CHAPTER III 
WASTE LANDS 
By PROF, F. W. OLIVER 
THE term Waste Lands is used here to designate 
ground not exploited in an economic sense, or, at any 
rate utilised only to avery slight degree. In the British 
Isles the term may properly be applied to the following 
terrains: sandy heaths, peat moors, sand dunes and 
other maritime lands, including salt marshes and shingle 
beaches, mountain talus, fen and artificial aggregates, 
such as pit-heaps. 
Before considering how some of these may be profit- 
ably utilised or reclaimed, it may be well to state that 
in the event of the adoption of a settled state policy of 
reclamation, it would be necessary in some way to safe- 
guard what is a great national asset, viz. the character- 
istic and unparalleled beauty of English scenery. Sup- 
pose, for instance, that the administering of such a 
scheme were entrusted to a Waste Lands Commission 
with statutory powers, it might be an instruction to 
the Commission to leave untouched a large number of 
reservations—analogous to the ‘‘ national parks” of 
the United States. These would vary in size and form, 
and also in the purpose for which they were intended. 
Some would be quite extensive, like the Lake District, 
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