Sand Reclamation 



CHAPTER XXI. 



SAND RECLAMATION. 



SAND Reclamation is a matter of considerable interest to those 

 located in the coast counties of California. As the Park Com- 

 mission of San Francisco has, in the process of construction 

 of Golden Gate Park, overcome the difficulties of sand reclama- 

 tion, an account of how this has been done and of the work 

 preparatory to the construction of the Park, following the recla- 

 mation, is probably the best way to treat the subject of this 

 chapter. 



The sand dunes of San Francisco are situated in the extreme 

 westerly portion of the city, and, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, 

 lie entirely open and exposed to the storms of Winter and the 

 Summer winds which blow nearly every afternoon during the 

 latter season at the rate of twenty or more miles per hour. 



This sand is composed of small particles of granite, clean and 

 sharp, without any vegetable matter and having no clay or other 

 soil mixed with it even in the smallest proportion. On account 

 of the almost constant action of the wind, it was formerly kept 

 ever on the move, and in heavy gales drifted like snow, at times 

 being moved in a single day to a depth of three or four feet and 

 often being carried a distance of over a hundred feet. 



How to tie this moving mass of sand and to hold and bind 

 it from drifting was the first problem to be solved by the Park 

 builders. 



The first experiment tried was sowing barley-seed thickly 

 over the entire area, harrowing and cross-harrowing the sand so 

 as to cover the seed. In due course the seed sprouted and grew 

 to a height of several inches, covering the sand and holding it 



