326 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



For centuries Flanders has been celebrated for its agriculture, and in the 

 latter part of the sixteenth century, it is said, that Queen Elizabeth sent there 

 for a supply of vegetables, for her table, which could not be obtained in 

 England. 



The rude system of agriculture developed in Great Britain under the 

 Roman rule, about the beginning of the Christian era, was practiced with but 

 little improvement until Sir Richard Weston, in 1645, published his work on 

 "Brabant and Flanders and the Wonderful Improvement of Land there," 

 and introduced from Flanders clover and turnips, and thus laid the founda- 

 tion of the modern system of British farm practice. The most marked 

 eflfects of these aids to production, in connection with thorough system in 

 management, was shown in the improvement of the light sands of Norfolk 

 through the efforts of Mr. Coke, afterwards Earl of Leicester. 



The light lauds of Norfolk were but little better than rabbit warrens, 

 worth only one shilling an acre rent, and Mr. Coke, who owned a large tract 

 of these unproductive sands, was compelled to take the management in his 

 own hands. 



His success was largely based on the introduction of clover and turnips as 

 staple farm crops, under a rational system of management, and these barren 

 sands were transformed into productive farms that were often referred to as 

 the garden of English agriculture. 



It may, in fact, be said that the agriculture of Belgium, with its extensive 

 areas of campine sands, to which Dr. Kedzie has called our attention, has 

 been the means of revolutionizing the agriculture of the world. 



The Flemings took a greater interest in the practice of farming than in 

 writing about agriculture, and what we know of their practice is derived from 

 the writings of visitors from other countries. Since the time of Weston, 

 many reports on the farming of Flanders have been published, and from them 

 we learn that the present system of Flemish husbandry is essentially the same 

 as that practiced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 



Belgium is the most densely populated country in Europe, averaging 461 

 to the square mile. In East Belgium the papulation is 120 per square mile; 

 in East Flanders over 700 per square mile, and near Alost, on the border 

 of the Campine sands, the maximum of 8u0 p^r square mile is found. 



The Campine sands extend throughout the northern part of the kingdom, 

 embracing nearly one-third of its total area. The surface is flat and rises 

 gradually from near the sea level on the west to an elevation of 250 feet in 

 the extreme east. 



The surface soil, to a depth of six or seven inches, is a white drifting sand, 

 absolutely barren ; below this is a layer of slightly darker sand, seven or eight 

 inches in thickness, and below this is a yellowish sand of somewhat better 

 quality, which is, however, inferior to the soils of Crawford county, Michigan, 

 in chemical composition, so far as the elements of fertility are concerned. 



This third or lower stratum of soil is the staple relied upon for ameliorating 

 the surface layers and making them productive. 



In the western part of the Campine sands the subdivison of land is carried 

 to about the same extent as in Jersey and Guernsey. 



The largest farms contain but about twenty acres, and ten acres will perhaps 

 represent the average, while many are considerably smaller. A farmer rent- 

 ing seven or eight acres may have three or four landlords, and these sub- 

 divisions are seldom adjoining. 



