FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 27 



GERMAN. 



First and second years. — Vocabulary, grammar, composition, translation of German works 

 on forest culture. 



MILITARY INSTRUCTION. 



I 



First Year. — Lessons in shooting, soldier school, company school. 

 Second Year. — Artillery study and fortifications. 

 ' Practical Exercises — Manoeuvres, shooting field service, reconnoitering, fortifications. 



DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS — CAUSES AND RESULTS. 



The destruction of forests, frequently resulting from the abuse of man, 

 such as indiscriminate cutting, immoderate pasturage of homed cattle, sheep, 

 and especially goats, and frequently from fires due to negligence and care- 

 lessness. The causes of destruction beyond the control of man are cyclones, 

 lightning, erosions made by the sea, rivers, &c. 



Forests devastated by any of the above-mentioned causes are renewed 

 either by the help of nature or by artificial means. 



RECLAMATION OF SAND DUNES. 



From the mouth of the Gironde river to that of the Adour there are 

 immense hills, of different dimensions and altitudes, formed during ages by 

 deposits of sand from the sea at high tide, and which the west wind carried 

 inland for a -great distance, forming a tract of six hundred miles in width 

 without a shrub or plant growing upon the inhospitable and barren waste. 

 The invasion of the sand threatening villages and agriculture of the coast 

 had become a terror, and every effort was made to arrest its invading march. 

 The first effort of importance was made during the last century by Abbe 

 Desbiez, of the Academy of Bordeaux, who conceived the idea of fixing the 

 dunes by cultivation. No reliable date is extant bearing upon the result of 

 his labor. In 1786 Mr. Bremonthier, a civil engineer, began a successful 

 experiment of reclaiming the dunes by first building palisades parallel to the 

 sea and then by sowing the dunes with seed of the maritime pine mixed with 

 seed of the furze and brush broom. Previous experiments had demonstrated 

 that the pine seed planted alone would not grow. Mr. Bremonthier was the 

 first to permanently fix the sand dunes of France, and as a result of his labor 

 and example the dunes to-day are covered with valuable forests, which, from 

 their production of resin, lumber, pasturage, &c., are a source of wealth. 

 The pine forest of La T6te-de-Buch is the oldest in this department. It was 

 given to the inhabitants of that section of the Guienne in 1543 by Frederic 

 de Foix. 



The department of the Gironde was formerly covered by forests which, 

 with the exception of small tracts and the sand dunes, are now remembered 

 only in the names of several communes, such as Sauve-Majeure, P16ne-Selve- 

 Bonscat and La Barthe, all signifying places once covered by trees. The 

 principal species of trees in this district are the pine, black oak, white or 

 tanzine oak, elm, yoke elm, willow acacia or locust, Lombardy poplar, Caro- 



