Agricultural Capabilities of the New Forest. 
253 
purposes for some years to come. As this plan would secure 
the drainage of all the bogs in the Forest, its climate would be 
improved, and the residents would therefore have nothing to 
complain of on the score either of health or beauty. In devoting 
a fair amount of the Forest for residential purposes the wooded 
parts would, of course, be selected, and the most attractive sites, 
whether these were to be found amongst the old woods or the 
present enclosures. The argument that has been used in opposi- 
tion to the scheme for submitting to public competition some of 
the best sites for residential purposes, viz., that that plan would 
not employ so much labour, nor produce so much food, as if cut 
up into small plots for tillage, will scarcely bear the test of 
argument; for it surely must be apparent that, by importing 
some of the capital realised in London or other large cities, we 
import and apply the means of employing a considerable amount 
of labour in building and laying out the grounds ; in addition to 
which a considerable income, derived from other sources, would 
be permanently expended in the neighbourhood ; whilst in the 
scheme of small allotments it will be the income only produced 
by the soil itself that can be so expended, and, if from adverse 
seasons, it should not be remunerative, the occupants will become 
dependent on charity. Some have gone so far as to advocate a 
scheme closely bordering on communism, viz., that Government 
should supply the capital required, not only to bring the land 
into cultivation, but also to keep it going afterwards. This, of 
course, must cover a twelvemonth's support to the man him- 
self, as, from being without capital, he would require to be kept 
a twelvemonth before his produce could be realized. With equal 
reason it might be argued that the Government should supply 
capital for our shoemakers and tailors, and all small tradesmen 
deficient in capital. I may dismiss this scheme with the obser- 
vation that it would be contrary to our system, unsupported by 
our laws, and would, I feel sure, prove in the end calamitous 
in its results. There will be abundance of opportunities of test- 
ing the advantages of small allotments, should many of the 
small commoners receive their compensation in land, which 
they will either cultivate themselves, or dispose of to others. 
Besides which, sufficient allotments would be attached to the 
labourers' cottages that would require to be erected to meet the 
demand for labour which other improvements would require. If 
this is not sufficient, the philanthropical friends of the poor 
could step in and purchase land, and let it out in suitable allot- 
ments and at moderate rents. 
The means required for bringing much of the Forest land into 
cultivation are grubbing and burning, chalking, marling, and 
draining. The expense of these operations will materially depend 
