CULTIVATION OF TYASTE LAND 379 



food might easily be trebled or quadrupled. Why, then, trouble about 

 adding to the area of indifferent land when so much of what has already 

 been reclaimed, upon which the first capital outlay of clearing, fenc- 

 ing, roadmaking, etc., has been accomplished, is not doing its duty? 

 We are at once confronted by the human factor in the problem. The 

 existing educational agencies which will have to bring about better 

 farming will only slowly become effective, and however imperfect they 

 still may be in England, they are mainly so because of the lack of 

 response upon the part of the farmers. The present occupiers of the 

 land do obtain in many cases a very inadequate return from it, but they 

 make some sort of a living and they hold it up against others who, 

 though they want land, can not be guaranteed to use it any better. Im- 

 proved farming means more enterprise, more knowledge, often more 

 capital, and the man who can bring these to the business is far rarer than 

 the man who, given a piece of land even of the poorest quality, will 

 knock a living out of it by sheer hard work and doggedness. While, then, 

 there should be no slackening in our efforts to improve the quality of the 

 management of existing land, there is a case for also using every effort 

 to increase the cultivable area ; indeed, it is probable that for some time 

 to come the second process will add most to both the agricultural pro- 

 duction and the agricultural population. 



Let us now consider what are the factors which determine the 

 fertility of the land that is first brought into cultivation and remains 

 the backbone of farming in the old settled countries. Foremost comes 

 rainfall, and the distribution is almost as important as the amount. 

 Winter rain is more valuable than summer, and though cereal-growing 

 is none the worse and may even obtain better results with a rainless 

 summer, stock-raising and the production of fodder crops are the better 

 for a rainfall that is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. 

 Eainfall, again, must bear some relation to temperature; some of the 

 best farming in the eastern counties of England is done on an average 

 rainfall of 20 inches ; there are great areas in South Africa with the same 

 average rainfall that are little better than desert. In temperate regions 

 we may say that the naturally fertile land requires a rainfall of from 

 20 to 50 inches per annum, not too much segregated into seasons and 

 some at least falling in the winter. 



If the rainfall is excessive or the drainage inadequate to carry it 

 off, the formation of peat is induced, resulting in such uncultivated areas 

 as the bogs of Ireland and the moors of eastern England, Holland and 

 Germany. 



Given suitable rainfall and temperature the texture of the soil be- 

 comes a factor of importance; if too coarse and sandy, so little of the 

 rainfall is retained that we get all the effects of drought secondarily 

 produced. In itself the open texture of a coarse sandy soil is favorable 



