This paper reviews the organization and structure of the Canada Land Inventory in a retrospective fashion, and discusses the basic concepts of land capability analyses. The author examines several of the problems encountered while carrying out the CLI, and concludes by setting forth the British Columbia experience in using the inventory as a base for the designation of the Agricultural Land Reserves by the British Columbia Land Commission. Note: This paper is an expanded version of a paper on the utility of the Canada Land Inventory for regional planning originally prepared for publication in Emergent Patterns in the Canadian Planning Mosaic, edited by Ira M. Robinson and William T. Perks, to be published by Dowden Hutchinson & Ross, Box 699, 523 Sarah Street, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, 18360, U.S.A. publication date, late 1977.