THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



127 



which he always has from forty to fifty, to eat the refuse 

 of his distillery ; they ate it with the utmost avidity : 

 even little pieces which dropped among the litter they 

 picked up. At this age it must have been very coarse 

 and hard ; and if they liked it in that state, it only proves 

 how sweet a flavour it must have. He distilled it ex- 

 perimentally, after standing till November, and obtained 

 7 J litres (fourteen pints) of alcohol from 2 cwt. of canes. 

 The land on which it grew is now wheat, and a splendid 

 crop it is. We all know how bad a preparation for this 

 is ray-grass, whether Pacey's, Italian, or common ; and 

 should this turn out (as I expect) to be of quite a different 

 nature to any of our grasses, and so a plant which feeds 

 not on the food of wheat, it will greatly add lo its value 

 as one of our alternate crops. This year he has in- 

 creased his acreage : it is now about three inches high in 

 a piece of four or five acres ; and should it turn out as 

 he expects for soiling, he will enlarge his growth still 

 more next year, he told me. A more practical or in- 

 telligent man I never met with, and one not likely to 

 be misled by fancies or mere novelties, but who is fully 

 alive to the necessity of assimilating himself to circum- 

 stances and changes over which we have no control. 

 Forty years ago his father established the distillery for 

 extracting alcohol from potatoes : that he continued to 

 do until the disease completely stopped his trade ; he 

 now uses the betterave. The sorgho, he thinks, will never 

 be produced in these northern departments for that pur- 

 pose, but for feeding he is very sanguine. I shall every 

 fortnight go to his farm to see the progress it makes, 

 and I hope and believe it will be such as to induce me 

 to advise an extensive growth of it in England. Depend 

 on it, I will never continue to assist in introducing a 

 plant that may be likely to fail. 



I must not omit to add, he told me it particularly 

 ought to be steeped in water for three days, as it was 

 such a hard dry seed, and slow to move in the earlier 

 stages of its growth. The best way to sow it for trial 

 is, some one foot by three inches, some six inches by 

 three, and some broadcast. A few of the largest stems 

 might be left to mature until November, but it ought 

 to be cut before the frosts come on. 



Excuse me, Mr. Editor, for this second edition ; but 

 from the letters I have received I find it has excited 

 unusual interest, and I believe many will be pleased to 

 read this, and find in it confirmation of what I have 

 before written, and I also thought it right to inform 

 your readers where they also could see for themselves 

 specimens of the plant. 



The more is seen of Flanders, the sti'onger must be 

 the impression that her character, of being the best cul- 

 tivated district in Europe, is indeed well deserved. 



I cannot perceive how more can be obtained from 

 the land, either in weight or money ; and certainly 1 

 never saw so much manure ^employed. Their courses 

 of alternate cropping, and (except as regards their hay 

 and clover), their general management, their excellent 

 ploughing, and their constant hoeing and hand- 

 weeding, appear to me to be nearly perfection. I have 

 seen many a piece of broadcast wheat hoed with little 

 onion hoes — the handles only a foot long ; and, again, 



when the corn was a foot high, thoroughly hand- 

 weeded : the hedges (what few there are) weeded also. 

 The banks of the ditches arc all mown ; and there is a 

 law which obliges them to cut all thistles (an act of 

 l)arliament of like nature would not be amiss in Eng- 

 land). Their great product per acre in value is greatly 

 owing to the sort of crops they grow ; some of whi'Ji 

 we are prevented producing by law, and some we have 

 no sale for, because wo have no factories to work them. 

 I cannot help thinking it is well worth our while to 

 make inexpensive trials, on a small scale, of some of 

 them. I shall in a few days publish a pamphlet on 

 the cultivation and management of such as are suitable 

 to our soils and climate ; and which, I believe, if ma- 

 nured and attended to in the same way as here, will 

 produce as good results. There is no particular diffi- 

 culty in any of the operations ; but if we found the crop 

 successful, and our labourers obstinate and difficult to 

 teach, many an experienced man of good character 

 would be glad to come, at the expense of a pound, per 

 rail and boat. 



They have, or rather would have, as much twitch 

 and black grass as anywhere in England, were they 

 not so unremitting in their care to destroy them. I 

 once had a farm in a twitchy district, and it was said 

 to be impossible to have a field entirely free from it, 

 becanse it is propagated by seed, as well as by roots, at 

 every joint. My old neighbour should come here. 

 Had I a son I wished to learn farming I would send 

 him. Many an intelligent and respectable farmer 

 would be glad to take him at little expense ; and with 

 the knowledge he would obtain how to make the 

 most of land, I am sure he would learn nothing bad. 

 They are a very moral people ; and, unless he had in- 

 deed a weak mind, the more he saw of Catholicism, 

 the more he would be disgusted with it. 



The other day I went nine miles to the largest farm 

 about here— three hundred acres; all in a ring fence, 

 and, except round the orchard, not a hedge upon it. 

 The owner, a wealthy man, lives on it, and cultivates 

 it himself. Adjoining his house is the farm-yard, and 

 near by his large beetroot sugar factory. The whole is 

 of brick ; high ceilings, high roofs, and a most perfect 

 and substantial structure. One side of the house forms 

 one side of the farm-yard : the other looks into a well- 

 managed garden with high wall, shutting out a very 

 pretty view. (This is commonly the case, illustrative 

 of the minds of all here, more or less. Taste means 

 literally the palate ; and no image is so devoutly wor- 

 shipped as the image of the Emperor ( u the coins of 

 the realm.) The yard is surrounded with a raised path 

 six or eight feet wide, one side being entirely occupied 

 with the "stables" of the fatting bullocks— cows I 

 might call them, for tea cows are bought in Belgium 

 and fattened here to one bullock ; above one hundred are 

 generally, but only eighty were then, tied up. They 

 had 21bs. of linseedcake, 31bs. of rapecake, and 21bs. of 

 " oeillette" cake, some of which is East Indian, and 

 some French ; but the two latter articles he mixed 

 with the water which is constantly before them. They 

 have also half a hundredweight a day of the "press- 



