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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



even foals, will do well upon a moderate quantity, and 

 plenty of straw : in this way it is a fair substitute for 

 corn. Pigs will fatten upon them ; and the new mode 

 of pulping is a great aid to their well-doing: even 

 poultry will do well upon this pulped food in connection 

 with refuse corn or meal. I have said that the in- 

 jurious tendency of the root is owing to its laxative 

 qualities. Well, then, cannot we so manage it as to 

 speedily deprive it of these dileterious propensities ? 

 Yes. In the first place, let all roots required for imme- 

 diate use be so placed or packed that the sun, air, and 

 wind may have full effect upon them, to dry up or dissi- 

 pate their watery nature. For this purpose the practice 

 of throwing them into small heaps throughout the field 

 where grown is good ; next, the putting them into root- 

 hovels having plenty of ventilation is good ; then the 

 placing them in graves or oblong rows, and thatching 

 them down, is good. Again, gathering them in mode- 

 rate heaps, and covering them with stubble, will do well. 

 Finally, for permanent use, the best and safest plan is 

 to make long graves, or rows of them, with eight-feet 

 bottom and pointed top ; thatch them down for a week 

 or ten days, and then cover the whole with earth, suflfi- 

 ciently thick to withstand a severe frost, taking care to 



leave the closing of the ridge or narrow top open as long 

 as it is safe from early frosts ; this mode ensures greater 

 safety, in permitting any fermentation to escape. I 

 need scarcely remark that these graves will require at- 

 tention early in the spring, as the roots will commence 

 growing ; they then require air, or fermentation is soon 

 generated, and great loss from rotting ensues. If this 

 is closely attended to, the roots will keep well, up to 

 Midsummer, or even longer, and retain great nutritive 

 value, and are much in request at the precise season 

 coming between the growth of the spring grasses and 

 forage and the finishing up of the winter provender. The 

 leaves I do not hold in great account ; they are useful as 

 a resort when food is very scarce, but in the general way 

 they are quite as well thrown upon the soil, to be 

 ploughed in. My practice has been to feed them off with 

 breeding ewes, but the scouring it produces often does 

 them hurt ; occasionally stripping them off, and carting 

 them on to the grass lands, but more frequently to turn 

 the sheep on, as they lie, immediately the roots are car- 

 ried. Fine as this remarkable season has been, the 

 sheep manifest the same tendency to scour, which is a 

 bad preparation for successful wintering. 



BELGIAN FARMING, 



Dear Sir, — You are aware that Belgium has hitherto 

 been held out to the world aa the model of the small farm 

 system, or the subdivision of the land ; and whilst advocating 

 the contrary priaciple, aa adopted in England, I have hitherto 

 thought it possible that Belgiuta might, from local causes, 

 form an exception to the general rule ; and that from the 

 ready market she meets for the multifarious small products of 

 her soil, in the British metropolis, the system of subdivision 

 might there be found more advantageous to the community 

 than that of the aggregation of the land. 



The following paper, however, which I have translated from 

 the Journal de Gand, shows that a change is taking place on 

 the subject, in the opinions of intelligent men in that country; 

 and that as society becomes more dense, and the demand for 

 cereal food more urgent, the system of subdivision must give 

 way ; and the influence of science, capitaU and enterprise 

 supersede that of traditional routine, prejudice, and parsimony. 

 Yours truly, 



London, Nov. 6. An Old Norfolk Farmer. 



BELGIAN AGRICULTURE. 



" THK GENTLEMAN FARMER." 



Agriculture is at this moment passing through one of those 

 transitions to which many branches of human activity have 

 successively submitted. From a trade, it has become a great 

 manufacture. The division of labour and an mtellig:ent im- 

 petus seem on the eve of completely modifying it. This divi- 

 sion of labour constitutes one of the principal elements of 

 success in all manufartures ; and it explains to us why the 

 generality of employments practised on a small scale cannot 

 sustain a competition, whatever otherwise may be thpir chances 

 of success. Thus, a tailor in a village is satisfied with a very 

 moderate income, and everything about him denotes frugality. 



The master tailor in a city is extravagant in everything : he 

 pays more taxes on his house than the whole gains of the 

 former; and the meanest of his workmen receives wages 

 greater than the humble day's work of the village tailor: he 

 does hardly anything himself, and at times even assumes the 

 airs of a fundhohier, and in fact creates funds ; whdst his 

 village contemporary leads a life of poverty. The one does 

 everything himself, and everything is done badly, because the 

 mnltiplir;ity of his labours are a continual obstacle to his be- 

 coming skilful in any one branch, and he produces little, 

 because of his unskilfulness ; and because a considerable part 

 of his time is lost in passing from one branch of work to 

 another. The master tailor has good workman, because each 

 takes constantly his own department of work, aud thus per- 

 fects himself ia the particular branch to which he has devoted 

 himself. 



If it is advantageous for production to divide the several 

 branches of manual labour, it is still more so to separate intel- 

 lectual from manual labour. This division is a fundamental 

 one ; for the man who devotes a part of his intelligence to the 

 direction of bis own hands, is, by that single act, enabled to 

 employ only a fraction of it in directing the hand of another. 

 At a period fertile in instruction, the operatives, not compre- 

 hending the power of mind, have attempted to organize work- 

 shops without patron or masters. "Why," say they, "give 

 80 large a part of the benefits to masters who do nothing?" 

 They have soon found out that intelligence or mind is the eoul 

 of the workshop, and that it is as senseless to attempt to 

 make it productive without a master, as to attempt to make a 

 body walk without a soul ; and the national workshops, orga- 

 nized out of hatred to patrons, have furnished the most con- 

 clusive argumeuts in their favour. 



Mind is the first power, and furniahes the first labour in 

 manufacture ; it ii that which directs and utilizes other labour ; 



