THE RURAL PROBLEM 45 



There are at this moment some 12,000,000 acres of poorly 

 laid down, neglected, unproductive grassland, which could 

 be put to much better use * ; and this deplorable fact is not 

 due, as is often supposed, merely to the selfish sporting in- 

 stinct of the landowner, but rather, as has already been 

 stated, to the extensive methods adopted to meet the period 

 of depression, involving the employment on the land of 

 less labour and less manure than the economic minimum. 

 As a set-off against this consequent reduction in the 

 economic value of the land, many estates have acquired 

 what may be called a sentimental value. By this is meant 

 the price the owner is willing to pay for feudal privileges, 

 social position, and the like, and for the possession of a thing 

 of natural beauty such as is many an old estate in this 

 country. This sentimental value may easily amount to 

 40 per cent, of the total selling value of the estate, and part 

 of it is actually due to the uneconomic way in which the estate 

 is managed. If the pasture of a large park were cultivated 

 intensively, each acre of that park might produce five or six 

 times as much, but the total selling value of the estate would 

 be considerably reduced. 



Now, the fact of the existence of this large sentimental 

 value is a strong argument against any extensive scheme of 

 State purchase at present prices. f But there are signs that 

 this sentimental value is destined to decline rapidly. The 

 position of the landowner is less attractive than it was ; 



* Land Problems. By Christopher Turnor, p. 17. (John Lane, 

 1911.) 



f Mr. Chiozza Money has rightly pointed out that, speaking generally, 

 land is cheap in this country. One hundred pounds an acre, for 

 instance, is really cheap, not dear, as compared with the price of 

 money. If you build ten small houses on land worth as much as £500 

 an acre, the cost of each house would be as follows : 



£ 

 Land ... ... ... ... ... 50 



House, say ... ... ... ... ... 440 



Roads and sewers ... ... ... ... 40 



Total cost 530 



Now, if the land were worth nothing, the total cost would be reduced 

 to £480, making a difference of about Is. 3d. a week in the rent at the 

 outside. But if the money were only 1 per cent, cheaper, it would 

 make a difference of 2s. a week. Cheap money is much more important 

 even than cheap land. 



