Abstract
IN an article on “Nationalism and Land Utilisation in Britain” in the Geographicalt Review of January, Dr. Dudley Stamp directs attention to some of the results of a nationalistic policy in agriculture. Agricultural returns for 1935 and 1936 show an increase in arable acreage and in the total area of improved land, due to protective tariffs, marketing subsidy and, above all, the wheat quota. These schemes lead to excessive specialization in the commodities thus favoured, and they may, by bringing hill slopes under the plough, do more harm than good by the promotion of soil erosion. Again, the general application of, say the wheat quota, throughout the country overlooks the fact that though very little of the country is definitely outside the limits of wheat cultivation, a great part of it is not favourable, and would be harmed by constant soil disturbance. Another important consideration that is overlooked is the very small area of really first-class soils suitable for intensive arable farming such as market gardening, and yet near London and other great towns, where these products are most required, building is allowed to spread regardless of the value of the soil. Furthermore, in the ‘reconditioning’ of the land, or regrading to a fuller use, it is necessary to supplement the economic standard of judgment, cost per unit, by a standard of nutritional value, and pay more attention to meat and dairy products, poultry farming, and fruit and vegetable production.
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Nationalism and Use of Land. Nature 139, 441 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139441a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139441a0