FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 409 



with extensive forests. The woodlands passed gradually from the hands of the Gov- 

 ernment, and were stripped of trees. The drifting sands of the north shore moved, in 

 the course of two centuries, several miles inland, covering farms and villages. Now 

 the sands are held in bondage by extensive forests of oak and beech. 



In Holland the beaches were guarded, because they served as natural dikes for 

 the protection of farm lands. The marsh land was drained and tilled, creeks became 

 canals, and the dunes, a menace to other countries, served to protect the industrious 

 Dutch from incursions of the North Sea. 



Much could be said of experiences with dunes in other parts of the world. It is, 

 however, in France, in the department of Gascony, that we find the most striking and 

 valuable object-lesson, and of this I shall speak more in detail later. 



Shifting sand is not confined to the seashore. There are immense areas of it 

 inland in many parts of the world. Were we to destroy the forest cover on the coastal 

 plain of the Eastern United States, it would become a mass of shifting sand — sterile, 

 desolate and unfit for habitation, although capable of producing some of the finest and 

 most valuable woods of the whole world. It is, of course, in regions where sand accumu- 

 lates and shifts in great masses that it looks most formidable. Much damage, however, 

 is being done in an unnoticeable and apparantly harmless form on almost every sandy 

 farm. Delicate crops are cut off close to the ground by the sand-blast, and the finer 

 particles of the soil are picked up and transported long distances by even ordinary 

 winds. The wind has a great parching power, and unless the soil is protected by 

 hedges or belts of forests, its liability to shift increases accordingly. Were it not for 

 forest belts and high turf fences and hedges in Denmark, a large part of the country 

 would blow into the sea. In fact, so serious is the action of the wind on such soils 

 that protective forest belts against the prevailing winds are essential. It would be 

 well to cultivate such soils in narrow strips, alternating with strips of such crops as 

 crimson clover, with here and there belts of trees. In such regions it is well to 

 encourage industries which require slight or no cultivation of the soil, such as apicul- 

 ture and poultry culture. These may well be classed as subsidiary forest industries. 

 In speaking of bee-culture, Prof. Howard, of the Division of Entomology at Washington, 

 says: "This branch of agricultural industry does not impoverish the soil in the least; 

 but, on the contrary, results in better seed and fruit crops. The total money gain to 

 the country from the prosecution of bee-culture would undoubtedly be placed at 

 several times twenty million dollars annually, were we only able to estimate in dollars 

 and cents the result of the work of bees in cross-fertilizing the blossoms of fruit crops." 



Poultry, especially turkeys, have been extensively used in combating insect pests, 

 and, in many instances, with great success. It is even reported that a man in Salina, 

 Kansas, keeps a flock of one thousand turkeys, which he rents to his neighbors for the 

 purpose of ridding their farms of grasshoppers. 



