Reforesting Wastes. 201 
ing for a long time endangered the adjoining pastures 
and fields. It seems that the land occupied by dunes 
was originally forested and that these were created by 
deforestation. 
As early as 1717 attempts at reforestation were made 
by the inhabitants, and from that time on small plant- 
ings were sporadically made. But the inauguration of 
systematic reforestation was begun only after a notable 
report by Brémontier, who in 1786 secured, as chief en- 
gineer of the department of Bordeaux, a sum of $10,000 
to be employed in ascertaining the possibilities of making 
a canal through the Landes and of fixing the dunes. As 
a result of this beginning, the method for their recovery 
having been by 1793 experimentally determined by 
Brémontier, 275,000 acres of moving sand have 
been fixed during the last century. The revolutionary 
government in 1799 created a Commission of Dunes, of 
which Brémontier was made president, and annual ap- 
propriation of $10,000 was made, later (in 1808) in- 
creased to $15,000. In 1817 the work was transferred 
to the Administration des Ponts et Chaussés. The ap- 
propriations were increased until in 1854 they reached 
$100,000 a year, and in 1865, the work being nearly fin- 
ished, the dunes were handed over to the forest adminis- 
tration. There being still about 20,000 acres to be re- 
covered, this was achieved in 1865, when 200,000 acres 
had been reforested at an expense of about $2,000,000, 
and an additional expense of $700,000 to organize the 
newly formed Pine forests. These, at present, with their 
resinous products and wood are furnishing valuable ma- 
terial. An unfortunate policy of ceding some of these 
forest areas to private and communal owners was in- 
augurated just as the planting was finished, so that at 
