SOME OTHER REMEDIES 227 



question for the moment however is whether 

 a method which may be of advantage to urban 

 ratepayers will do us any good in the rural 

 parishes. It is not possible to enter here into 

 all the detailed arguments for and against the 

 position of the taxers and raters of land values. 

 But there is one basic fact which must not be 

 overlooked. The Census of Production for 

 1908, the last agricultural return we possess, 

 makes it quite evident that the amount of 

 unused land in the country is nothing like 

 so large as might be assumed from the normal 

 " land values " speech. The land actually 

 used for agricultural purposes appears to be 

 47,795,223 acres. There remain, therefore, 

 in the whole of Great Britain some 9,000,000 

 acres of non-agricultural land. But as this 

 includes all land built upon, railways, lakes 

 and rivers, and holdings of one acre and less, 

 it will be seen that the residuum of land unused 

 for any productive purpose is not a very large 

 one. As far as agriculture is concerned, some 

 of the 12,800,000 acres of mountain and heath 

 now devoted to rough grazing with a present 

 output of 10/- to 12/- per acre, and some, too, 

 of the 2,781,963 acres of woodland with an 

 output of 6/- might, under the pressure of 

 heavier rates, be placed upon the market or 

 rendered more productive ; but this antici- 



