264 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
Another problem to which sufficient attention is not being paid. at 
present is the use of the poorer quality of land, such, for example, as we 
find in Scotland at elevations of 600 feet and: over. Much of this, under 
proper methods of management, could produce a larger number of store 
cattle, milk and milk products, and poultry than it does at present. In 
more favourable times the possibility even of further land reclamation 
should not be overlooked. It may seem futile at a time when there is 
such difficulty in getting any adequate return from our best land to 
suggest that further land should be reclaimed ; the present conditions, 
however, will not, we hope, be permanent, and we have to consider what 
may be possible in more normal times. The spectacle of large areas of 
land suitable for reclamation and.close to our great industrial centres 
reflects little credit on the agricultural policy of the past generation or 
two. In many of these areas there are abundant supplies of labour near 
at hand, and the difficulties of housing and transport would be reduced 
to a minimum. It is not suggested that at the present such reclamation 
would be economic, but as a means of using unemployed labour it would 
at least have the merit of leaving something tangible as the result. In an 
article contributed to The Times last November, Sir Daniel Hall gives 
an interesting account of the enormous reclamation and land drainage 
work which has been carried out in Italy during the past ten years, and 
points out that thé agriculturally minded man must regard it as the 
biggest bit of constructive work since the war ended. In conclusion he 
says: ‘A great work. But what of the cost? As yet, it is impossible 
to judge of the finance, for who shall say what land is worth or is going 
to be worth? But the Italian State is said to have expended £31,000,000 
gold in the last ten years on “‘ Bonifica,”’ against which it is claimed that over 
a million acres have been or are being reclaimed. ‘The severely economic 
English view would be that, since land is going out of cultivation, it is 
waste of money to make more. But in Italy men do still live by the land ; 
the money has been spent in Italy and almost wholly on labour, and there 
is something real and lasting to show for the expenditure. It is a return 
to the high Roman way, to the courage that drove the first roads and 
built the bridges through Barbarian Europe.’ 
The importance of agriculture, not merely as a means of producing 
additional home-grown food but as an industry of fundamental social 
value, is now being realised by all sections of the community. 
With the good offices of statesmen, scientists, economists and others 
interested, and with the goodwill of the people at large, it is not too much 
to hope that the British farmer will choose wisely, and that the character 
and energy which have distinguished him for generations will enable him 
to secure once more for our British agriculture that prosperity which is 
vital to the welfare of our nation. 
