There are four definite regions of large extent in which systematic effort in this direction has been made, namely, the sand dunes of Gascony and the Landes of Southwestern France; the sandy plains of La Sologne; the limestone wastes of Champagne; and the mountain slopes in the Vosges and Jura-Alps. * * * * * The sand dunes on the coast of France comprise around 350,000 acres; those on the coast of Gascony in Southwest France alone have an extent of nearly 250,000 acres, these being the most important and having for a long time endangered the adjoining pastures and fields. It seems that the land occupied by dunes was originally forested, and that these were created by deforestation. As early as 1717, successful attempts at reforestation were made by the inhabitants of _La Teste_, and from that time on sporadically small plantings came into existence. But the inauguration of systematic reforestation was begun only after a notable report by _Brémontier_, who, in 1786, secured, as chief engineer of the department of Bordeaux, a sum of $10,000 to be employed in ascertaining the possibilities of draining the Landes by means of a canal, and of fixing the dunes. As a result of this beginning, the method for their recovery having been, by 1793, experimentally determined by Brémontier, 275,000 acres of moving sand have been fixed during the last century. The revolutionary government, in 1799, created a Commission of Dunes, of which Brémontier was made president, and annual appropriation of $10,000 was made, later (in 1808) increased to $15,000. In 1817, the work was transferred to the _Administration des Ponts et Chaussées_. The appropriations were increased until, in 1854, they reached $100,000 a year, and in 1865, the work being nearly finished, the dunes were handed over to the forest administration. There being still about 20,000 acres to be recovered, this was achieved in 1865, when 200,000 acres had been reforested at an expense of about $2,000,000, and an additional expense of $700,000 to organize the newly formed pine forests--_Pinus maritima_ was entirely used. These, at present, with their resinous products and wood are furnishing valuable material. An unfortunate policy of ceding some of these forest areas to private and communal owners, who claimed them as of ancient right, and also of sales was inaugurated just as the planting was finished, so that at present only 125,000 acres remain in the hands of the state. The returns from the sales, however, reimbursed the cost of the reboisement in excess by $140,000, so that the state really acquired for nothing, a property, now estimated to be worth $10,000,000. A similar plantation on moving sands, of 35,000 acres, is found north of this tract.