THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Ill 



and Borgho) 3 medals. For plants medicinal, 2 medals. 

 For butter and cheese, and lor linen and hemp fabrics, 

 5 medals. 



For the best implement or machine, or collection of 

 machines, a medal of honour ; and 13 medals extra will 

 be awarded to the makers of the machines likely to be 

 most useful to the agriculturist. 



To add to the attractions of the exhibition, the Society 

 will open an exposition of stock belonging exclusively to 

 the district of Dunkirk; and will hold a "ploughing 

 match,'' in which the farm labourers of the district will 

 display their capabilities. When to all this is added the 

 attraction of a flower, fruit, and vegetable show, our 

 readers will perceive that there is some inducement for 

 a visit to be paid to Dunkirk this autumn. Visitors 

 going to Paris can take Duokirk in their route by one 

 of two ways, incurring very little loss of time. One of 

 the ways of proceeding is from Dover to Calais, and by 

 railway from Calais to Hazebronck, changing carriages 

 there (the train by which he leaves Calais going on to 

 Lille, Amiens, and Paris), and taking the railway to 

 Dunkirk. The second way is to go by the steamer 

 direct from Irongate Wharf to Dunkirk, and from thence 

 by railway to Paris. It is worthy of note here that a 

 considerable saving can be effected by booking through 

 to Paris, the sum charged from London to that city 

 being but a franc or two more than the usual railway 

 fare from Dunkirk to Paris. A through ticket allows 

 of a few days' stay at Dunkirk. A good English house, 

 with English comforts, at Dunkirk, is Kelly's Cherry 

 Tree Hotel. The French and principal hotel is the 

 Chasseau Rouge. Should our supposed visitor not care 

 to go to Paris, by taking the diligence to Fumes (in 

 Belgium), and the railway from that town to Courtray, 

 Ghent, and returning to Bruges and Ostend, he will 

 traverse the most interesting district of Flanders, where 

 he will see Flemish agriculture in all its perfection. He 

 can easily embark for London from Ostend, going direct 

 by sea ; or to Dover, thence to London. 



A few remarks on the character of the implements of 

 Flemish farming will doubtless be expected of us by the 

 readers of the Mark Lane Express, To this depart- 

 ment of farm economy, both in French Flanders and 

 Belgic Flanders, we have paid some considerable atten- 

 tion. We have seen them all, or nearly, in work ; and 

 have taken sketches or descriptive accounts of them. To 



go over all the points we have noticed would occupy go 

 much space, that at present we must confine our remarks 

 to what we may call the rudimental implements of agri- 

 culture — the plough, the harrow, and the roller. To 

 one looking merely at the highly-finished condition of 

 the fields, and the luxurious state of the crops which 

 they bear, the thought would naturally arise in the mind 

 that the implements by which this labour and these re» 

 suits were carried out would be of a high class of me- 

 chanical perfection. But nothing scarcely can be 

 farther from the truth : agricultural mechanism through- 

 out the Flanders district has been, and is now — except 

 where efforts are being made to introduce English im- 

 plements, or copies of these — at a very low ebb. Rude- 

 ness and heaviness of construction, a great weight of 

 material put together, showing little evidence about it 

 of the laws of strength of materials having been consi- 

 dered and applied, are the two characteristics in chief of 

 Flemish implements. We are far, however, from wish- 

 ing to infer that the implements do not do good work. 

 On the contrary, the work they do is good in the gene- 

 rality of, and first-rate in some instances ; but there can 

 be nothing but loss, and that of a continual kind, where 

 an excess of material is employed, and that in a way the 

 worst calculated to bring out its best and most economi- 

 cal features. We have rarely seen. implements at work, 

 or the huge bulk of the farm carts being dragged wearily 

 along, but we have wished that their place could have 

 been taken by the light yet strong and beautifully con- 

 structed mechanism which the show-yards of our great 

 agricultural meetings, or the fields and yards of our 

 farms display. Those agriculturists and leading men 

 who are acquainted with the progress of agricultural 

 mechanism in this country, and what it has done for the 

 practice of farming, are daily making efforts to improve 

 the arrangement and simplify the construction of the 

 agricultural mechanism of Flanders. Many leading men 

 have imported machines from this country, or have in- 

 duced the country mechanics to make others after their 

 model ; and it is gratifying to know that wherever agri- 

 cultural mechanism of a superior class is introduced, it 

 is either imported from England, or, if made in the 

 country, it has the compliment paid to it of being 

 likened to the machinery of a ffrand English farm — a 

 compliment in every way well deserved by our English 

 manufacturers. 



