THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



541 



THE ENGLISH FARMER IN BELGIUM. 



Sir,— In continuation of an account of those Flemish 

 crops, the most worthy of trial on the " little field," 

 I suppose to be set apart for it, I will commence this 

 letter with the " Yelloio Lupin.'' Wherever I have 

 yet been, in France or Belgium, I find a greater admix- 

 ture of sand in the soils than in England. In many 

 parts of Belgium it is a perfect sand ; so much so as 

 even to be easily moved by the wind ; and a most in- 

 genious way they have of "fixing" it (but of this and 

 other Belgian contrivances in some future letter). In 

 Germany there are whole districts of the very poorest 

 sands. For some few years past on these soils the agri- 

 culturists, or rather proprietors on these miserable 

 lands, have been much impressed with the immense 

 advantages to be derived from the " Yellow Lupin" as 

 a green crop to be ploughed in. It is so effective that 

 where it has been followed up, as in Pomerania, Saxony, 

 and Brandenbourg, those estates, which before were 

 worthless, now produce splendid crops of rye and 

 lupins, without any manure being employed but that 

 which arises from these crops. 



It is not a high-growing plant, but very leafy, and 

 branches much, consequently it may be drilled thinly at 

 eighteen inches, and hoed or not, as jou please. It is 

 a sort of bean with a spotted skin, sown in the spring 

 at the rate of two bushels per acre, and ploughed in 

 when in full flower. The ground may be then sown again 

 with it, and that crop also buried. I should say after 

 the first frost ; but in Germany they sow it after har- 

 vest, and turn it down in the spring for rye or oats, 

 and have thus obtained a white crop and this " manure" 

 crop for three or four years together on the same land ! 



If it would stand our winters, it is just what we want 

 to occupy our stubbles from harvest to February; and 

 is well worth trying. We have many sandy districts in 

 Norfolk, Surrey, and other parts, where I cannot see 

 why it should not have the same effects as abroad in 

 north of Germany. There are many gentlemen there 

 grow as many as 120 to 200 acres of this plant annually, 

 as the farms run large. They grow it for corn, and also 

 occasionally cut it for hay. The grain ripens in August ; 

 but it is difficult to harvest, because the plant itself is so 

 succulent, and the pods do not all ripen at the same 

 time. It is mown in swaths, and after laying a few 

 days, is set up in single sheaves, as we do sometimes our 

 beans, with a bean-stalk twisted round near the top of 

 the sheaf, the lower part standing out like an umbrella. 

 Another difficulty is, the pods are so liable to open, and 

 shed the grain. But there are ways to meet all this. 

 One man made small stacks of it, with alternate layers 

 of oat-straw ; it heated a little, gave the oat-straw a 

 flavour, and dried itself without injuring the grain. 



It might be made into long stacks of only two 

 sheaves in width, and the height of long poles set in 

 the ground on each side, at intervals of a dozen yards, 

 to keep them up. I have seen this done with the 



camnieline oil plant ; but I cannot see why the French 

 jilan of round shocks of a dozen sheaves with three- 

 hood sheaves should not answer, and so let them re- 

 main out some weeks, till thereby dry, and then carted 

 home in waggons, with old tilts at the bottom to catch 

 the shed lupins. This excellent mode of shocking com 

 I have described in a former letter to your paper. 



Another man had it half-thrashed in the field, lads 

 going round and giving each sheaf half-a-dozen knocks 

 with a stick, and shocking them. This is a good plan, 

 as the pods dry so long before the juicy stalks. 



The feeding property of the grain is about the same 

 as common beans. 



It likes deep cultivation. The land is never " sick" 

 of it, and where grown annually as manure, for some 

 six or seven years, it has turned the soil a dark colour, 

 from the quantity of decayed matter deposited. 



If mown for hay, in full flower, it is considered quite 

 as nutritive as clover ; but I should doubt that. It 

 should always be mixed in the (long) stack with layers 

 of straw. April would be the time for sowing it, and 

 thicker than if intended to produce grain. It has 

 grown two tons of hay per acre. It is good for all 

 animals ; but cows must not be allowed too much of it, 

 or it will give a taste to the milk. On soils that suit 

 it (and any will do so except chalk) it will grow a yard 

 high, deeply ploughed and subsoiled. 



If sown to be folded off by sheep, tares must be 

 mixed with it, and they will then readily eat it ; but not 

 so well if sown alone. 



In using the grain for food, fatting bullocks should 

 have not more than half a peck per day, young lambs 

 three quarters of a pint, cows two pounds, and horses 

 one-sixth of their usual quantity of other corn mixed 

 with it. The lupins should be first wetted twenty-four 

 hours in water. 



The above is sufficient to give an idea of its cultiva- 

 tion and use. But I should think its greatest value to 

 us would be as a green crop, to be sown after harvest 

 on all soils, and ploughed in as manure ; or on our 

 poorest lands, as a means of making them worth culti- 

 vation, and which are now almost worthless. For this 

 purpose the first two years it should be sown twice 

 a-year ; after which, the four crops having been turned 

 in the soil, we might expect it to be in a sufficiently 

 productive state to be cultivated in that course the 

 owner may think the best. Perhaps that would be to lay 

 it down for sheep-feeding, as it is stated a small farmer 

 in the village of Dusenan, having for some few years 

 ploughed in his lupins in Aill flower in the spring, and 

 then sowed rye, he found the field began to be covered 

 with a wild white clover — it was a white sand, and had 

 been turned quite dark from the quantity of humus 

 left in the soil. 



" Spergule" is a small plant sown on the stubbles for 

 fodder late in autumn ; and very frequently ploughed in 



