(1)The class of land for the benefit of which improvements may be specified in a scheme which may be approved by the appropriate Minister under section one of the Hill Farming Act, 1946 (hereafter in this Act referred to as " the principal Act") shall, instead of being restricted to hill farming land or other land suitable for use therewith for hill farming purposes, be extended so as to include any land falling within the definition of livestock rearing land set out in subsection (3) of this section and any land suitable for use with such land for livestock rearing purposes as defined by that subsection, and the class of work in respect of the cost of which grants may be made under that section shall be extended so as to include any work done in accordance with a scheme approved under that section as amended by this section; and the class of land subject to rights of common of pasture for the benefit of which improvements may be made under section twelve of the principal Act by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries shall, instead of being restricted to hill farming land so subject, be extended so as to include any land so subject falling within the said definition of livestock rearing land.
(2)Accordingly—
(a)in subsection (3) of section one of the principal Act, for the definitions of hill farming land and hill farming purposes there shall be substituted respectively the definitions of livestock rearing land and livestock rearing purposes set out in the next following subsection; and
(b)for references in the principal Act (elsewhere than in the said subsection (3)) to hill farming land and hill farming purposes there shall be substituted respectively references to livestock rearing land and livestock rearing purposes, and for references in that Act, in paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section nine of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1948, and in paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section eight of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1949, to hill farming land improvement schemes there shall be substituted references to livestock rearing land improvement schemes.
(3)In this section—
(a)the expression " livestock rearing land " means land situated in an area consisting predominantly of mountains, bills or heath, being land which is, or by improvement could be made, suitable for use for the breeding, rearing and maintenance of sheep or cattle but not for the carrying on, to any material extent, of dairy farming, the production, to any material extent, of fat sheep or fat cattle or the production of crops in quantity materially greater than that necessary to feed the number of sheep or cattle capable of being maintained on the land;
(b)the expression " livestock rearing purposes " means the breeding, rearing and maintenance of sheep or cattle, and includes other activities carried on in connection therewith.
