FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 299 



lages they reach. It has been calculated that nearly 90 cubic yards of sand per yard of coast 

 line are thus annually transported inland. Works to arrest the destructive effects of this inva- 

 sion of sand have been in progress since 1789; they were originally carried out under the 

 department of public works, but since 1862 they have been placed under the forest depart- 

 ment. The total area of the dunes is said to be 224,154 acres, a part of which belongs to the 

 state, and a part to private owners, while a much smaller portion is communal property. 



In exposed situations the protective works consist of a wooden palisade, erected at a short 

 distance above high- water mark, and destined to promote the formation of an artificial dune, 

 with a view to prevent fresh arrivals of sand from bbing blown over the country. Under its 

 .shelter seeds of various kinds, principally those of the maritime pine [pinus tiiaritima), 

 broom, gorse, and gourbet {arundo arenaria), are sown ; the seeds being covered with brash- 

 wood to prevent the sand in which they are sown from moving ; and the sowing is thus con- 

 tinued inland, in successive belts, until a crop of trees is raised on the entire area. In less 

 exposed situations a wattled fence is substituted for the wooden palisades. In the departments 

 of Gironde and Landes, forests of the maritime pine have been most successfully raised in 

 this manner, the trees being tapped for resin, and the wood of those which have been ex- 

 hausted being sold for railway sleepers and other purposes. Bui north of the Loire the mari- 

 time pine is not sown, as in that region it does not yield a sufficient quantity of resin to repay 

 the cost of its introduction, and here it is sought merely to establish a crop of grass on the 

 ground. 



The law of 1810, relative to the treatment of the dunes, which is still in force, provides 

 that the government can order the planting up of any area which in the public interest 

 requires to be so dealt with. When the land or any part of it, belongs to communes or pri- 

 vate proprietors, who cannot or do not wish to undertake the work, the state can execute it, 

 reimbursing itself, with interest, from the subsequent yield of the forests. As soon as the 

 money so advanced has been recovered, the land is restored to the proprietors, who are bound 

 to maintain the works in good condition, and not to fell any trees without sanction of the forest 

 department. This system of raising forests on private lands would not be likely to succeed 

 elsewhere ; but here the extremely profitable cultivation of the maritime pine, due to the large 

 quantity of valuable resin that it yields in the hot and moisjt climate of the southwest littoral 

 coast, renders it a safe transaction for the state to engage in. 



Before the forest department took over the work in 1862, 111,787 acres had been dealt 

 with ; and the entire area has now been completed. The works have to be most scrupulously 

 maintained, in order to prevent a recurrence of the evil. 



CHAPTER IV 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION AND DEPARTMENT STAFF — ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZA- 

 TION. 



In order to carry out the work which has been brielly described in the preceding chapters, 

 a corps of professional foresters, composed as follows, is maintained, viz.: 



I Director of the Forest Department. 



9 Inspectors general. 



39 Conservators. 



245 Inspectors. 



234 Assistant-inspectors. 



308 Sub^assistant Inspectors [Gardes giniraux). 



3532 Brigadiers (Head Guards) and Guards. Subordinate Staff. 



Superior Staff. 



