•320 On the Agriculture cf the Netherlani^s. Aug» 



There tire many large farms in this part of the country, be* 

 longing in general to the rich abbeys ; thofe. of lay proprietors 

 are for the moll part lefs ; ?.nd thole of which the farmers them- 

 fe'ves are proprietors, are iViii fmalier. The; cuhure in thefe 

 cantons is regulated ..-s follows : 



A ghcmet, or mealure o^ land, is manured the firft year with 

 dung, or, near Brugrs, with a boat loid of llrect-dirt from that 

 city ; it is then fown with flax •, the fecond year wheat is fown 

 on it ; the rhird year rye ; the fouvch year it is again flightly 

 nianurpfl, and lown with oats or lurkey wheat, and fometimes 

 >vith clover, turiiips, carrots, parfnips, or potatoes. 



Clover is fown along with onts, and only lafts a year : it is 

 afterguards ploughed, manured, and fown with wheat and flax. 



Broom is fometimes fown as an amendment for bad land, and 

 pulled up at the end of the fecond year, during winter. The 

 ground is then dunged, ploughed, and cultivated with later 

 crops, fown in the fpring. 



Turnips, carrots, parfnips, and potatoes, fupply in thefe parts the 

 want of meadows, and great care is taken to preferve them during 

 winter for food for their cattle. Turnips, carrots, and parfnips 

 are laid in the earth, in round heaps, of eight or ten feet in dia- 

 meter at the bottom, and five or fix feet high •, when the firft 

 layer is placed, it is covered with long flraw ; and fo on alter- 

 nately to the top. Thefe heaps are opened in the winter or 

 fpring, according as the farmer has need of them for feeding 

 his horfes and cows; they -are given likewife to early lambs, 

 when young grafs is wanting. 



Potatoes are kept in deep holes dug in fandy ground, where 

 they are fcMom hurt by ordinary froits, and keep good till far 

 on in the fpring. 



In this tra£l of country, there are many little woods of oak, 

 elm, beech, ^'Ider, and here and there fir of the maritime kind, 

 (rreat quantities of willows are planted, and fome are let grow 

 up irito trees, out of which are made windlafles for the boats 

 and barges of the country : thefe fell dearer than oak. 



hands on the R 'vers Lys and Scheldt ^ from Metun and C^urtray to 

 Ghent atid Dejidermondey and alfo of Maritime Flanders. 



The foil on the flat banks of the Lys and the Scheldt is rec- 

 koned among the beft in Flanders : it is in general a rich, fandy, 

 T\\o\[\ loam, berome almoft black with a long and uninterrupted 

 cultivation. Hardly any great farms are found here ; thofe ot 

 from fixty to eighty gh'^n^.ets are counted the greatell, and they 

 3ri generally lefs, as the laud is richet. 



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