314 = 45 
British Agriculture. 
creased more than fourfold. If landowners generally could 
reckon on anything; like the average return of these forty cases, 
they w ould have the means, under the Lands Improvement Acts, 
of improving their estates, not only without present loss, but 
with a large immediate profit. But no distinction was made or 
could be made in this return between that increment which 
arose from improvements and the general increase of rent due 
to the prosperity of the country, the increased value of produce, 
and the development of particular districts by the opening of 
railways and roads. Still in one way or other the landowner in 
these cases has been made entirely safe. 
And in the nature of things in this country such must be the 
case wherever reasonable judgment has been shown in expendi- 
ture on land improvement. The improver is dealing with a 
limited article, for the produce of which there is an ever- 
increasing demand. Nature has given us a climate more 
favourable to the production of meat and milk, vegetables and 
grass, than that of any other European State. These, in pro- 
portion to their value, are the least costly in labour, and therefore 
the least affected by a rise of wages. The growing demand for 
them, and their consequently increasing value, exercise a constant 
pressure for increased production, which can still to some extent 
be obtained by improving the land we have. A large proportion 
of the improvable land under cultivation admits of this, and muchi 
of that vast tract which has hitherto been left to nature might 
also be profitably reclaimed for the rearing of sheep and cattle. 
CSreat rise in 
the value of 
land since the 
repeal of the 
Corn Laws, 
only -partly 
due to the 
outlay of 
capital in im- 
provements. 
CHAPTEE Vn. 
Recent Rise in the Value of Land. 
There has been, within the last twenty years, a very consider 
able increase in the value of land in this country. The income 
tax returns are most instructive on this point, and, as they sho\ 
the rental of land in England, Scotland, and Ireland separatel) 
they afford the means of comparing the rate of improvement i 
each country. That improvement does not seem to have begu 
in England till 1858, the gross annual value of " Lands " in 185, 
having been returned at 50,000/. less in that year than in 184( 
From 1858 the rise has been progressive and continuous, an 
with an average increase of 470,000/. a year. The rise seen 
to have begun somewhat earlier in Scotland, and the averaf' 
yearly increase has been 82,000/. The returns from Irela 
cannot be distinguished prior to 18G2, and show an avoraj 
