336 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



hundred, or five hundred, or a thousand years ago ? In 

 all probability it is not ten per cent, bett er, because, though 

 limited areas have been greatly improved, very large 

 areas remain quite unimproved, and other large areas 

 have been decidedly made worse. More than half the 

 whole area of the country is permanent pasture which has 

 been mown or grazed from time immemorial, and is 

 probably no better and no worse than it was a hundred 

 or five hundred years ago. But every one with an 

 observant eye may notice all over the country poor weedy 

 pastures bearing the ridge marks of former cultivation. 

 These were once old pastures, broken up when wheat and 

 rents were high, and afterwards left to return as they 

 could to the poor weedy land we now see. This land has 

 been positively deteriorated; and besides this, much of 

 our farming is still so bad under yearly tenancies that a 

 large part of the arable land is partially worn out, and is 

 probably no better if it is not worse than five hundred 

 years ago when we not only grew all the wheat we 

 required but exported to the Continent. 



But Mr. Spencer's chief error consists in the latent as- 

 sumption that increased value of land implies improvement 

 in the soil, ignoring altogether that this increase is almost 

 wholly due to the growth of population and improved 

 means of communication. Let us take as an illustration 

 the land around London. The late J. C. London, the 

 celebrated gardener and agriculturist, came to London 

 from Scotland about the year 1804, and found the land to 

 the west of the city now occupied by the suburbs or by 

 market gardens let in small farms at 10s. or 12s. an acre. 

 Now, probably, the lowest rent is as many pounds as it 

 was then shillings, while much that is built over brings a 

 hundred times the rent it did then ; but that is not owing 

 to any improvement of the soil itself, but wholly, or 

 almost wholly, to railroads and to the consequent growth 

 of London. Again, portions of the New Forest have 

 remained wholly unimproved since the time of the 

 Norman kings, yet if any of this unimproved land were 

 for sale it would probably fetch a higher price than the 

 best agricultural land in the kingdom if situated in a 



