16 FOREST TREES. 
be scarcely preceptible, that nothing is destroyed. 
The sand gradually rises among crops as if they were 
inundated with water, and the herbage and the tops 
of trees appear quite green and healthy, even to the 
moment of their being overwhelmed with the sand, 
which is so very fine as to resemble that used in Eng- 
land in hour glasses.” This wide expanse of sand, roll- 
ing inland from the ocean, and threatening to bury the 
whole province, has been rendered stationary and 
harmless by planting it with the Maritime Pine 
(Pinus Pinaster). More than. 100,000 acres have 
been planted; and great quantities of tar, resin, lamp- 
black, and timber of inferior quality are produced. 
In the north of Germany, tracts of loose drifting 
sand have, in like manner, been covered with forests 
of pine. The Ailanthus has been successfully em- 
ployed in fixing the surface of sandy wastes in the 
south of Russia. In all these instances, lands pre- 
viously not only worthless, but a positive nuisance, 
have been made to yield a profitable return. 
