FIRE CONSERVANCY. 317 



In the wooded dunes belonging [;to the State, the forests, 

 consisting of the Cluster Pine, aie intersected bv two series of 

 parallel protective paths cleared one kilometre (about f mile) 

 a part and cutting one another at right angles, thus forming squares 

 of about 250 acres each. This system is to be commended, sioce 

 it is easy to clear and keep free of dead leaves a path of from 17 

 to 20 feet wide, which is constantly used by the establishment and 

 others, and thus kept in a well-beaten state. It is no less easy 

 to remove from along the boundary also all heather bushes over 

 a width of from 130 to 170 feet, a width which will, as a rule, be 

 found amply sufficient. But as the pines are continually dropping 

 and strewing the soil with their dead needles, the best aliment the 

 fire can have, and feeding the conflagrations, once these have begun, 

 with large pieces of b irk full of resin and light enoughto be carried 

 in a blazing state by the wind o^er great distances, every pine tree 

 ought to be removed from this protective zone. Only instead of 

 letting it remain bare, it is much better in every respect to raise 

 on it a belt of the peduncled oak. This is effected by planting 

 out young seedlings of that species under the pines, so thinned 

 out as to form a sort of Primary Felling for the oak. As these 

 latter grow up, the pines should be gradually cleared away until 

 only a belt of pure oak remains. When this work is complete, 

 the pinetum will be found divided off into squares by bands of high 

 forest of oak, which occupy in the aggregate about a tenth of the 

 whole area. Under these open belts of oak, with the soil kept 

 free from brushwood and the protection-paths along its middle 

 maintained perfectly clear like regular avenues, fire can make but 

 little progress, the _ work of protection is thereby rendered easy, 

 and the regular establishment of guards and labourers will in most 

 cases be found quite sufficient to carry it out successfully. 



The protective measures, which we have just described, seem 

 to us to be all that can possibly he adopted at the present day in 

 the dunes and in the]similarly wooded landes of Gascony. Later 

 on, if the population in the Landes increases and cultivation 

 extendi?, it will be possible to separate the various forest cantons 

 from each other by means of lines of fields, themselves dotted over 

 with large oak. In any case, the penduncled oak, which is in- 

 digenous and grows well in that district, onght to form a valuable 

 element of those forests: We cannot continue to neglect its cul- 

 tivation except at the risk of extensive injuries and heavy loss. 



