138 Increase of Rural Population. 



acted on there can be no more running out of land, 

 chemically and physically, as there is at present, and 

 fertility will continuously increase to the benefit of both 

 landlord and tenant, and I need hardly add, to the 

 general augmentation of the national welfare, and 

 especially the increase of employment in the rural 

 districts, for it is perfectly obvious to all experienced 

 observers, that while we cannot look for any increase of 

 the rural population from turning the present labourers 

 out of their cottages, and getting rid of the farmers who 

 employ them, in order to supply their place with small 

 cultivators, we can look forward with certainty to an 

 increased employment from my system of farming 

 owing to land at present left in worthless pasture being 

 again brought under the plough. We can, also, look 

 forward to a considerable increase in employment when 

 the afforestation of the country is taken seriously in 

 hand. By its consequent effect on the climate and the 

 general water supply, a great improvement will take 

 place in those agricultural requirements which are so 

 largely affected by climate ; for what agricultural require- 

 ments are of more importance than tempered winds, and 

 evenly distributed rainfall? Though, well knowing 

 from a wide experience both here and in India of the 

 great climatic eifect of woods, I confess I have been 

 repeatedly surprised in the case of our wind-swept 

 Cheviot Hills at the marvellous climatic effect of a 

 single strip of wood only about 100 yards wide. In this 

 connection I may mention that even the effect of the 

 shelter, described in Appendix V., has proved of great 

 value. This has turned out to be most successful in the 

 case of a small plantation where it was tried, and 

 though it would be difficult to find even on the 

 Cheviots a spot more liable to be swept by the fiercest 

 gusts, the plants, now three years old, have, we think, 

 grown better than any of the numerous plantations 

 which have been formed on the estate during the last 

 twenty years. From my experience of the value of 



