occupied by dunes 

 was originally forested and that these were created by 

 deforestation. 



As early as 1717 attempts at reforestation were made 

 by the inhabitants, and from that time on small plant- 

 ings were sporadically made. But the inauguration of 

 systematic reforestation was begun only after a notable 

 report by Bremontier, who in 1786 secured, as chief en- 

 gineer of the department of Bordeaux, a sum of $10,000 

 to be employed in ascertaining the possibilities of making 

 a canal through the Landes and of fixing the dunes. As 

 a result of this beginning, the method for their recovery 

 having been by 1793 experimentally determined by 

 Bremontier, 275,000 acres of moving sand have 

 been fixed during the last century. The revolutionary 

 government in 1799 created a Commission of Dunes, of 

 which Bremontier was made president, and annual ap- 

 propriation of $10,000 was made, later (in 1808) in- 

 creased to $15,000. In 1817 the work was transferred 

 to the Administration des Fonts et Chausses. The ap- 

 propriations were increased until in 1854 they reached 

 $100,000 a year, and in 1865, the work being nearly fin- 

 ished, the dunes were handed over to the forest adminis- 

 tration. There being still about 20,000 acres to be re- </ 

 covered, this was achieved in 1865, when 200,000 acres 

 had been reforested at an expense of about $2,000,000, 

 and an additional expense of $700,000 to organize the 

 newly formed Pine forests. These, at present, with their ^ 

 resinous products and wood are furnishing valuable ma- 

 terial. An unfortunate policy of ceding some of these 

 forest areas to private and communal owners was in- 

 augurated just as the planting was finished, so that at 



