SAND DUNES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 73, 20 December 1920, Page 5

SAND DUNES

TREATMENT °W FRANCE INFORMATION FOR NEW x ZEALANDERS Tho treatment of 6and dunce in ' .Trance, where tens of thousands of acres of waste land lmvo been mado printable, is tho subject of a pamphlet that lias been issued by the Government Printing Offico. The work is a translation of a report by a French export, M. Edouurd Harle. The success of the work in Gascony has been the vesult of operations which ; were commenced in 1787, and which were continued over many years. The result; has been tho afforestation in valuable resinous_ and timber-producing pines of, thousands of acres of sandy wastes, tho financial yield to tho State being very ' considerable. TJJio trees, in turn, have prevented, the encroachment of tho windblown sands, and have afforded protection for extensive cultivation. II seems from accounts given by the ■French writer that in the early stages if the work long lines of palisading, on a 'particular 63' stem, were erected on tho seaward side of the dunes. As these collected the sands they/ were raised again and agaiji. Tho result hn6 bgen large protecting seaward dunos now fringe tBo littoral. The sowing of the flats and dunes was with approved quantities of pine seed, broom swd, and niarram-erass seed, the last-mentioned being added when the dunes were very unstable and The seeds were spread separately and quite uniformly, and were immediately covercd over with brushwood to prevent them being blown together, or scattered, by the wind. Tho pino used was the maritime pine (pinus pinaster),. and the broom the brush broom (sarothamnus scoparius). (jorso seed was often added. The pine in its first growth was protected by the other plants. Much importance was attached to the quantities' used and the mr-thods .of sowing. The seed was immediately .covered with boughs trimmed' fanwise, "like the branchlets of trees on opposilo branches." To this end all twigs abovo or below, which would prevent. tho' branches lying quite flat'on tho soil, had to be cut off. It was of tho utmost importance that tho branches should lie flat on the ground to prevent the wind lifting them, and'thov were to bo > placed across the track of prevailing winds as offering a better protection to the young plants. Where necessary a few shovels! of sand were thrown on to-weight them down.