TREES SUITED TO DUNE PLANTATIONS. 
505 
of valuable land has been thereby rescued from the otherwise 
certain destruction with which it was threatened by the ad¬ 
vance of the rolling sand hills. 
The improvements of the dunes on the coast of West Prussia 
began in 1795, under Sdren Bjorn, a native of Denmark, and, 
with the exception of the ten years between 1807 and 1817, 
they have been prosecuted ever since. The methods do not 
differ essentially from those employed in Denmark and Prance, 
though they are modified by local circumstances, and, with 
respect to the trees selected for planting, by climate. In 1850? 
between the mouth of the Yistula and Kahlberg, 6,300 acres, 
including about 1,900 acres planted with pines and birches ? 
had been secured from drifting; between Kahlberg and the 
eastern boundary of West-Prussia, 8,000 acres; and important 
preliminary operations had been carried on for subduing the 
dunes on the west coast.* 
Trees suited to Dune Plantations. 
The tree which has been found to thrive best upon the 
sand hills of the French coast, and at the same time to confine 
the sand most firmly and yield the largest pecuniary returns, 
is the maritime pine, Pinus maritima , a species valuable both 
for its timber and for its resinous products. It is always grown 
from seed, and the young shoots require to be protected for 
several seasons, by the branches of other trees, planted in rows, 
or spread over the surface and staked down, by the growth of 
the Arundo arenaria , and other small sand plants, or by wat¬ 
tled hedges. The beach, from which the sand is derived, has 
been generally planted with the arundo, because the pine does 
not thrive well so near the sea ; but it is thought that a species 
of tamarisk is likely to succeed in that latitude even bettei 
than the arundo. The shade and the protection offered by the 
branching top of this pine are favorable to the growth of decid¬ 
uous trees, and, while still young, of shrubs and smaller plants, 
which contribute more rapidly to the formation of vegetable 
* Kruse, Diinenlau, pp. 34 , 38 , 40 . 
