BARREN LAND, in Agriculture, is that in which the plants generally cultivated do not prosper or arrive at maturity. This bar renness may arise from various causes. The texture of the soil may be such that the mois ture essential to vegetation cannot be retained; or that the fibres of the roots cannot penetrate in search of food. In either case it is seldom that the soil can be rendered productive, so as to repay the expense of cultivation. There are, however, in all countries tracts of land which are barren and waste in their present state, but which, for want of better soils to employ and feed an increasing population, are well worth improving, and will ultimately re pay the labour bestowed on them. The rela tive acreage of cultivated and uncultivated land in the British Islands is estimated as follows :— Looking at this table, it is impossible not to ask whether so very large a proportion of the surface of the British dominions in Europe may not remain uncultivated, more from want of industry and skill than from insuperable barrenness ? The most prevalent causes of barrenness in land are a deficiency or an excess of water : the methods of remedying these are explained under IRRIGATION and DRALNING. Supposing that the moisture has been regulated, and that the land is to be brought into cultivation, the first thing to be done is to remove obstructions and impediments, whether they be rocks, stones, trees, or shrubs, or only the heath and coarse grasses which- generally cover waste lands. When the surface is very uneven, so as to form hillocks and hollows, in which the water is apt to stagnate, levelling is a sary process. The most effectual way of doing this is by the wheelbarrow and shovel ; but, if the soil is loose and sandy, it may be best done by means of the mollebart, a Flemish strument, consisting of a kind of large shovel, drawn along by a horse, and guided by a man.
The small fields of Flanders are often levelled by this means. In France a somewhat more complex kind of mollebart has been patented.
The land being thus so far prepared the skill of the agriculturist is made available to determine on the crop, and to suit the soil for that crop. Some soils in this condition, re quire only exposure to the air ; others require manure; others marling and ploughing; others a course of turnip husbandry ; others a season of pasturing; .Lc.
The unproductive state of waste in many populous countries has suggested the employment of the poor and friendless on their improvement ; and it has been thought more enlightened charity to expend the money, which would otherwise be given in dimple temporary relief, in such a manner as :o make the labour of paupers available to :heir future comfort and independence. It is sear increasing manufactures, where land ac mires a greater value, that barren land is soon :ouverted into fertile fields. It is there also ;hat the improvement of waste lands is most ?rofitable. The neighbourhoods of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Manchester, and Sheffield, tmong many others, furnish examples of the ;reatest industry and perseverance in over. :oming the natural barrenness of the soil. BAR-IRON. This important material of ma. mfactures is noticed under IRON-MANUFAC