170 FORESTRY IN THE LANDES 



parallel between the so-called sand wastes of the southern United States 

 and the great Landes region in southern France is most striking. What 

 has been accomplished in the Landes? In place of virtually worthless 

 fever-stricken land the French have a balance sheet of: (1) Revenue 

 producing forests, protected from fire; (2) a protection for such important 

 industries as agriculture; (3) a needed supply of timber/ mine props, and 

 resin products; (4) a healthy land to live in and largely increased popu- 

 lation. 



Is it to be wondered at that the French Chamber of Deputies has de- 

 clared that producing forests are of paramount necessity to the nation 

 and insist on their perpetuation, or that reforested land of this class 

 should be exempted from taxation for thirty years? But it should be 

 noted that the French Government itself took the initiative financially 

 and technically in the reclamation and sowing of the Landes; it blazed 

 the trail for the private owner. 



The Landes is a triangular area of some 1,977,000 acres ^ bounded by 

 the Atlantic Ocean and the three rivers, Garonne, Midouze, and Adour. 

 Three-quarters of a century ago this was mostly an unhealthy sand 

 waste of swamp land, ponds, brush, and limited scrubby stands of 

 maritime pine and a scattering of oak with other broadleaves. There 

 was no system of roads and the chief industry was sheep and goat graz- 

 ing. As early as 1737 the reclamation of this waste land was under 

 consideration, but only after Chambrelent and Bremontier had shown 

 that drainage and forestation was practicable did the State secure the 

 law of 1857 which provided for the (a) drainage of communal land and 

 (6) the construction of a system of roads to feed the areas drained and 

 forested. Without these betterments the continued forestation on a 

 large scale would have been well-nigh impossible. 



The drainage was finished in 1865 and cost only $172,484 to drain 

 468,767 acres (which had been purchased from the communes), and by 

 1860 $1,238,095 had been spent on roads. The communes had forested 

 183,000 acres by 1891 (or three-fourths the waste area they owned) and 

 the forestation of private land had not lagged behind. It should be 

 emphasized that to-day the State and communal forests under working 

 plans occupy the poorer sands on the dunes almost entirely on a strip 

 within four miles of the ocean. They form protection belts for the richer 

 private forests and agricultural land which is found on the better soils 

 inland. The system of management described later in this chapter 



1 The principal exploitations of the American Forest Engineers, A. E. F., were in 

 the Landes south of Bordeaux. They cut 41.4 million board feet. Major Swift Berry, 

 who was stationed in the Landes for two years, kindly reviewed this chapter and made 

 many valuable suggestions which were incorporated in the text. 



2 Huffel, Vol. I, pp. 177-184. 



