143 NATURAL HISTORY OP MARITIME PINE. 



And again in the same work he writes, (page 289) : "Thus 

 one may say explicitly that in maritime pines the creator of woods 

 is more than remunerated his advances, that he is even, in the benefits 

 obtained during twelve years, reimbursed his first advances. I might 

 even say that he is so within from eight to nine years ; for, in the 

 examples I have given, the net produce of the two first thinnings 

 executed, the one at seven years and the other at eight years from 

 the sowing, has been three hundred francs, while at this moment the 

 advances, capital, and interest, have not come to this amount." 



Such statements M. Samanos ridicules, and goes on to say : " J. 

 L. Crinon, in his work bearing the title le Forestier pratiden, (page 

 50) writes in these terms : ' I see amongst these, pines which would 

 measure from ten to fourteen cubic decisteres, and which have not 

 been planted more than from forty-five to fifty years. These trees on 

 an average scarcely occupy twenty-five centiares of ground. If we 

 estimate their value at forty francs each — they cannot be less than 

 this in value — and, reckon tha,t there are to be found four hundred of 

 them in a hectare, we shall find that a hectare planted in pines 

 will avail for seventeen thousand francs worth of wood, after from 

 fifty to sixty years ! What is the kind of wood which offers like 

 advantages to this ] ' " 



" Evidently," says M. Samanos, "it has not an equal ! " But he says 

 it ironically, and goes on to say : 



" I might go on to cite a host of opinions by many authors, such as 

 Emile Beres, Baudrillard, Ballet-Petit, etc, all marked by numerous 

 errors. 



" 'Although the value of these woods,' said,.in 1826, M. Bilaudel to 

 the shareholders, ' varies according as the situation is more or less 

 near to the cultivated lands, still, and that according to calculations 

 in which there is nothing taken for granted, there is not even in the 

 actual state of things any speculation in agriculture more sure and 

 more probable than this is.' " 



All such statements M. Samanos condemns. I cite them as views 

 which have been advanced, founded it may be upon isolated cases, 

 but I cite them with the qualification of the oritique by M. Samanos, 

 whose treatise is valued highly by my correspondents in France. 



Sect. II. — General Culture and Exploitation of the Maritime Pine. 



The maritime pine, so exclusively cultured on the landes of the 

 Gironde, is nearly allied to the Spardemiy, or cluster pine (Pinus 



