PINUS PINASTER. 
9 
appointed by the French Government, made a report on the downs, and announced that about 12,500 acres of downs (from Bayonne to Medoc 
in the one direction, and from the sea to the mouth of the river Garonne in the other) had been covered with thriving plantations, and 
that it was found a thatching or covering of any kind of vegetable herbage, such as straw, reeds, rushes, seaweed, &c., might be used instead of 
branches, and was even preferable. Another improvement which had been tried and found very successful was the substitution of a fence of 
boards for that of wattled hurdles, so as more completely to exclude the wind .”—(See “ Diet, des Eaux et Forets,” tome i. p. 816.) 
Although the timber is of little value, the manufacture of tar, turpentine, and other resinous produces 
furnishes sufficient occupation for the inhabitants, who are thinly scattered over large spaces. Among 
the efforts of man to control the elements and alter the face of nature, the conquest of the Landes 
from the desolation of the desert is entitled to a place beside the recovery of Holland from the empire of 
the sea. 
Mr Brown (“ Forester,” p. 247) recommends a different mode of planting the Pinaster along sea- 
coasts from that followed so successfully in the Landes by M. de Bremontier. It is evident, however, that 
the nature of the soil on which he recommends his procedure is something very different from the shifty 
and uncertain sand-waves treated by M. Bremontier. Mr Browns plan is this: 
“ Line off a broad belt of land all along the length of the coast to be planted, not less than 200 yards in breadth; and as a fence to this, upon 
the side next the sea, ere6t a stone dyke if possible, in order the more readily to bring away the trees, by having a little shelter from the sea. 
But if stones for this purpose are not to be got conveniently, eredl a turf dyke of about 4 feet in height. The fence inside may be a hedge or 
otherwise, as taste or local circumstances may suggest. Care must be taken, upon all juttings of land bending out into the sea, to make in the 
line of fence a bold convex bend in the same direction, this being in addition to the general width. Flaving the fence eredled, plant the ground 
all over with Norway Maples and Sycamores, of each an equal number, at about 12 feet apart; that is to say, if the land be of anything like a 
loamy nature, and adapted to the growth of those trees. Having the hardwood planted, make up all the spaces between them with good strong 
plants of the Pinaster , till the ground all over have young trees averaging 4 feet apart. The hardwood plants will not come away rapidly, and 
will in all probability die down to the ground the second year after being planted. But the proprietor must not be at all discouraged upon this 
account, for it is quite natural that the young plants should do so, as they must suffer a very severe check by being at once transplanted from 
a nursery to the open ground upon the sea-coast. In order to strengthen the young Maples and Sycamores as much as possible, when they have 
remained one year upon the forest ground, have them all cut over by the surface of the ground, and the year following they will set away 
young shoots, which will bear the climate they rise in, the more so as by this time the Pinasters will be beginning to grow rapidly, and cause 
a little shelter over the ground. If the ground intended for the Pinasters be of a sandy nature, it would not be advisable to plant either Maples 
or Sycamores upon it; therefore, in such a case it will be much better to plant the ground all over with Pinasters alone; for, although the Maple 
and Sycamore both stand the sea-breezes well, still if the soil upon which they are planted be not of a loamy nature, they have not much chance 
to rise to any good, but would remain small unsightly things.” 
What good purpose is to be served by planting Maples and Sycamores along with the Pinasters we 
do not see. It cannot be to serve as nurses to the Pinaster , seeing that they want all the properties that a 
nurse should have, such as thick evergreen foliage with rapid growth; nor can it be intended that they are 
to be the permanent crop, and the Pinaster to serve as nurse to them, for throughout they are directed 
to be treated as secondary to the Pinaster , and sacrificed to it throughout. We prefer either Bremontier s 
Broom or a homogeneous plantation of Pinasters , without any admixture at all. 
The Pinaster has been used in this country under similar circumstances, and with like results to 
those in the Landes. Mr Bromfield mentions (. Phytologist , 1850, p. 888) that a Pine (which he refers 
with doubt to this species) has been introduced in England near Bournemouth, between Poole and 
Christchurch, in some marshy land, which is spreading by its own seeds, and has already imprinted 
on the country a character analogous to that of the Pine barrens of the United States. Large 
plantations of Pinaster have been made on the sandy soil of Norfolk, and as an ornamental tree it is 
very generally distributed, some of its many varieties being less dependent on proximity to the sea than 
others; but, as a rule, it thrives best when planted near the sea and in sandy soil. But, although so 
well adapted for sandy sea-dunes, it is by no means equally suited for what would generally be considered 
better situations. Mr Brown (“Forester,” p. 247) tells us that during his experience as a forester he 
has frequently had occasion to remark that, hardy as the Pinaster is in withstanding the influence of 
the sea-breezes, it is but a tender plant when planted in a high elevated part of the country inland; and 
he gives the following illustration of the fadt: 
[ 26 ] 
E 
“ Upon 
