Reforesting Wastes. 203 



quarts of resin (at $3). An estimate of recent date 

 places the value of this area at $100,000,000. 



Centrally located between the valleys of the Loire and 

 the Cher near Orleans, lies the region of La Sologne, a 

 sandy, poorly drained plain upon an impenetrable cal- 

 careous sub-soil giving rise to stagnant waters; this 

 region too, had been originally densely wooded and was 

 described as a paradise in early times ; but from the be- 

 ginning of the l?th centuT}- to the end of the 18 th it 

 was deforested, making it an imhealthy, useless waste. 

 By 1787, 1,250,000 acres of this territory had become 

 absolutely abandoned. About the middle of the 19th 

 century a number of influential citizens constituted 

 themselves as a committee to begin its work of recovery, 

 the Director General of Forests being authorized to 

 assume the presidency of that committee. As a result a 

 canal 25 miles in length, and 350 miles of road were 

 built and some 200,000 acres, aU non-agricultural lands 

 were planted with Maritime and Scotch pine, the state 

 furnishing assistance through the forest service and 

 otherwise. A set-back occurred during the severe win- 

 ter of 1879, frost killing many of the younger planta- 

 tions, which led to the substitution of the hardier Scotch 

 pine for the Maritime pine in the plantings. The cost 

 per acre set out with about 3,500 two-year old seedlings 

 amounted to $5.00. An estimate of the value of these 

 plantations places it at $18,000,000 so that lands which 

 50 years ago could hardly be sold for $4.00 per acre, now 

 bring over $3.00 as an annual revenue. 



In the province of Champagne, South of Eeims, arid 

 lime-stone wastes of an extent which in the 18th century 



