of certain Soils and Waters in Belgium. 45 



By these analytical results, it is abundantly evident how 

 completely due to artificial means is the fertility of those dif- 

 ferent Belgian soils; the large quantity of azotized organic 

 matter, the proportionally large quantities of phosphoric acid 

 and magnesia, and of the alkalies, being evidently the result 

 of the copious treatment with animal manures, to which, as all 

 persons conversant with Flemish agriculture are aware, the 

 soil in Belgium is subjected. This will become still more 

 evident, when hereafter I have to notice the course of cultiva- 

 tion which those soils are made to undergo. The duty, so 

 important in the preparation of our Irish soils for flax, of di- 

 viding the soil to the finest possible state, and rendering it 

 perfectly friable and porous, is seen by the above results to be 

 naturally effected in the Belgian soils, of which a well-manured, 

 incoherent sand, might be more correctly the title; none of 

 them containing, except that marked A, and that from Hol- 

 land, E, as much clay as would even justify the title of a light 

 loam. There is, therefore, no doubt but that the soils most 

 adapted for the successful growth of flax are of this very light 

 and porous character; and that, in the selection of districts in 

 this country into which the flax culture may be extended, this 

 quality of lightness and permeability of soil is of the first im- 

 portance. 



The quantity of lime contained in the Belgian soils will be 

 observed to be extremely small ; but in that from Holland 

 and from the Lincolnshire warped land it is much larger, in- 

 deed so as to constitute the most dominant earthy material. 

 This has evidently had its cause in the source from whence 

 these soils were derived, the silt deposited in shallow, quiescent 

 waters by the sea, and which contains, mixed with sand, a 

 proportion of comminuted shells or chalk. There is no posi- 

 tive evidence that this amount of lime is connected with any 

 decided inferiority in the flax ; but it is still worthy of atten- 

 tion, that the soil of the districts which have been longest and 

 best known for the production of good flax have but a mere 

 trace of lime in their constitution. 



The comparatively large quantity of magnesia which the 

 Belgian soils contain, and which is so remarkably contrasted 

 with its inferior proportion in the warp soil, is, in my opinion, 

 produced by the artificial manuring by animal liquids ; and 

 to this source also I attribute the great richness of these soils 

 in phosphoric acid. 



[To be continued.] 



