They often left vast tracts idle.
After all, state and federal resources belong to the people, and 45percentt of California (more than 45 million acres) is government-controlled land, leaving vast areas idle and mostly undeveloped.
And he has signaled a desire to push ahead with privatizations of a number of state assets, including vast tracts of idle land owned by the state.
More significantly, private farmers can buy their own supplies and equipment, and cultivate more of the vast tracts of idle state-owned land.
And the government itself, hungry for cash to offset declining tax revenue, is considering selling some of its own vast holdings of idle land, perhaps as much as 310 billion ($2.5 billion) worth by next March.
In "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," which was published in 1849, Ruskin proposed a novel, if unlikely, antidote to revolutionary fervor: "There is a vast quantity of idle energy among European nations at this time, which ought to go into handicrafts".
Since its convoluted land acquisition law makes it difficult for industry to buy land, the government needs to free up vast tracts of idle land locked up in ailing state-owned enterprises for industry.
With the unemployment rate near 10percentt and the vast amounts of idle capacity almost everywhere, we have more to fear from deflation than inflation.
FROM the sheltered waters of Subic Bay in the Philippines to Falmouth on the south coast of England, a vast, swelling armada lies idle.
Ask Finns how they came to be so musical, and the answers always include references to their greatest composer, Jean Sibelius; the difficulty Finns have in making themselves understood in their unique tongue; and their bent for not disturbing the silence of their vast, underpopulated land with idle chatter.
