SOME OTHER REMEDIES 247 



and give an impetus to the home markets 

 almost inconceivable under the existing 

 conditions of agricultural lethargy. In the 

 United Kingdom between sixteen and seven- 

 teen million acres of land lie idle. An area 

 larger than the cultivated acreage of Den- 

 mark, Belgium and Holland is wholly unused, 

 most of which is capable of useful cultivation. 

 If the taxpayer accepts the principle of invest- 

 ments in the Suez Canal, in Sudan cotton, in 

 Uganda Rail ways, or the vast expenditure of the 

 South African war, he need have no theoretical 

 misgivings about the wise and productive out- 

 lay of the nation's money on the sound security 

 of the nation's land. Rural Reform will have 

 advanced far beyond the timid essays of the 

 past when the wholesale purchase of agri- 

 cultural land appears as a permanent feature 

 in our annual Budgets. 



I am writing these concluding paragraphs 

 on a hillside in Buckinghamshire, surrounded 

 by those delights of an English landscape 

 which charm the eye, but sadden the heart 

 of all who really know the inner life of our 

 villages. The very scenes which find special 

 favour in the sight of the sportsman or the 

 tourist bring thoughts of pity and regret to 



