WASTE LANDS 37 
2. Shingle beaches——England is rich in shingle 
beaches. For the most part these are narrow strips 
of pebbles protecting low-lying ground from the sea. 
The principal use of these is defensive, and to ensure 
them from being breached or overrun by high tides 
they should be fixed by suitable planting. 
In certain cases, as at Orfordness, Rye, and notably 
at Dungeness, enormous areas of shingle are deposited, 
often covering many square miles. Such aggregates 
are termed apposition beaches from the successive strips 
or unit beaches lying side by side that compose them. 
Cut off from the sea, the inner beaches are apt to remain 
sterile for long periods, largely because the sea no longer 
gaining access, they are deprived of sea-borne seeds to 
colonise them and of the vegetable drift to form a 
humus soil. 
It has often occurred to the writer that these areas 
might be turned to some account by afforestation, For 
that purpose it would be necessary in the first instance 
to sow nurse plants, such as gorse and white alders 
(Alnus incana), which, possessing nitrogen fixing root 
tubercles, would at the same time enrich the soil. 
These would be followed by the planting of trees— 
the most suitable species for the purpose would have 
to be ascertained by experiment, as there exists no 
experience to guide us. 
3. Salt marshes ——The value of these for reclaiming 
by banking out the sea is well known and requires no 
emphasis here. On the East Coast especially much 
ground was won formerly in this way, though since the 
fall in agricultural prices there has been no inducement 
to risk the large investment of capital which these 
