154 CHEMICO-AGEICULTURAL TOUR. 



They also frequently adopt ii system of simultaneous cropping-, 

 as the sowing of clover or carrots between corn or flax ; and, not 

 satisfied with obtaining- alternate crops of cereals and of root or 

 forage plants, the Flemish farmers get from the same soil in the 

 same year two crops, as, for example, oats and turnips, rye or flax 

 and carrots, wheat and spurry, &c. 



Those agriculturists also, in the rotations of their crops, not only 

 alternate with the usual root and forage plants, but likewise with 

 some of the numerous industrial plants they cultivate, amongst the 

 most important of which are colza, flax, hemp, and hops ; this 

 makes their rotations extend over longer periods than with us, 

 where a much smaller number of plants are usually grown by the 

 agriculturist. 



To conclude these brief remarks on the agriculture of Flanders, 

 a farm in that country has more the appearance of an enlarged 

 market-garden with us, where the most liberal and repeated appli- 

 cations of manure (especially in the liquid condition), the frequent 

 digging and ploughing of the soil, and its continuous cropping 

 with a great variety of different plants, had constituted the princi- 

 pal features in its cultivation. 



Leaving Bruges, I proceeded by rail to Ostend, passing through 

 a very flat country, intersected by numerous canals and large open 

 drains, which, amongst other useful purposes, are made to carry 

 off the excessive water of this rather wet and low-lying district, 

 where, however, the crops, as far as I could judge, appeared to be 

 good and well cultivated. 



The vicinity of Ostend affords some fine examples of lands which 

 have been reclaimed from the sea by embankments ; these are 

 termed Polders ; and when once those lands are secured from the 

 influx of the tides, they become most productive soils, requiring 

 little or no manure in their cultivation. One of those reclaimed 

 lands, the polder of Snaerskerke, near Ostend, has, I understand, 

 an extent of 1300 acres ; and, from being a comparatively worth- 

 less tract, has since its reclamation become highly valuable agri- 

 cultural land. 



From Ostend, I crossed over by steamer to Dover, and from it 

 proceeded direct to London. Arriving there, I took a day's ex- 

 cursion to Kelvedon (a small village about forty-two miles to the 

 north-east of London), as I was anxious, before returning to Ire- 

 land, to see the celebrated farm of Alderman Mechi, at Tiptree 



