PUBLIC BURDENS 159 



addition of any value which the trees and the 

 planting may have given it, and the whole 

 expression, " natural and unimproved," is an 

 attempt to define what is popularly called 

 " prairie value." No increase above the prairie 

 value can be made in the assessment in respect 

 of any benefit which user for agricultural pur- 

 poses might give (Corp. of Liverpool v. Chorley 

 Union, 36 L.T. 108 ; 41 J.P. 231), nor, when 

 farm land is planted, because the prairie value 

 is less than the value which it had when used 

 for agricultural purposes. 



It is very difficult to give a cash value to the 

 annual rental of land assumed to be in a natural 

 and unimproved state. The main ingredient of 

 value in most land is its capacity to produce 

 valuable returns as the result of the expenditure 

 of money and labour on it. Some lands have 

 been under wood from time immemorial, and 

 therefore their natural state may be considered 

 as woodland, and until they are improved by 

 the removal of the roots their annual value is 

 nil for any other purpose than growing timber. 

 Agricultural land that has been planted would, 

 in very few cases, have had any value for agri- 

 culture if the farmer had been compelled to use 

 it in a natural and unimproved state. 



