172 
reasons: It revels in the sea air; its narrow leaves and conical shape present 
comparatively little resistance to strong winds ; it is ornamental in appearance, and it 
furnishes a useful soft wood. For a list of other plants recommended, see page 175. 
Hitherto plantings of trees, &c., in sand reclamation works in this State have 
always been made from plants and not from seed; I desire to emphasise the desirability 
of sowing seed. If, however, seeding cannot take place, I would advocate the establish- 
ment of a small nursery within the sand-drift area. It need not be expensive, but the 
enormous advantage would accrue of plants being raised from the beginning in situa- 
tions as nearly as possible similar to those they would ultimately occupy, while, as 
arrangements would not have to be made for their conveyance from distant parts, they 
could be planted out at the most favourable opportunity. We will now return to the 
French method of establishing a vegetable growth on the dunes. 
In establishing trees on the dunes it is necessary to raise quick-growing shelter 
bushes (technically known as "nurses") at the same time. The "nurse" I would 
recommend for Norfolk Island Pines is Tea-tree scrub, and particularly Leptospermum 
leevigatum. The dune is divided into strips 50 or 60 feet wide, and protected, by 
means of a fascine fence, against the prevailing wind. The strip is then planted, quin- 
cunx fashion, with Marram Grass, the centres of the plants being, say 2 feet apart, 
the rows 6 feet apart. The seeds of the permanent trees and of the " nurse " are then 
sown between the clumps of Marram Grass. The sowings should be protected with 
branches of tea-tree or any other scrub cheaply obtainable, sea-weed, turf, &c., and the 
branches and other material should be pegged down, for it is of great importance that 
no disturbance of the surface should occur until the permanent growth 'or cover is 
established. Each season another block is similarly treated under the protection of the 
previous sowing, and thus an area of any required size is put under treatment. In 
France the plantation of sand-dunes has passed beyond the experimental stage, and 
there is no reason why we cannot soon say the same in New South Wales. 
In the Landes, at the present day, the sowings are made from east to west in the 
area protected by the dune. Of course, the sea (Bay of Biscay) is on the west. 
Under the old system in France it was the other way ; sowings were commenced immediately under 
the dune and proceeded westwards. This necessitated the continual shifting of the wattle fence erected to 
the east of the sowing to protect it from easterly winds, whereas by sowing in the contrary direction one 
sowing protects the next from these winds, while the dune protects the whole sufficiently from the west, 
and the cost of this fence is saved in all but the eastern belt of each block. As soon as the first block is 
completed, a second is commenced to leeward, under the united shelter of it and the dune littorale. When 
this second block is in due time finished, a third is begun, and so on, the work of afforesting being steadily 
pushed forward until the entire area is reclaimed.* 
I give two extracts from a valuable paper, f one showing the seeds deliberately 
planted and those which spring up accidentally from the refuse, and another showing 
* C. B. Naughton, op. tit. 
t " Reclamation of Drift-Sands in the Cape Colony," by Charles Dimond Horatio Braine, .loiini. I nut. Civil Engineers. 
Paper No. :!,:)")3, 1902. Reprinted in Agric. ./our*.. Cape of Good Hope, xxiii, 161 (t seq (Aug., 1003), with two illustrations 
of building, em run-lied upon by drift-sand and one of a tree left in the air by reason of the soil being blown away; these 
three frtun the Wextrrn Lands ( X.S.W.) Ki-port, 1901. A fourth photo of planting Marram Grass has been taken from the 
beginning uf work on a 1'ort Fairy (Vic.) sand-dune. The origin of these four illustrations i, through inadvertence, not 
stated, 
