508 
DUNE VINEYARDS OF CAR HR ETON. 
the coast for a distance of several hundred miles, and from the 
time of the destruction of the forests which covered it, to the 
year 1789, the whole line was rolling inward and burying the 
soil beneath it, or rendering the fields unproductive by the 
sand which drifted from it. At the same time, as the sand 
hills moved eastward, the ocean was closely following their 
retreat and swallowing up the ground they had covered, as 
fast as their movement left it bare. 
Planting the dunes has completely prevented the surface 
sands from blowing over the soil to the leeward of the planta¬ 
tions, and though it has not, in all cases, arrested the encroach¬ 
ments of the sea, it has so greatly retarded the rapidity of their 
advance, that sandy coasts, when once covered with forests, 
may be considered as substantially secure, so long as proper 
measures are taken for the protection of the woods. 
Dune Vineyards of Cap Breton . 
In the vicinity of Cap Breton in France, a peculiar process 
is successfully employed, both for preventing the drifting of 
dunes, and for rendering the sands themselves immediately 
productive ; but this method is applicable only in exceptional 
cases of favorable climate and exposure. It consists in plant¬ 
ing vineyards upon the dunes, and protecting them by hedges 
of broom, Erica scoparia , so disposed as to form rectangles 
about thirty feet by forty. The vines planted in these enclo¬ 
sures thrive admirably, and the grapes produced by them are 
among the best grown in France. The dunes are so far from 
being an unfavorable soil for the vine, that fresh sea-sand is 
regularly employed as a fertilizer for it, alternating every other 
season with ordinary manure. The quantity of sand thus ap¬ 
plied every second year, raises the surface of the vineyard 
about four or five inches. The vines are cut down every year 
to three or four shoots, and the raising of the soil rapidly cov- 
wastes, which, until covered by woods, are not only a useless incumbrance, 
but a source of serious danger to all human improvements in the neighbor¬ 
hood of them. 
