80 PLANTING OF SAND DUNES. 



Sand dunes in Belgium. — Tu a communication from the chief engineer 

 in charge of these' works, received through the Belgian Legation, dated 

 Bruges, June 4, 1877, we learn the following in reference to the results 

 of planting upon the dunes of Belgium : 



Somfl attempts at planting have been undertaken upon the dunes of our shore be- 

 tween Bhiukenborgh and Ostend, and at Adinkerke at a place called La Panne. The 

 coaifers do not yield a good result, and, after forty years, we find Weymouth pines and 

 th'^ Scotch and Austrian pines scarcely over 0.2 meters (T.9 inches) in diameter, and 4 

 moters (13 feet) in height. The specimens are gnarled and scrubby, and broken at the 

 top, the winds being too severe on our coast for the development of these species. The 

 alder, poplar, birch, and ash grow to much greater height in the depressions of the 

 dunes, and better in proportion to the humidity of the soil and shelter from the north 

 winds. The oak does not succeed. 



The aspen-poplar has been planted with some success upon the dunes at La Panne, 

 upon the estate of M. Bortiere, and this agriculturist proposes to use the sajiwood of 

 tiiis tree in the manufacture of paper. Ho has placed in the International Horticul- 

 tural Exhibition at Amsterdam (1877) a specimen of the paper, in sheets, obtained from 

 trees four years old raised upon the dunes of La Panne. The plantations of trees upon 

 dunes, by way of experiment, have hitherto been quite limited in extent, the sands on 

 our coast being generally fixed by means of the opa (sand-reed) and the argoussicr. The 

 first of these is planted in tufts of fifteen to twenty stems, in quincunx order, about 15 

 inches apart, and the months of November, March, and April are found most favorable 

 for this operation. The latter is of the elfeagnus family, an indigenous spring shrub 

 ■with a silvery leaf, with which they make little hedges along the flanks of the dunes, 

 •where most exposed to the winds, for the purpose of hindering the movement of the 

 sand. 



As for the drainage of our littoral dunes, it is simply done by open trenches, at the 

 lowest places, so that the water may flow into the nearest streams. But at Scheven- 

 inge, near the Hague, thero are underground conduits, and the water, which is of ex- 

 cellent quality, is used at the capital for domestic purposes. 



The dunes on the shores of Holland and Denmark have been an 

 object of care by the government for a long period, reliance being 

 chiefly had to the cultivation of grasses and creeping plants and finally 

 trees, and the exclusion of burrowing and grazing animals.^ The 

 Arundo arenaria, and other species already mentioned, are found to be 

 especially useful in arresting the sands. 



The shores of the Baltic are lined with dunes, and attempts to con- 

 trol them date back some centuries ; but they were often neglected in 

 troubled times, especially during the thirty years' war. The sands 

 nearest the sea are best fixed by grasses with tracing and sprouting 

 roots, and an approved plan is to plant the Psamma areyiaria, Arundo 

 arenaria, in patches so as to fill squares four meters on a side, in 



planted in 1876 was 78,515.46 hectares (194,536 acres). In the departments of the 

 North, of La Somme, and of Pas-de-Calais they chiefly belonged to individuals who had 

 undertaken to plant them under a subsidy from the state, consisting chiefly of the 

 seeds of the maritime pine. 



In the Landes and the Gironde about 6,000 hectares (14,820 acres) of the sowing had 

 been finished within fifteen years. France draws an annual revenue of about 130,000 

 francs from the resinous products of the forests of maritime pine in the Gironde and 

 in the Landes. In La Charente-Iuf6rieure and La Vend6 the resin, by reason of the 

 climate, no longer pays. 



' Marsh's " Earth as Modified by Human Action," p. 592. He states that Krause 

 enumerates 171 plants native of the coast sands of Prussia, and that Andrcseii, in 

 Jutland, carries the number to 234. 



The Danish Government, toward the close of the last century, organized an efficient 

 system of planting the dunes of Jutland, by which eventually a valuable growth of 

 timber was obtained, and the further spread of the drifts arrested. (i&.,595.) 



The pypgrass (Erhartha gir/antea) has been found very suitable for planting sands. 

 It shoots along au anderground stem many feet, throwing up at intervals of 10 or 12 

 inches, stalks 2 feet or 30 inches high, from which the tufted seed is blown by the 

 ■winds, and the production of the plant is extended over loose sands to the leeward. 

 {Report of Colonial Botanist, Cape of Good Hope, 1865,2?. 83-93.) 



