214 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES 
most successful work has been done in Golden Gate Park at San Fran- 
cisco. Here the dunes were extensive and w^ere gradually moving 
towards the city. Experiments w^ere made wdth planting barley and some 
of the lupines, but success only came when the beach grass was intro- 
duced. A large number of trees have been planted and the most satis- 
factory are the Monterey pine and the Monterey cypress, which are 
native to that immediate region, and several species of eucalyptus and 
the Austrian w^attles (Acacia latifolia and A. laphantha). 
THE FUTUEE IN DUNE EECLAMATION. 
Wherever the dunes exist in this country there are numerous native 
grasses and other herbs which are w'ell suited to preliminary planting, 
and there are also numerous conifers and a few broad leaf trees which 
have a high value tor the reclaiming of the dunes. Investigations seem 
to show that such conifers as the white pine, jack pine, loblolly pine, 
Norw^ay spruce and Austrian pine where not subjected to severe salt 
winds are adapted for planting on dunes and sand plains of the eastern 
states. Through the Pacific and Columbia river country such conifers 
as the bull pine, sand pine, Monterey pine and Monterey cypress are val- 
uable tor planting. 
On inland sandy lands such as the sand hills of Nebraska, the experi- 
mental planting of forest trees has been much more extensive and satis- 
factory, and the Forest Service is convinced that a very large per cent 
of the so-called absolute w^aste lands of the west can be reclaimed and 
made to grow forests of coniferous trees. The work will require the 
expenditure of considerable sums of money and years of patient, per- 
sistent work, yet the outcome cannot be other than success and that a 
financial one. The same and worse problems and difficulties have been 
met and solved by European foresters. We can profit to a certain ex- 
tent by their experience and accomplish w^hat they have accomplished 
in a much shorter time. 
The great need at present in this sand dune work is a definite knowl- 
edge of the dunes as they exist in this country. We must have more 
accurate knowledge of the origin of the sand which is forming a certain 
group of dunes, of the processes by w^hich the dunes are being formed, 
of the amount of plant food which the sand contains, of the moisture 
in the sand and its source, and lastly and of most importance, of the 
flora of the dunes the herbs the shrubs and the trees, so that we may 
judge as to what grasses and trees can be most successfully planted. 
From this knowledge it wTll be comparatively easy to plan as to where 
the sand shall be held, whether in the form of a protective dune or at 
the place of its origin, and what methods of work wfill be most practical. 
