rect benefits that come from rightly located 
and properly tended forests of this class, es- 
pecially in mountain regions, May even en- 
title them to be regarded, at any rate to the 
nation, as being of equal value with those 
more favorably located, that make their re- 
turn in supplying timber and wood and other 
forest products. So whether the purpose of 
afforestation and other related work in high 
mountain regions is torrent regulation or ava- 
lanche control, it beccmes a part of the for- 
estry program that is rightfully entitled to 
the emphasis that the French Forest Service 
and the Swiss Forest Service are now giving 
it. 
RECLAMATION IN THE 
SOUTH OF FRANCE 
The other special development in forestry 
for which the French are noted, perhaps 
even more than for reboisement, is the re- 
result is that all along this stretch of coast, 
in the departments of Gironde and of Landes, 
sand dunes are formed. In former years 
these sand dunes moved steadily inland, ren- 
dering the region behind a barren waste. 
The situation along the southwest coast of 
France, as regards sand dunes, differs from 
that of our Atlantic seaboard in that in 
France the prevailing winds blow inland from 
the sea, whereas with us the winds come 
mainly from the land. For this reason the 
dunes along the central Atlantic coast of the 
United States are not dangerous. But still 
they present a problem, as is typified by the 
dune control work on the so-called ‘‘Province 
lands’’ on Cape Cod. Elsewhere in the 
United States we have other shifting sand 
areas; the stretch on the Pacific, near the 
Presidio at San Francisco; certain sections 
along the Columbia river; the sand hills of 
Nebraska; and the area at the south end of 
TYPICAL 
STAND OF 
MARITIME 
PINE SHOWING 
METHOD OF 
TURPENTINING. 
THIS IS THE 
FIRST SEASON’S 
TAPPING 
clamation of the sand wastes in the Landes 
and other contiguous departments in the 
southwest of France. Putting the story in 
one sentence, the work of the foresters has 
within a little over a century transformed 
that portion of the country from being a re- 
gion that was poverty stricken, unhealthful 
and practically without economic value, into 
one of, if not the most prosperous, substan- 
tial and salubrious parts of France. It is a 
truly remarkable transformation. How it 
has been brought about is a tale worth tell- 
ing. 
The southern part of the west coast of 
France runs for something over one hundred 
and fifty miles on an almost north and south 
line. It is a flat region and between the 
mouth of the Garonne river, north of Bor- 
deaux, and the Adour river, that empties into 
the ocean near Bayonne, the coast line is one 
long beach of fine sand. Facing the Atlantic, 
it is subjected to the prevailing westerly 
winds which are often of high velocity. The 
Lake Michigan that can almost be overlooked 
from the ‘“‘Wide East Windows”. The con- 
trol of shifting sand is therefore to us more 
than of mere academic interest. 
HISTORY OF THE 
DUNES OF GASCONY 
Some of those who read this letter may re- 
member the pictures of the Landes which 
used to find a place in the old school geogra- 
phies—shepherds mounted on tall stilts, all 
busily knitting. The women of the Landes 
still knit, but there is no need any longer for 
stilts. What was formerly waste land is 
now productive forest. The old marshes and 
swamps that lay among the sand hills have 
been drained. When the inhabitants wish to 
go from place to place Many of them now 
travel by automobile. It is a different coun- 
try. And the change is all due to the work 
of the foresters. 
It is supposed that in ancient times much 
of this section was forested. But by the end 
(60) 
