The Reclamation and Lnproicuicnt of Land 



331 



In some parts of the kingdom the recla- 

 mation of waste land has been carried on for 

 many years, so that the area in such places 

 is rapidly becoming lessened, whilst the cul- 

 tivated area has, of course, experienced a 

 corresponding increase. It would be an 

 easy matter to point to numerous instances 

 where land which, within the last fifteen or 

 twenty years, and even within the last ten 

 years, afforded only scanty keep during the 

 summer months for a few sheep of a compara- 

 tively inferior class, is now producing heavy 

 crops of grain, roots, and sown grasses ; and 

 where even grouse would formerly have found 

 it a difficult matter to pick up a living, is now 

 stocked with valuable breeds of sheep and 

 cattle. All this has told, and is teUing for 

 the general good of the community ; and 

 what is, perhaps, quite as much to the pur- 

 pose, it has benefited those whose enterprize 

 and skill have brought about these results. 



The Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland has zealously promoted the reclama- 

 tion of waste land ever since the Society was 

 formed, and the various practical Reports upon 

 this subject which have appeared from time 

 to time in its "Transactions" are by no means 

 the least interesting part of that publication. 

 To the exertions of that Society is owing, in 

 a great measure, the spirit of improvement 

 which has been so strikingly evinced in most 

 parts of North Britain, with reference to the 

 reclamation of waste land and the permanent 

 improvement of land generally ; and if it had 

 fulfilled no other end than this, the establish- 

 ment of the Society would have been of the ut- 

 most advantage, and a blessing to the country. 

 Large tracts of land have been brought into 

 cultivation by its means, many thousands of 

 persons have found honest and well paid em- 

 ployment, whilst the capital expended has 

 been amply repaid. To those who con- 

 template engaging in work of this kind, the 

 careful study of the Reports in the Society's 

 •' Transactions " will afford a vast amount of 

 useful information, which cannot fail to be of 

 advantage to them \ and it has frequently 

 occurred to us that a digest of those Reports 

 would form an admirable guide on the sub- 

 ject of which they treat. That the informa- 



tion conveyed in such Reports must be of a 

 valuable nature, vvill be evident even to 

 those who are not already acquainted with 

 them, when we state that in the premium 

 list for this year, w^e find the Society 

 asking for reports from proprietors who shall 

 be able to "report the most judicious, suc- 

 cessful, and extensive improvements, com- 

 prising reclaiming, draining, enclosing, plant- 

 ing, road-making, building, and all other 

 operations proper to landed estates." The 

 Society also asks for reports from proprietors 

 or tenants who shall have reclaimed within 

 the last four or six years from ten acres to fifty 

 acres of waste land, and the conditions state 

 that while " the report may comprehend such 

 general observations on the improvement of 

 waste lands as the writer's experience may 

 lead him to make, they must refer espe- 

 cially to the lands reclaimed, to the nature 

 of the soil, the previous state and probable 

 value of the subject, the obstacles opposed 

 to its improvement, the details of the vari- 

 ous operations, the mode of cultivation 

 adopted, and the produce and value of the 

 crops produced." It is further required that 

 "the improvement must be of a profitable 

 character, and a rotation of crops must 

 have been concluded before the date of 

 the report. A detailed statement of the ex- 

 penditure and return, and a certified measure- 

 ment of the ground are requisite." Other 

 reports are required relating to the improve- 

 ment of natural pasture without tillage, by 

 means of top-dressing, draining, &c., in situa- 

 tions where tillage may be inexpedient ; and 

 when all the conditions are complied with, it 

 is clear, we think, that those who wish to tread 

 in the same path will find much that will be 

 well calculated to guide their proceedings. 



^Mien we consider the indifference with 

 which the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- 

 land appears to treat this subject, we might 

 almost suppose that every acre in England 

 which was capable of improvement had been 

 reclaimed and improved to the utmost extent. 

 But it requires little evidence to prove that 

 such is not the case, or to shew that there is 

 not only much bad farming in many parts of 

 England, but that there are also thousands of 



