Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
But just because improvement was the proclaimed objective of land-grabbers, that
doesn't mean it is necessarily a bad thing. Admittedly, many nowadays would agree that
the draining of the fens went too far and would like to see areas of fenland reclaimed. But
the same people will also fight to preserve the hedges that were planted for enclosure and
improvement of land in the 18th century. Many of the improvements of the agricultural re-
volution would have been welcomed by commoners and there is some evidence for the in-
aged collectively, with social as well as economic objectives, and collective agreement of-
ten takes time. Improving landlords - those who were not simply using improvement as a
cloak for avarice - were too impatient to let the democratic process take its course.
In fact, in the UK, agricultural improvement did not often extend very far from the
centres of population. We do not find in the uplands many improvements on the scale of
the terraces that capture eroding soil and conserve water on the rocky slopes of the Medi-
terranean, or in many parts of South East Asia. The Scottish Highlands were in no way
improved by enclosure, but were degraded by the clearance of the population and their re-
placement by sheep. However, there is no reason why some of this wide expanse of semi-
abandoned pasture land cannot be improved. Kenneth Mellanby writes:
There is general agreement that much of our grass could be vastly more product-
ive. It is common experience that, with care, the stocking density possible on many
fields can be doubled. However the area with the greatest potential for improvement
is some of the rough grazing. High in the Pennines, or in parts of Scotland we find oc-
casional paddocks producing excellent crops of grass and hay. These have been mod-
ified by the farmer from something very like the surrounding land, covered with such
poor grazing that each sheep needs some ten or more acres for its keep. It is not easy,
or cheap, to effect this improvement, which needs much lime, basic slag and other fer-
tilizer. Also it will rapidly revert to something even inferior (at least to the botanist)
than it was before treatment if it is not well managed. But there are probably several
million acres of rough grazing which could, at a cost, be ten times as productive as
they are today. This could greatly enhance our ability to raise sheep and cattle.
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Or indeed to grow potatoes or rye. There is one peculiar historical serendipity which
could greatly assist the improvement of some of our poor mountain land. Improvement re-
quires a number of problems to be overcome: exposure to the wind and the elements, lack
of fertility, drainage and acidity of the soil. Of these, exposure can often take the longest
to rectify. It is therefore something of a bonus that the Forestry Commission and corporate
tax-scam merchants, in the middle years of the 20th century, planted huge swathes of con-
ifer plantations which, when they are in the right place, provide excellent shelterbelts.
