WASTE LANDS, according to the general use of the term, are uncultivated and un profitable tracts iu populous and cultivated countries. The term waste lands is not em ployed with reference to land not reduced to cultivation in countries only partially set tied. There is a large extent of waste lands even in the British islands. Of the 77,800, 000 acres which they contain, only about 47,000,000 are arable land and improved pas ture; 2,000,000 acres are occupied with woods and plantations; 7,000,000 acres in Soot land consist of sheep-pasture, generally at a considerable elevation, and little improved by art; 8,000,000 acres in Ireland are uninclosed pasture, generally quite unimproved; 3,000,000 acres are mountain and and the remainder consists of unimproved and very unproductive land of other kinds.
The improvement of waste lands is very much a question of expense. It is often more profitable to improve lands already cultivated, and to bring them into a higher state of cultivation and productiveness, than to reclaim waste lands; in attempting which, much money has often been lost. Much of the cultivated land of Britain is far from having been brought to the highest state of cultivation of which it is evidently capable, or to a state equal to that of the best cultivated lands of similar soil and situation. In many in stances, however, waste lands have recently been improved with great advantage, and it seems probable that no small part of the waste lands of the country are capable of profit able improvement. The process must often be slow and gradual, especially where the soil is naturally very poor, as even the addition of large quantities of manure to very poor soils will not render them fertile, but on the contrary will be followed by a sterility greater than before. The quantity of guano which a rich soil would gratefully receive will destroy every vestige of vegetation on a very poor soil.
The waste lands of Britain are of very various character. Some of them are bogs, already sufficiently noticed in the article Boo. Others are marshes and fens, generally very near the level of the sea, and often within the reach of its tides, chiefly in the east ern counties of England. See BEDFORD LEVEL. Of these, a great extent has been re claimed, and has become very productive; much still remaining, however, to be done. There arc also extensive moors both in England and in Scotland, often of very poor soil, and often also at such an elevation above the level of the sea as to render profitable agri culture hopeless. This is not the case with all the moors, and it is sometimes possible to effect great improvement by drainage; so that land, formerly almost worthless, may be converted into good pasture. In many places the heath has been extirpated,
and the moorland changed into good pasture, and even into good arable land. It is sometimes found very profitable to break up such land, even at very considerable elevations, and afterward to lay it down in pasture, the produce being much greater than it was before. Even in the most elevated tracts, drainage is beneficial; although it must always be considered whether or not drainage will pay. The highest sheep pastures of the south of Scotland have been greatly improved by a kind of superfi cial drainage (sheep-drains), consisting of mere open channels for water; but in the greater altitudes of the Highlands, and amidst their more rugged steeps, even this is out of the question. rn some cases, chiefly of the more level moorlands, much improvement is effected by paring and burning, the surface being pared off by the breast-plough or paring-spade, and burned, generally in heaps, of which the ashes are spread upon the soil. The application of lime is of great benefit in many cases, as is also that of chalk and of marl, but the expense must always be considered, and many tracts of waste lands are so situated that the application of such manures is impossible. Railways have rendered the reclamation of waste lands profitable in many districts in which formerly it would not have been so.—The chalk downs of the south of England may, in great part, almost be considered as waste lands, al though used for sheep pasture; but they have been found capable of great improve ment, although in a slow and gradual manner, by tillage, and the application of manures.—Sands near the sea-shore are fixed by sowing certain grasses (see AMMO PIMA), and are capable of further improvement by cultivation and the application of manures; particularly where the sand is in considerable part calcareous. The most barren and hopeless sands are those which are almost entirely siliceous. Some time ago a company proposed to experiment on a large scale on sand of this kind, by conveying the sewage of Loudon to the Maplin sands on the coast of Essex. Very different opinions were expressed by scientific men as to the probable result of the experiment, which was important both as to the reclamation of wastes and the dis posal of sewage. Liebig deemed the siliceous sand incapable of profiting by the rich manure poured upon it. The company commenced their works, but failed to com plete them.