200 France. 
reclamation of waste lands, of which in 1879 it was es- 
timated there were still 20,000,000 acres in extent. Hs- 
pecially the “reboisement” work in the Alpine districts 
as a result of the law of 1882 has become celebrated. 
As late as the 18th century, after the forest area had 
already been reduced to a relatively small proportion, we 
find laws enacted encouraging clearings for farm use. 
The famine years of 1762-1766 gave rise to such legis- 
lation; the “declaration” of 1766 exempted those who 
cleared land for farm purposes for 15 years from all 
taxes. As a result of this invitation some 750,000 acres 
were cleared, and the practice of clearing for farm use 
continued until the middle of the 19th century. In this 
way, by inconsiderately exposing soil which would not 
everywhere be found adapted to farm use, wastes natur- 
ally existing were greatly increased. The movement 
for recovery of these waste lands dates “rom the begin- 
ning of the 19th century, and to-day reforestation by 
state, communal and private effort encouraged by legis- 
lative acts during the last sixty years, has restored more 
than 2,500,000 acres of lost ground to forest production. 
There are four definite regions of large extent in 
which systematic effort in this direction has been made, 
namely, the sand dunes of Gascony, the Landes of 
Southwestern France, the sandy plains of La Sologne, 
the limestone wastes of Champagne, and the mountain 
slopes in the Vosges and Jura-Alps. 
The sand dunes on the coast of France comprise 
round 350,000 acres, those on the coast of Gascony in 
Southwestern France alone have an extent of nearly 
250,000 acres, these being the most important and hav- 
