SAND DRIFTS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 20 November 1919, Page 3

SAND DRIFTS.

RECLAIMING WASTE LAND

In connection with the scheme to check the sand drifts and to utilise the land for productive purposes, the President of the Kaitaia Chamber of Commerce is in receipt of the following interesting and instructive letter from Sir James Wilson, President of the Board of Agriculture and also of the N.Z. Farmers' Union :

" I haven't any work by me which gives an account ot the planting of sand dunes. Briefly, however, this is |he position. In the south of France, south of Bordeaux, there is a large area of land which goes under the name of " Landes." It is a province, but when the Landes district is spoken of, it means the swampy district inside the sand dunes on the coast. On this country there lived a few rheumatic fowlers, and the sand dunes spread gradually inland. The Dutch people had previously shown that it was possible to stop the drift by marram grass, and had planted the area then stabilized with trees. In Aberdeensbire the same thing had happened, and one of the laws of George 111, I think, prohibits the cutting of any of this turf. Coke, of Norfolk, has also shown what could be done by planting on the Wash in his county. The French authorities, therefore, determined to stop 1 the moving sand by planting marram grass. This was done, and when the grass had taken, the sand was planted with pinus pinarfcer, which seems to be the tree which has stood the blasts from the sea best. This enabled the Governor of the Province to start a great drainage scheme, and the low, unhealthy places were so dried that the land became very valuable. Meanwhile the trees grew up. The unwisdom of the British people had neglected forestry (the French as a nation are great foresters), and therefore when the mines required props they could not be procured in sufficient numbers, and a trade with the French people of the Landes district sprang up and many thousands of the thinnings of the forest on the sand dunes are now holding up the roofs in the British mines. The district became healthy and prosperous, instead of the very reverse. We have in New Zealand some 300,000 acres of sand dunes. We have, in the Farmers' Advocate, been persistently asking that these should be planted. They are in the midst of settlement, and we know grow valuable pines. On the Foxton line of railway there is a plantation— it is spoken of in Mr Hutchins' Waipoua Forest pamphlet—some 35 years old, which was planted on a sand drift which was blowing across the road and railway. It is now a great forest of insignis trees, with muricatas on the outer edge. On some land my son has some distance above this, orrpure sand the trees have done well. This is in the midst of the sandy coast. We got the Govern- ! ment to begin planting trees at the Rangitikei Heads, but the war came and it was given up. The trees, however, did well, but cattle have got in and destroyed many. We hope to see this work begun again soon, Sir Francis Bell, who is at the head of the Forestry Department, is a keen forester, and he hopes to appoint a Director of Forestry soon. T hope the above may be of advantage to you in your attempt to profit the district by reclaiming from waste some land which for ordinary production is useless, but may be made for future generations more profitable than the best of lands."