Waste Lands, according to the general use of the term, are uncultivated and unprofitable tracts in populous and cultivated countries. The term waste lands is not employed with reference to land not reduced to cultivation in countries only partially settled. There is a large extent of waste lands even in the British Islands. Of the 77,800,000 acres which they contain only about 48,100,000 are arable land and improved pasture; 3,000,000 acres are occupied with woods and plantations; about 7,000,000 acres in Scotland consist of sheep-pasture, generally at a considerable elevation, and little improved by art; 8,000,000 acres in Ireland are unenclosed pasture, generally quite unimproved; over 4,000,000 acres are mountain and bog; and the remainder consists of unimproved and very unproductive land of other kinds.
The waste lands of Britain are of very various character. Some of them are bogs, already sufficiently noticed in the article BOG. Others are marshes and fens, generally very near the level of the sea, and often within the reach of its tides, chiefly in the eastern counties of England (see BEDFORD LEVEL). There are also extensive moors both in England and in Scotland, often of very poor soil, and often also at such an elevation above the level of the sea as to render profitable agriculture hopeless. This is not the case with all the moors, and it is sometimes possible to effect great improvement by drainage; so that land, formerly almost worthless, may be converted into good pasture. The highest sheep-pastures of the south of Scotland have been greatly improved by a kind of superficial drainage (sheep-drains), consisting of mere open channels for water; but in the greater altitudes of the Highlands, and amidst their more rugged steeps, even this is out of the question. The chalk downs of the south of England may, in great part, almost be considered as waste lands, although in several parts they afford excellent pasture for sheep; while in certain districts they have been found capable of great improvement, in a slow and gradual manner, by tillage and the application of manures. Sands near the seashore are fixed by sowing certain grasses, and are capable of further improvement by cultivation and the application of manures; particularly where the sand is in considerable part calcareous. The most barren and hopeless sands are those which are almost entirely siliceous.
In Scotland, during the first eighty years of the 19th century, a large extent of waste land was by reclamation transformed into fairly good arable land. This process of reclamation was pursued to a lesser or greater extent in all the counties embracing mountain or moorland. It was most active in the northern counties, notably in the county of Sutherland, where between 1870 and 1880 the Duke of Sutherland expended nearly £200,000 in the reclamation of land. The Sutherland reclamations attracted great attention at the time, and were visited by many agriculturists from foreign countries as well as from distant parts of the United Kingdom. Viewed financially the reclamations have not been successful. The cost of the work was great, from £22 to as high as £65 per acre, and the benefits resulting from the reclamation have been lessened by the fall in the prices of agricultural produce. Already portions of the land have returned to a semi-waste condition. The advance in wages and the decline in the prices of agricultural produce have brought land reclamation almost to a stand-still.
See the articles COMMON, DRAINAGE, HOLLAND, IRRIGATION, LANDES, PEAT, POLDER, WARPING, ZUIDER ZEE.