354 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



Augnst 



by the writer the temperature in the 

 shade reached 127 F.), the water is 

 applied every two or three days during 

 the summer. The soil was very light, 

 and these frequent applications soon 

 drained away. Where heavier soils are 

 found, such frequent irrigation is by 

 no means necessary or advisable, but a 

 good watering once in ten days will be 

 found sufficient to carry away all excess 

 of accumulated salt. 



In using saline or alkaline waters 

 furrow irrigation is not advisable. All 

 of the land should be covered, if not at 

 every irrigation, at least occasionally, 

 so there will be no high places on which 

 the alkali can creep. 



Where fresh water or water contain- 

 ing little or no alkali is available during 

 a part of the year, occasion should be 

 taken of this opportunity to use water 



plentifully, so that the accumulations 

 of alkali can be washed out of the soil 

 and a store of fresh water left in it. 

 Flood waters from western streams are 

 generally better than the normal or low- 

 water flow. This is not always the 

 case, however, particularly in the first 

 flood which follows a dry period, for 

 such floods sweep down the stream the 

 alkali crusts which have formed, and 

 often carry in solution large quantities 

 of soluble matter. 



Another method for the utilization of 

 bad water has been suggested, and that 

 is the growing of .plants resistant to al- 

 kali. Date palms, pomegranates, pears, 

 sugar beets, barley, sorghum, and as- 

 paragus are all more or less resistant 

 and offer something in favor, over more 

 tender species, to the farmer who must 

 handle saline or alkaline water 



AN OBJECT LESSON IN REFORESTATION, 



HOW BARREN WASTES HAVE BEEN RECLAIMED IN 

 FRANCE NEARLY 700,000 ACRES OF CULTIVATED 

 FORESTS NOW GROWING IN FRANCE HOW T TO 

 SAVE THE SAND DUNES OF OUR COAST COUNTRY. 



BY 



ALBION W. TOURGEE, 



U. S. CONSUL AT BORDEAUX, FRANCE. 



THE growth of the maritime pine 

 in the Landes and adjoining de- 

 partments undoubtedly marks the most 

 remarkable achievement ever wrought 

 by human agency in the modification of 

 natural conditions of soil and climate 

 for the benefit of mankind. It is a 

 marvelous demonstration not only of 

 the practicability, but also of the almost 

 boundless beneficence of reforestation. 

 It demonstrates the fact that while hu- 

 man recklessness has swept forest and 

 verdure from so vast an area of the Old 

 World and the New human skill and 

 care are able to reclaim the most barren 

 and desolate regions with a growth 

 which not only stays the advance of 

 devastation, but reestablishes in its place 

 the most healthful, agreeable, and 

 profitable conditions. 



At the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century the region between the Gironde 

 and the Pyrenees, excepting a narrow 

 belt which skirted the southern bank of 

 the river, extending inward from 50 to 

 100 miles, was not only one of the most 

 barren in the world, but apparently al- 

 most hopeless of reclamation. For 100 

 miles along the shore of the Bay of Bis- 

 cay there stretched a threatening array 

 of gray sand dunes which year by year 

 pursued their irresistible march toward 

 the heart of the most productive land 

 in Europe at a rate varying from i to 

 200 feet a year. One after another 

 great waves of sand, moved by the rest- 

 less winds that swept across the Atlan- 

 tic, continued their unceasing march 

 across the fair plains of southern 

 France, burying all before them fields, 



