Reforesting Wastes. 203 
quarts of resin (at $3). An estimate of recent date 
places the value of this area at $100,000,000. 
Centrally located between the valleys of the Loire and 
the Cher near Orleans, lies the region of La Sologne, a 
sandy, poorly drained plain upon an impenetrable cal- 
careous sub-soil giving rise to stagnant waters; this 
region too, had been originally densely wooded and was 
described as a paradise in early times; but from the be- 
ginning of the 17th century to the end of the 18th it 
was deforested, making it an unhealthy, useless waste. 
By 178%, 1,250,000 acres of this territory had become 
absolutely abandoned. About the middle of the 19th 
century a number of influential citizens constituted 
themselves as a committee to begin its work of recovery, 
the Director General of Forests being authorized to 
assume the presidency of that committee. As a result a 
canal 25 miles in length, and 350 miles of road were 
built and some 200,000: acres, all non-agricultural lands 
were planted with Maritime and Scotch pine, the state 
furnishing assistance through the forest service and 
otherwise. A set-back occurred during the severe win- 
ter of 1879, frost killing many of the younger planta- 
tions, which led to the substitution of the hardier Scotch 
pine for the Maritime pine in the plantings. The cost 
per acre set out with about 3,500 two-year old seedlings 
amounted to $5.00. An estimate of the value of these 
plantations places it at $18,000,000 so that lands which 
50 years ago could hardly be sold for $4.00 per acre, now 
bring over $3.00 as an annual revenue. 
In the province of Champagne, South of Reims, arid 
lime-stone wastes of an extent which in the 18th century 
