EORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



across its fairest fields the aridness of 

 the Sahara. 



In the first year of the nineteenth 

 century one of the sons of the doomed 

 region had an idea. It was a simple 

 one, but the times and circumstances 

 were ripe for its adoption. It was that 

 if the seeds of the maritime pine were 

 gathered, sprouted carefully, and the 

 young trees planted in advantageous 

 positions, where the moving sands would 

 not overwhelm them until their tough 

 roots had taken a firm hold, their wiry 

 leaves, which loved the briny spume, 

 would offer no resistance to the wind, 

 and, falling about their roots, would 

 give shelter and nutriment until a forest 

 grew which would hold the sands in 

 check and save the threatened interior 

 from desolation. 



The idea was brought to the atten- 

 tion of Napoleon, in whose hands was 

 not only the present, but the future, of 

 France. He saw not only the danger, 

 but the way to safety. His vision pene- 

 trated the centuries, and he saw the 

 march of the deadly dunes arrested 

 and the desert they had already cre- 

 ated made to blossom like the rose. A 



century has passed and the statue of 

 Bremontier looks down one of the great 

 furrows which lie between the dunes 

 he showed how to conquer and restore 

 to verdant prosperity. Napoleon has 

 added another laurel to that fame which 

 makes his name almost a forbidden one 

 to the peoples whom he forged into a 

 nation of unique and marvelous soli- 

 darity. The greatest of all his victories 

 is that by which the ever-increasing 

 legions of the maritime pine are mus- 

 tered along the coast from the mouth of 

 the Loire to the Pyrenees to shelter the 

 sunny plains from the assault of the 

 sand-laden waves of the Atlantic and 

 convert impending evil into an economic 

 blessing. Today the dark squadrons of 

 the maritime pine are posted on thou- 

 sands of sandy slopes, faithful guardians 

 in the shelter of which the vineyards 

 and wheat fields rest secure. The gray 

 dunes which were sweeping over the 

 land have become serried fortresses, 

 which shelter civilization and prosperity. 

 Here, again, man has pitted himself 

 against the destructive forces of nature 

 and won, making the winds and waves 

 his servants for the renovation of past 



NATIVES OF THE FRENCH I,ANDES. MOST OF THE TERRITORY SHOWN IS NOW COVERED 



WITH PINE TREES. 



