DUNES OF DENMARK. 
503 
Ten years later, plantations of forest trees, which have since 
proved so valuable a means of fixing the dunes and rendering 
them productive, were commenced, and have been continued 
ever since.* During this latter period, Bremontier, without 
any knowledge.of what was doing in Denmark, experimented 
upon the cultivation of forest trees on the dunes of Gascony, 
and perfected a system, which, with some improvements in 
“ Where this covering is found, none of the sand is blown. On the 
contrary, it is accumulated and raised continually as snow gathers and 
rises among hushes, or branches of trees cut and spread upon the earth. 
Nor does the grass merely defend the surface on which it is planted ; hut 
rises, as that rises by new accumulations ; and always overtops the sand, 
however high that may he raised by the wind.”— Dwight's Travels in New 
England and New York, ii, p. 92, 93. 
This information was received in 1800, and it relates to a former state 
of things, probably more than twenty years previous, and earlier than 
1779, when the Government of Denmark first seriously attempted the con¬ 
quest of the dunes. 
The depasturing of the beach grass—a plant allied in habits, if not in 
botanical character, to the arundo—has been attended with very injurious 
effects in Massachusetts. Dr. Dwight, after referring to the laws for its 
propagation, already cited, says: “ The benefit of this useful plant, and of 
these prudent regulations, is, however, in some measure lost. There are in 
Province Town, as I was informed, one hundred and forty cows. These 
animals, being stinted in their means of subsistence, are permitted to 
wander, at times, in search of food. In every such case, they make depre¬ 
dations on the beach grass, and prevent its seeds from being formed. In 
this manner the plant is ultimately destroyed.”— Travels, iii, p. 94. 
On page 101 of the same volume, the author mentions an instance of 
great injury from this cause. “ Here, about one thousand acres were 
entirely blown away to the depth, in many places, of ten feet. * * * 
Not a green thing was visible except the whortleberries, which tufted a 
few lonely hillocks rising to the height of the original surface and prevented 
by this defence from being blown away also. These, although they varied 
the prospect, added to the gloom by their strongly picturesque appearance, 
by marking exactly the original level of the plain, and by showing us in 
this manner the immensity of the mass which had been thus carried away 
by the wind. The beach grass had been planted here, and the ground had 
been formerly enclosed ; but the gates had been left open, and the cattle 
had destroyed this invaluable plant.” 
* Andreskn, Om Klitformationen, pp. 237, 240. 
