Whitcombe. — On the Reclcmiation of Sand-land. 109 



above, and will not think the subject one undeserving the attention of the 

 Legislature. 



In France the subject has long since been legislated on. By the 41st 

 section of the law of 16th September, 1807, the government was empowered to 

 make grants of sand-lands to individuals, under certain prescribed regulations 

 for planting them ; and also to undertake itself the work of reclaiming the 

 soil, whether by plantation or otherwise, as might be considered necessary. 

 Under certain circumstances, when the encroachment of sand on the property 

 of any individual, without sufficient efforts on his part to arrest it, threatened 

 to do any public injury, the law of 7th July, 1833, might be brought into 

 operation, under which the said lands were valued by arbitration, and the 

 government, paying the amount of valuation to the proprietor, took over the 

 land, and dealt with it under the law of 1807. Later still, the government 

 has adopted another auxiliary means of dealing with the matter, and now, 

 through the intervention of the Conseils Generaux of the Provinces, makes 

 grants of seeds of pines, etc., to the districts troubled with sand, and also 

 makes grants of money to cultivators who have succeeded in arresting the 

 sand over a certain area by means of the oyat. 



Now as to the means generally adopted. The first place to commence plan- 

 tation on is the generally level space between high-water mark and the foot 

 of the downs, or sandhills, over which the sand, propelled by the wind, 

 travels without stoppage. It is well not to operate on too extended a surface 

 at once. The plants which are more especially suited to this purpose are 

 those which not only can grow in the driest sand and live in an atmosphere 

 impregnated with saline exhalations, and even with salt sea spray in high 

 winds, but, above all, those whose roots have the property of spreading 

 closely and compactly for considerable distances, and whose stems possess a 

 toughness which preserves them for a lengthened period. 



The following is the system which has been generally adopted in sowing : 

 Take one-third (rather in number than in bulk) of seeds of the trees and 

 shrubs you intend to sow, and to this add two-thirds of seeds of plants of as 

 rapid a growth as possible, whose stems will shelter for the first few years the 

 ligneous plants, and prevent their roots from becoming bare and exposed. The 

 sowing should be thick and broadcast, and the seeds covered by a light 

 harrowing. Then, to lessen the mobility of the soil, branches of trees, fresh 

 cut, with their leaves on, or, in default of these, branches of broom or furze, 

 are spread and fixed on the surface by means of pegs ; these afford a shelter 

 from the drifting effect of the wind and from the rays of the sun. If branches, 

 etc., cannot be procured in a sufficient quantity, the following plan is adopted : 

 Fascines of a tolerable thickness are united in lines and disposed chess-board 

 fashion (like Maori taro beds), and the sowing is made. In a few years a 



