Abstract
A STRIKING connexion between physical geography and economic policy is outlined by Prof. C. F. Shaw in the Geographical Review for January. He points out that the upland soils of much of Great Britain are shallow. In England and Wales they average twenty-five inches in depth and in Scotland, where glacial deposits are more general, forty inches. Chalk soils of southern England are the thinnest, averaging only ten inches. On all these upland soils erosion, though not conspicuous, is active. Evidence is obtainable from remains of Roman occupation and other sources as shown at the recent International Congress of Soil Science held at Oxford. Prof. Shaw's contention is that economic pressure, exerting itself in increased grain production in the home country, will entail the ploughing of sloping uplands, which will loosen the soil cover and so promote more active erosion. This will in turn impoverish the uplands and cause further deposition of soil on the lowlands. A sounder economic policy is in his opinion the preservation of the thin upland soils by maintaining them under grass, which would at least ensure their continued usefulness as grazing grounds for food animals.
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Nationalism and Soil Erosion. Nature 137, 393 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137393c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137393c0