CHAPTER X. 



Natural History and General Culture of the Maritime Pine 

 IN France. 



Sect. I. — Commendation hestotved 07i the Maritime Pine. 



The success which has followed the endeavours of M. Bremontier to 

 arrest and utilise the dunes and sand-drifts of the landes of Gascony, 

 by planting them with the pinus maritima, has led to the name of 

 this pine being closely associated with thoughts of these landes, not 

 only there, but in lands far remote, in which attention has been given 

 to the subject. 



The growth of the maritime pine in France is not confined to 

 Gascony, but is carried out elsewhere as a temporary application of 

 sylviculture to prepare the soil for agriculture, or for the intro- 

 duction of trees better adapted to the climate, or to the wants of the 

 inhabitants of the country adjacent, or more remote. In some of the 

 districts in which this is done the trees do not attain so great an age 

 and size as they do on the landes of the Gironde and adjacent dunes. 

 This is the case on La Sologne, in the district of the Loire and the 

 Cher, where they generally have to be felled after a growth of 

 twenty years, at which age the trees may supply supports for tele- 

 graphic wires, and wood which may be applied to similar uses ; but 

 it is chiefly as firewood that the produce can command a sale, and 

 in such districts special attention has been given to the conversion of 

 these products into fuel. 



M. Boitel says of the maritime pine : " The rapid growth of this 

 evergreen tree has made it a favourite with foresters. What other 

 tree becomes productive at seven or eight years of age, and even 

 then exhibits a strength and beauty which completely changes the 

 aspect of the country by changing desert ground into a forest ! 



" Add to these advantages that it thrives in light poor soil unfit 

 for any other purpose, and we can easily comprehend how much it is 

 prized. 



" The forester of the Landes or of Sologne exhibits with pride 

 heaths turned into forests by the labour of his hands. So a desert 



