THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



349 



play to his shoulders ; and, except that we are astonished 

 to see one horse draw such heavy loads on such low 

 wheels, the whole thing works appropriate for its pur- 

 pose. But the country waggons are what excited my 

 surprise : long, narrow, and clumsy ; as they are liberal 

 of wood, but careful in use of iron. Small lock under 

 front wheels, with axle two feet shorter than the hind 

 one. Never painted, and loaded occasionally with six 

 or seven of our tons to three horses abreast. Two tons 

 per horse is considered a fair load ; but the horses and 

 roads are both excellent, and the latter without a hill 

 for man)- miles. In lieu of shafts, this waggon has a 

 pole half the length of a coach-pole, at the end of which 

 the horses are hooked on to whipple-trees — three for 

 two horses, and five for three, as we have at plough 

 in some parts of England. So that no one horse can 

 draw more than the others, the driver walks at their 

 heels with one rein i.i his left hand, and his right on the 

 pole, as he has to guide it and assist in stopping it ; but 

 in passing bridges or other descents he screws up a 

 wooden bar, which catches both hind-wheels. The 

 horses are the most docile I ever saw, and certainly 

 these ungainly waggons follow well. The harness is as 

 simple as our plough-harness. I have endeavoured, but 

 uselessly, to find out the reason for this placing the 

 horses so far from their work. I believe it is that all 

 here are Flemish, staid, sober, money-making people, 

 who are satisfied to do as their forefathers did ; and the 

 only other reason is, that, the harness being all alike, they 

 are momentarily detached from one job to another, or 

 an extra horse added over a bad bit of road in their 

 fields. But from this strange combination of horses and 

 waggons two hints may be taken. Decidedly three 

 horses with whippletrees more equally divide their work 

 than with us, and more easily start a dead pull. I have 

 not seen one horse fret, and another hang back, as com- 

 mon at home ; and I see no reason why we should not 

 attach them in the same way. Some may think one- 

 horse might pull the other back till his hocks were on 

 the front wheel ; but if we had a pole (or two poles for 

 three horses), the pole pieces would prevent this. How 

 admirably these bars are adapted to the three-horse 

 omnibuses of London, as they tnust all draw alike. As 

 regards the men, ours might imitate their sobriety, 

 cleanliness, and kindness to their horses. I have not 

 seen one horse struck ; they all (gentlemen's coachmen 

 too) crack their whips backwards and forwards, that is, 

 twice to our once, and are quite proud of the horrid 

 noise. Fancy a nobleman's coachman doing this in 

 Hyde Park ! The other hint we may take from their 

 collars : The hames are attached to them, and go all 

 round. They open at bottom, with a hinge at top, so 

 have no occasion to be thrust over the head. They are 

 quickly put over the neck. At the bottom each hame 

 has what I can only describe as half of a door-hinge ; 

 these are pressed together, and a pin inserted, and all is 

 done is most quickly. We all know the trouble in Eng- 

 land with colts and bad-tempered horses to get the 

 collar over the head. I must think theirs the better way. 

 All collars, whether nags or cart-horses, are the same. 



The next attraction is the splendid asses ; I did not 

 know there was such a breed out of Spain — the Flem- 

 ish ass, over twelve hands high, fat, handsome, and good 

 workers. Tliey never are shod, though they work on 

 the roads, and are of the value of £12 to £\i. I could 

 not believe it, till all told me the same. The environs 

 of Dunkirque for three or four miles are devoted to 

 market-gardening, and principally managed by women, 

 who come into the town with enormous carts of vege- 

 tables drawn by these donkeys. They think nothing of 

 half a ton weight being drawn by one ; and I saw a man 

 riding on one with a barrel slung on each side of his 

 saddle. But the most picturesque thing is the sight of 



acountry-woman riding to market on her donkey . She 

 has a saddle of sheepskin, with the wool on, reaching 

 from the withers to the tail. She sits sideways, and has 

 behind her, as on a pillion, a tub of butter, &c., most 

 beautifully clean ; and herself without a bonnet, but in- 

 stead a large cap as white as snow, completes as rural a 

 subject as artist would wish to sketch. The barges of 

 200 tons on the canals which traverse Belgium and 

 France I think complete the objects of greatest interest 

 in the town. 



I should fancy no foreign agricultural subject can 

 be more interesting to your readers than an account of 

 the hettc-raves, and the manufacture of them into sugar 

 and alcohol, as sugar and spirits we all consume. The 

 former, it is often said, is unprofitable to produce in our 

 West India colonies, and ought to be supplanted by 

 cotton. To say nothing about much of our imported 

 sugar being the result of slave labour, the spirit is doubly 

 a matter of anxiety now that the vines (though better) 

 are more or less affected by disease. It is a root well 

 adapted to our land ; and it does seem extraordinary to 

 me we have nothing of the kind. Whether we are pre- 

 vented by law I know not ; and if some of your corres- 

 pondents would inform me thereason,Iwould feel obliged 



It is the main paying crop of the farmer here ; and a 

 most profitable one too, producing great weight, bearing 

 an unlimited demand (except at this moment), and fetch- 

 ing always a remunerating price. Just now there is a 

 complete panic in the trade, sugars having dropped in 

 price, but more particularly spirits, which have fallen 

 nearly half during the last six months, caused by the 

 great crop of beet, the bad quality of them, and the in- 

 creased supply of alcohol from the vine districts ; con- 

 sequently the roots, which for the last four years have 

 fetched from 14s. to 18s., and in October 21s. per ton, 

 are now a drug at 2s. 6d., and, after March, will be 

 worth nothing, as every month after Christmas they lose 

 some saccharine. So you may imagine the state of the 

 trade and the feelings of the producers. 



But, first, as regards the cultivation. The land here 

 being all a splendid loam, is extremely applicable to the 

 production of these roots ; but, like our mangel wurzel, 

 they are suitable to clays. Indeed, French chemists tell 

 us that the most sugary roots are produced on clay with a 

 deep top-soil, and containing flint. I need not say, the 

 land requires to be clean : all here is always so. It is 

 ploughed very deeply in autumn, well dunged, and sown 

 from the middle of April to the end of May. The quaii- 

 tity of seed required is about 81bs. to the acre, as it is 

 either drilled or dibbled, with the thumb, one foot apart. 

 The cost of it is about 5d. per lb. It is not liable 

 to be attacked by the fly; and a plant is nearly 

 certain. When the leaves are as long as the little 

 finger, it is singled out, so that each plant stands exactly 

 one foot apart each way ; as if thinner, they grow too 

 large. The smaller ones producing the most sugar, they 

 are refused by the manufacturer if weighing much more 

 than 41bs. each. During the summer of course it is 

 frequently hoed. The leaves are not taken off' for cattle 

 during the progress of its growth, as is sometimes done 

 in England with the wurzel; and in September, when 

 the tops droop and turn brown, it is time to lift them. 

 This is often done by the acre, at 16s. I mention this 

 to show how well the farm- labourers are paid here ; but 

 it requires to be most particularly well cleaned, which 

 they do for this money, as also cut oflf the tops and 

 crowns (which contain no sugar), and throw the roots 

 into the waggons (carts are very seldom used here). The 

 crop is about 22 tons per acre ; often more. If not sold 

 at once, it is clamped, and well covered with earth. 

 Barns, cellars, and walls have been tried, but none do so 

 well as the clamps, which are left open for some 

 time along the whole ridge, to permit every particle 



