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 depredations 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."
[463] Andresen, Om Klitformationen, pp. 237, 240.
[464] "These plantations, perseveringly continued from the time of Brémontier now cover more than 40,000 hectares, and compose forests which are not only the salvation of the department, but constitute its wealth."—Clavé, Études Forestières, p. 254.
Other authors have stated the plantations of the French dunes to be much more extensive.
[465] Kruse, Dünenbau, pp. 34, 38, 40.
[466] These processes are substantially similar to those employed in the pineries of the Carolinas, but they are better systematized and more economically conducted in France. In the latter country, all the products of the pine, even to the cones, find a remunerating market, while, in America, the price of resin is so low, that in the fierce steamboat races on the great rivers, large quantities of it are thrown into the furnaces to increase the intensity of the fires. In a carefully prepared article on the Southern pineries published in an American magazine—I think Harper's—a few years ago, it was stated that the resin from the turpentine distilleries was sometimes allowed to run to waste; and the writer, in one instance, observed a mass, thus rejected as rubbish, which was estimated to amount to two thousand barrels. See Appendix, [No. 62].
[467] Andresen, Om Klitformationen, pp. 78, 262, 275.
[468] Laval, Mémoire sur les Dunes du Golfe de Gascogne, Annales des Ponts et Chaussées, 1847, 2me sémestre, p. 261. See Appendix, [No. 63].
[469] There are extensive ranges of dunes on various parts of the coasts of the British Islands, but I find no estimate of their area. Pannewitz (Anleitung zam Anbau der Sandflächen), as cited by Andresen (Om Klitformationen, p. 45), states that the drifting sands of Europe, including, of course, sand plains as well as dunes, cover an extent of 21,000 square miles. This is, perhaps, an exaggeration, though there is, undoubtedly, much more desert land of this description on the European continent than has been generally supposed. There is no question that most of this waste is capable of reclamation by simple planting, and no mode of physical improvement is better worth the attention of civilized Governments than this.