234 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



in the pleasures of shooting or fishing, but 

 every sportsman must acknowledge that first- 

 class sport and scientific farming are not easily 

 compatible, and that no progressive nation 

 can permanently permit the best and most 

 complete use of the nation's land to be 

 subordinated to the interests of a handful of 

 the population. Scientific methods, there- 

 fore, and the cultivation of vast tracts of 

 land which are at present partly or wholly 

 neglected for the benefit of sportsmen would 

 without doubt increase the output of our 

 fertile soil, and a substantial margin of profit 

 would accrue from the national management 

 of the nation's acres. In any case the entire 

 increment in the value of English land which, 

 apart from any vast and unexpected catas- 

 trophe in the national welfare, is certain to 

 continue, would fall into the national coffers. 

 The difference between the acquisition of the 

 whole increment value and that of one-fifth 

 as at present would be so vast that here again 

 it would appear that the nationalization of 

 the land by direct purchase would pay well on 

 a strictly business footing. 1 Such a result 



1 The Official Valuation of the land now proceeding 

 (1912) will provide a just basis for national purchase. 

 The increment in the value of our land is a constant 

 factor in our history : from 1692 to 1884 the value of our 



