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or rye, or our blue lupin which thrives in dry soil, will serve 

 the same purpose on our barrens. I have not space to detail 

 the kindred methods of recuperating sand barrens in other 

 countries of Europe. 



I can only name a few illustrations of the extent of this 

 work. Hummel attributes the devastation of the Karst, the 

 high plateau lying north of Trieste until recently one of the 

 most parched and barren wastes in Europe to the felling of 

 its woods, centuries ago, to build the navies of Venice. The 

 Austrian government is now making energetic and thus far 

 successful efforts for the reclamation of this desolate waste, 

 having planted over half a million of young trees and sown 

 great quantities of seed. In the vicinity of Antwerp less than 

 fifty years ago was a vast desolate plan. Looking to-day in 

 the same direction from the spire of the cathedral, one can see 

 nothing but a forest, whose limits seem lost in the horizon. 

 Forest plantations have transformed these barren lands into 

 fertile fields. On the Adriatic, Baltic, Mediterranean as well 

 as the Biscayan coasts the disastrous encroachments of the sea 

 have been checked by forest plantations. Extensive plains, 

 once barren sands south of Berlin, about Odessa and north of 

 the Black Sea and vast steppes in Russia, are now well wooded. 

 R. Douglass & Sons, of Waukegan, Illinois, who have been the 

 pioneers in promoting economic tree-planting in the West, 

 began four years ago the experiment of reclaiming barren sand 

 ridges near the shore of Lake Michigan, trying pitch pine, 

 white pine, Austrian pine and Scotch pine. Here, as on Cape 

 Cod, the Scotch pine proved the best for reclaiming sandy 

 barrens. With these facts from abroad and at home it cannot 

 be denied that even the poorest soils of the Atlantic States 

 may be reclaimed. 



All sand wastes are by no means alike. Trees which will 

 grow luxuriantly on one will pine away and die on another. 

 The climate, too, varies, as well as the soil. The soil of Cape 

 Cod and Nantucket is well fitted for the maritime pine, where 

 it has been amply tried. It grows well for a season or two, 

 but is sure to winter-kill in a few years. It suffers from the 

 severity of the winter in Holland and Germany. Sea spray 

 and saline constituents in the soil or air are fatal to some trees 



