It is astonishing how husbandry, properly practised, may restore virtue
to land. I heard of one very remarkable and unexpected example in Belgium many years ago. A space of sand having nothing but a few fir trees was used as a fowl- run by neighbouring cottagers and smallholders. After sonic years it was accidentally discovered that the land, instead of being barren sand, was surpassingly fertile ; and, being light, perfectly adapted to intensive cultivation. The trees were felled and the place became a rich garden. The right plants, no less than the right animals, may reclaim the waste ; and on this head it is worth while insisting on the supreme merit of the sugar beet. When first popularized by Napoleon it restored thousands of moribund acres on the Continent, largely because its roots penetrated through the hard pan of earth, produced by repeated ploughings and cutting off all use of the wealth of the sub-soil.
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