Water Conservation, Soil Erosion and Land Use

Abstract

MAXIMUM economic production from the socalled marginal lands is much under discussion at the present time. Marginal land is generally assumed to be land which in the eyes of the planner of proper utilization not producing some particular 'crop' or 'crops' up to its theoretical capacity. There have been frequent references in Nature during recent weeks to the need for better use of such land, and the attention of appropriate authorities in Great Britain has been directed at different times to the rival claims of hill farming, forestry, national parks, Nature reserves, and so on. A session at the recent Newcastle meeting of the British Association was devoted to the same topic (see Nature, October 15, p. 640).