ECONOMICAL GKOLOGT. 97 



rier to the other belts that are made to succeed it toward 

 the interior. When the trees are five or six years of age, 

 (I new plantation is made contiguous to the first, and more 

 inland, from 200 to 300 feet in breadth ; and so the pro- 

 cess is carried on until the summits of the hillocks are 

 gradually attained. 



" It was by proceeding in this way that Bremontier suc- 

 ceeded in covering, the barren sands of the Arrachon basin 

 with useful trees. Begun in 1787, the plantations in 1809 

 covered a surface of between 9,000 and 10,000 acres. The 

 success of these plantations surpassed all expectations ; in 

 sixteen years, the, pine trees were from thirty-five to forty 

 feet in height." 



As a matter of profit, the raising of pines on such lands 

 is entered upon in some parts of Massachusetts — the 

 French or Sea;-side pine {Pinus maritima) being preferred 

 to, our Yellow pine, on account of its standing the sea-air 

 better, and being a more rapid grower. 



The cultivation of pine has succeeded well on the up 

 lands of this county. It makes an average growth of 

 about a cord a year on old fields which grow up to pine. 

 Mr. J. Diverty sowed a field with pine many years since. 

 The growth was rapid, and in thirty years it yielded from 

 thirty to thirty-five cords of wood per acre. 



Beach sands are fixed in many places by holding them 

 together by means of the creeping and matted roots of 

 some varieties of beach grass, which are cultivated for the 

 purpose. In the Report of the Patent Office for 1854, it is 

 mentioned that among the seeds imported were the sand or 

 Searside Lyme Grass [Mlymus anenarius), and the Sea-Reed, 



