60 STOCK RANGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



ing of seed usually proves unsatisf actory , as the seed is either buried 

 too deeply by the drifting of the sand, or blown away by the strong 

 trade winds. 



The main objection to beach grass is the cost of planting. In Bel- 

 gium, Scotland, and England, and on the coast of Massachusetts, 

 however, the importance of reclamation has been considered to far 

 outweigh the initial cost of planting, and hundreds of acres have 

 been systematically planted according to the method described above. 

 At Cape Cod, on the Massachusetts coast, some 90 acres were planted 

 in three years, from 1895 to 1898. The cost amounted from $60 to 

 $65 per acre, requiring 15 men and 1 horse about two days, work- 

 ing nine hours per da} T , to cover an acre with plants. On the Cali- 

 fornia coast, where land is still cheap and labor costly, the farmers 

 claim that they can not afford to pay so much for the reclamation of 

 sand dunes. 



On some portions of the English coast the work of sand-dune plant- 

 ing is performed by the municipal or other local governments. Heavy 

 penalties are inflicted for pulling up or otherwise removing a single 

 plant. This appears to be the most just method of treating what is 

 more than a private nuisance. It does not seem fair that a farmer or 

 private landowner should be compelled, in order to save his land, to 

 pay for the planting of many acres of sand dunes which do not belong 

 to him and from the use of which he can derive little or no profit. It 

 seems more just that the duty of reclamation should devolve upon the 

 public. 



Sea lyme grass or Rancheria grass (Elymus arenarius), which is 

 sparingly found in sandy places along the California coast from Santa 

 Cruz northward, is a sand binder of only medium quality and is rec- 

 ommended for cultivation in company with beach grass. Professor 

 Scribner states that "these two grasses when combined seem admira- 

 bly adapted for the purpose of forming a barrier to the encroachment 

 of the sea. The sand that the beach grass arrests and collects about 

 itself the lyme grass secures and holds fast." It has little, if any, 

 forage value. 



Utilization of sand dunes. — The question is often asked how sand 

 dunes may be utilized and what forage plants will grow upon them. 

 Beach grass and sea lyme grass, though sometimes grazed when very 

 young, can not be considered as forage plants. It has been stated 

 that awnless brome grass (Bromus inermis), broncho grass (B. maxi- 

 mums gussoni), and Bromus sterilis will grow well in such situations; 

 but their culture as sand binders is only in the experimental stage, and 

 their nutritive value appears to be comparatively low. Bull clover 

 (Trifolium loormslcjoldii), one of the best of the native California 

 clovers, makes a dense turf and luxuriant growth (sometimes knee- 

 deep) in low, moist flats between the dunes, but does not appear to grow 

 on the dunes themselves. Atriplex halimoides, one of the Australian 



