But, as stated above, they do not include extensive areas which 
can only be dealt with by large drainage schemes, and the 
aggregate of such areas is very considerable. Altogether, it is esti- 
mated that over a million acres of agricultural land in England and 
Wales are urgently in need of drainage and another half-million 
acres are capable of improvement by drainage, and these 
estimates are exclusive of land where field drainage alone is 
required. 
The Land Drainage Act, 1926, which came into operation on 
the 1st October, 1926, gives to county councils of boroughs and 
counties considerable powers for the carrying out of small drainage 
schemes and taking other measures which would permit of much 
being done towards improving the drainage of the land dealt 
with by the Crop Reporters’ returns. As regards the areas 
where large drainage schemes are essential, the Ministry is now 
enabled to give substantial financial assistance towards compre- 
hensive schemes promoted by Statutory Drainage Authorities. 
4. Agricultural land on holdings not being ordinary farms or 
small holdings.—Agricultural land is defined by the Agricultural 
Returns Act as including “land used as grazing, meadow or 
pasture land.” The returns are consequently not ‘confined to 
ordinary farm holdings, but include also grazing land of all kinds 
as well as land used for any agricultural purpose. Many returns, 
therefore, relate to accommodation fields and grazings let for 
the summer or longer, others to land attached to residential 
properties, while others again may refer to parks and even open 
spaces or recreation grounds which are grazed. With the object 
of obtaining an indication of the extent of land of this type, 
the Crop Reporters in 1925 were asked to distinguish such returns 
as far as they were able to do so from their own knowledge. 
There are many border-line cases, and the distinction is not of 
a very precise character. Many of the fields, particularly summer 
grazings, may be let to farmers and although they are separately 
returned they may in effect be part of an agricultural holding 
for that year. The instructions on the schedule contemplate 
that land taken for summer grazings should be returned with 
the farm, but this is not done in all cases.* On the other hand. 
many fields are let to butchers or others for temporary grazing. 
The result of this enquiry showed some 50,000 separate returns 
covering about 517,000 acres which are classed as not being 
farms, small holdings, or nurseries. About 23,000 returns, 
covering 244,000 acres, appeared to relate to detached fields, 
while about 27,000 returns covering 272,000 acres, came into 
the miscellaneous category of land attached to residential holdings, 
parks, open spaces used for grazing, &e. 
* These fields, which are very numerous in some counties, constitute 
one of the perennial difficulties of the returns, owing to their changing 
hands every year, with the consequent risk that they may be omitted 
from the returns or, conversely, that they may be returned not only by 
their temporary occupant but, also by the person by whom thev are let.