Reclaiming of Waste Lands. 
285 
at an end wLcn such unemployed labourers became the easy dupes 
of itjnorant and designing men, and weie urged to acts of violence 
and guilt, — the riotous breaking of farm-machinery by day and 
incendiary fires by night ; but have they left behind the lesson 
which thev should convey, or do we need the repetition of these 
evils to impress on the minds of the rising generation the truth of 
the homely English proverb, " Wilful waste makes woeful want?" 
It surely cannot be argued that all the waste land of England has 
been enclosed, and nearly all has been brought into cultivation 
that is worth the trouble and cost of ploughing. We grant that 
manv thousands of acres have within the last twenty years been 
reclaimed ; and hardly a year passes in which important acts 
of enclosure are not effected. Still much remains to be done nearly 
evervwhere in the way of reclamation ; and it would be for the 
profit both of owner and occupier of English soil to look more 
closelv into this ; and though there may not be under the control 
of many, heaths and downs on a large scale, giving no more 
produce than they did eight hundred years ago, are there not 
" wastes " on most of our cultivated farms ? pieces that appear 
insignificant when looked at separately, but are of great conse- 
quence when considered collectively ? There are the wide- 
spreading: hedgerows, causing waste ; there is the sluggish inland 
stream, which, by its tortuous course and its half-choked channel, 
causes waste on the right hand and on the left ; there is waste by 
the river side and by the sea-shore ; by the mountain slope and 
in the sheltered valley ; there is decaying timber, which, by its 
roots and shade, causes waste ; there is much grass-land little 
better than waste. Although we would not wish to see the 
plough working close to the windon-s of the noble mansions that 
ai'e scattered over our country, still we say, the " reclamation^ of 
wastes " is a subject well worth the consideration of all connected 
with landed property. Such works suggested and influenced by 
the first supreme command to man, " Replenish the earth and 
subdue it," would produce good effects ; give healthy exercise 
to the mind ; afford honest employment to the horny hands of 
those who toil early and late for their daily bread ; afford the 
means of adding to the supply of food of our rapidly increasing 
population ; it would further the coming of that happy time 
when " the wilderness shall be a fruitful field," and the fruitful 
field as a garden. 
Little CoxmU, Faringdw, Eerlis. 
