70 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



the maximum of profit is obtained with the minimum of 

 labour ; with the latter, profit is chiefly dependent upon 

 the labour and energy employed to produce it. While 

 clayey or loamy soils, alluvial tracts, water-meadows, etc., 

 are highly valued and eagerly sought after, the demand 

 for sandy or gravelly soils, deficient in lime, potash, and 

 phosphates, is rarely greater than the supply, unless they 

 possess certain advantages of situation, or can be obtained 

 at a low rent. Near towns or industrial centres com- 

 paratively poor land can be turned to account, partly 

 owing to the abundance of manure in the shape of city 

 refuse, partly due to the higher value of agricultural 

 produce. In remote districts a large acreage obtained at 

 a low rent per acre enables the individual farmer to ob- 

 tain a profit sufficient to maintain himself in comfort, 

 although the return per acre may be very low, and the 

 produce of little value to the community in the form of 

 national wealth. 



Considered from the above point of view, a large pro- 

 portion of the British area must be regarded as of 

 comparatively low agricultural value, included in which 

 would be the mountain and heath land already referred 

 to. Of the total area of land used for agriculture in 

 Great Britain, amounting to 45,000,000 acres, at least one- 

 third may be estimated as possessing a rental value vary- 

 ing from Is. to 10s. per acre, or 5s. per acre on an average. 

 Assuming that the rent is equal to one-fourth of the 

 gross return, it would appear that some 15,000,000 acres 

 are not producing more than £1 per acre under any form 

 of utilisation, being about one-tenth of the total estimated 

 value of agricultural produce grown in Great Britain. 

 Without further examination, therefore, it is quite reason- 

 able to suppose that this area might be devoted to 

 timber-growing without serious inconvenience to the 

 agricultural interest, or loss to the food supply of the 



