2 SEPTEMBER 1899, Page 25

The Making of the Land in England. By Albert Fell.

(John Murray. 6d.)—This pamphlet, reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, gives us some very interesting facts. The familiar line, "God made the country, but man made the town," needs some modification. The country as we see it now is largely man's making. Could we see it as it was five centuries ago, we certainly should not recognise even the most familiar spots. Unfortunately, as Mr. Pell shows, the making Is not by any means invariably a profitable operation. Millions of acres have been turned from good common into worthless enclosures ; light pastures, as on the upper regions of the Downs, have been broken up into arable, that it is mere ruin to cultivate. Often there has been dead loss ; where there has been profit, this has been smaller than could have been gained in other ways. Here is an instance. More than a million was spent between 1776- 1883 on the Holkham estate, and the net income in 1885 was .£27,523.