WASTE LANDS a7 
mobility, lack of some ingredient essential to plant 
growth, or from toxicity ; they are also often neglected 
through want of knowledge, inertia or deliberate intent. 
Though much has been learnt in the last thirty or 
forty years as to methods of ameliorating these obstinate 
soils, especially in making good deficiencies by the 
application of chemical fertilisers, this increase in know- 
ledge has coincided with a down-grade movement in 
agriculture in this country. Instead of being a question 
as to what land should be taken in and reclaimed, it 
has been much more a matter of what should be aban- 
doned or laid down to grass. Largely as a consequence 
of this adverse economic trend the problem of reclama- 
tion of waste lands, under the climatic and other con- 
ditions prevailing in the British Isles, is sadly in arrears. 
Hence at its beginnings any scheme of reclamation must 
be experimental, and only as experience accumulates 
should the rate be accelerated. 
In practice two methods have been applied in re- 
clamation, viz. the bit by bit and the drastic. According 
to the one the ground is cleared and broken up, drained 
if necessary, perhaps limed, and then cropped in the 
ordinary way. The process is long and tedious, and 
the produce small: with perseverance, however, the 
soil gradually acquires some fertility, and the reclama- 
tion counts as a hard-won success. 
The second and more modern method of reclama- 
tion is characterised by supplementing the mechanical 
operations by the addition of very large amounts of 
chemical fertilisers with a view to making good defi- 
ciencies in lime, potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen. 
Such treatment of the land involves an expenditure of 
