RATES VERSUS TREES.
The abolition of rates on agricultural land and buildings will, like all changes, have minor influences rot foreseen. During this latest period of agricultural depression a sprinkling of landlords in many parts of the country—to my personal knowledge in Shropshire, East Anglia, and the Home Counties —have begun to afforest the less prolific acres under their control, largely for the purpose of reducing rates ; and they have congratulated one another on the results. They will now feel robbed of this particular satisfaction. The point is not crucial. In each instance it was arguable whether the planting of trees in place of corn or what not was for the ultimate good of the country or no. Personally, I believe in the extension of the afforested area. However this may be, the movement towards small afforestation was certain of being stimulated by the difficulty of paying rates ; and this stimulus, good or bad, will now cease to operate ; other land- lords, notably in the new " prairies " of Wiltshire and Berkshire, have purposely destroyed and dismantled many out-buildings and indeed a certain proportion of dwelling- houses, chiefly for the purpose of lowering rates. It is wholly to the good that this evil, inherent in the whole rating system, should disappear.
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