fore the two chapters will complete our investigations concerning the laws which combine to regulate the increased production of wealth.
Fresh land may be cultivated,The area of each country is limited, but, nevertheless, each country possesses much land which is not cultivated. It would, therefore, seem that, as far as the production of wealth is concerned, each country has the power of increasing the area of its cultivated land. But land sometimes remains uncultivated because it will not pay the expense of cultivation; if this is so, it would appear that the area of cultivation cannot be extended, because no individual would be willing to cultivate land at a loss. In explaining what will take place under such circumstances, we shall introduce to our readers some of the considerations upon which depends the theory of rent, a theory perhaps the most important in the whole range of economic science.
As a general rule, that land which is uncultivated remains in this condition because it will not pay to be cultivated. Whenever, therefore, fresh land is brought into cultivation we must suppose that something has occurred which will cause the land to pay for cultivation better than it did before. owing to agricultural improvements,Agricultural improvements have frequently enabled land which was before unproductive to pay a considerable rent. Thus, the present fertility of Norfolk is in a great measure due to the introduction of the turnip; this root enabled large flocks of sheep to be kept, which have fertilised what was before a poor soil. Much of the rich fen land of the Isle of Ely, which now yields a high rent, was a hundred years since a worthless marsh. In these cases the productiveness of the land has been increased by special improvements. Cases, however, have frequently occurred, where more land is brought under cultivation, not in consequence of agricultural improvements, but because there is a greater demand for the produce which is raised from the land. or increased demand for food and increased value of produce.If the population of a country increases, its people will require a greater quantity of food; and this food must, in the absence of foreign importation, be obtained either by making the land which is already in cultivation more productive, or by extending the area of cultivation. If at the time this increased demand for food arises there