for over 300,000 acres, and this was usually stated to be useless 
for agricultural purposes. The recreation grounds, &ec., must 
also be excluded, so that only about 75,000 acres were returned 
as having some possible agricultural value. 
The extent to which any of the land included in the returns 
is insufficiently cultivated or only used to a limited extent for 
agriculture is an entirely separate question. Whether land is 
insufficiently cultivated or *‘ underfarmed is a matter in regard 
to which the statistics can hardly be expected to afford any 
guidance. 
Enquiries have, however, been made from the Crop Reporters 
in regard to certain points which may throw some light on the 
question. These are (1) the area of land suffering from lack of 
drainage; (2) the area of land included in the returns other 
than ordinary farms and holdings, and (3) the increase in the area 
of rough grazings. These are dealt with in the next three 
sections. 
3. Agricultural land suffering from lack of drainage.— The 
Crop Reporters were asked to give some indication of the approxi- 
mate area of agricultural land which in their opinion could be 
said to be suffering badly from lack of drainage, excluding land 
where pipe, tile or mole drainage alone was required, or extensive 
areas which could only be dealt with by large drainage schemes. 
The types of land coming within this category are land which 
is liable to flooding or land which is more or less permanently 
waterlogged, and which might be improved by a small drainage 
scheme designed to secure the effective flow of water by the 
clearance of main ditches and other watercourses. 
This enquiry showed 650,000 acres of agricultural land of 
this character distributed as shown below. It may be noted 
that the large area in the northern counties is accounted for in 
the main by rough grazings where open ‘sheep drains” are 
required or old drains of this type require cleaning out. 
Acres. 
Eastern counties 
North-eastern 
South-eastern 
East Midland 
West Midland 
South-western - 
Northern counties 
North-western - 
North Wales 
South Wales 
Total - 
53,000 
27,000 
34,000 
5,000 
64,000 
10,000 
355,000 
66,000 
17,000 
19,000 
650,000 
These figures are substantially confirmed by information 
obtained by the Ministry from county councils and other sources,