AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION IN BELGIUM. 431 



dog mill, to-day they have centrifugal cream separators, Danisii 

 and Victoria churns, thrashing machines run by horsepower, and 

 more perfect winnowing machines. On a great many farms one now 

 finds the most modern plows, harrows, subsoilers, and the like; potato 

 diggers, cutters and choppers of all kinds, and, in spite of the small 

 fields, mowers and binders are making their appearance, and also 

 hay turners and rakes drawn by horsepower, and on the larger farms 

 seed drills and fertilizer distributers. Occasionally one now sees 

 gasoline motors used to run the various farm machines. 



Considerable progi-ess has been made in the improvement of horses 

 found on the farms, both for labor and breeding purposes, and still 

 greater improvement in regard to milk and beef cattle and in the 

 general sanitar}' conditions about the premises. In all cases the 

 value of stock has increased accordingly. 



Wonderful progress, amounting to a complete revolution in the 

 dairy industry, has taken place during the past 25 years. In 1885 

 practically the only apparatus for dairy work on the farms w^ere the 

 old-fashioned churns. To-da}' we scarcely find a farm without a 

 centrifugal cream separator, refrigerators, modern churns and other 

 machines for the proper care and handling of milk and for the mak- 

 ing of butter and cheese, and the larger farms now have their own 

 ice machines. The cooperative and other creameries are now all 

 modernized and the dairy industry is the most perfect obtainable and 

 has had a great influence in elevating agriculture as a whole. 



A great improvement in the construction, arrangement, furnish- 

 ing, sanitation, and comforts of the houses has also been noted during 

 the past 25 years. The farmers as a class live now in wdiat would 

 have been called luxury then. The same is also true regarding both 

 food and raiment. 



Since their organization the extension supervisors have given in 

 the Province of Antwerp 1,975 conferences. In the beginning they 

 dealt with the treatment of manure, the comj^osition and -rational 

 use of chemical fertilizers, and the fertilization of prairie land. At 

 this time the cultivators jjossessed absolutely no knowledge regard- 

 ins; the active elements of fertilizers or their action on the soil or 

 plants and they were openly opposed to their use. They were also 

 loath to attend the conferences, and in the beginning several had to 

 be held in the same locality and on the same subject in order to 

 obtain a small audience. The cultivators were mistrustful, but for- 

 tunately this was gradually overcome and their confidence gained 

 wdien they saw the results obtained by putting the principles enun- 

 ciated in the conferences into practice in the demonstration fields. 

 Thenceforth the conferences were attended by greatly increasing 

 numbers of interested listeners. After the use of chemical fertilizers 

 became generally adopted, the conferences took up the subjects of 



