352 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



point. M. do Lavergue'd calculatiou has 'd'i horned stock, 6 

 horses, and 200 sheep for every 2| acres in England, and in 

 the whole of Fiandera 55 horned cattle, 12 horses, and 8 

 sheep. The French author reduces the English sheep to cattle 

 at 8 to 1, aad this gives 64 head in England to 68 head in 

 Flanders per 2i acres. But he also observes that the cattle 

 are chiefly for the dairy; that, "in consequence of the want 

 of pasture, and the very small consumption of meat by the 

 working classes, very little meat is grown — except in the large 

 farm district of the coast ;" and that, " while the number of 

 sheep diminishes, a great number of goats — 50,000 in the 

 province — are kept by farmers too poor to keep a cow." Since 

 the demand for butter for export to England has so largely 

 increased, the number of sheep has steadily diminished. The 

 French author labours under the erroneous idea that the same 

 result has followed high farming in England ; but we all 

 know that the reverse is the fact, the number of sheep 

 fed having steadily increased in England for the last ten 

 years. 



It must also be observed that any comparison between the 

 stock fed in England, and on the continent, will be very de- 

 ceptive, if taken in the usual manner by numbers. Our live 

 stock are so much heavier, so much more valuable to the 

 butcher, and so much earlier matured, that it is no exaggera- 

 tion to treat thera as worth double the live stock of France, 

 Germany, and Flanders— although in dairy-produce Flanders 

 and Holland excel us, not from tt^e superiority of their stock, 

 but the superiority of their management, and, in certain dis- 

 tricts, of their grasses. 



It will be seen, from the preceding sketch of the Flemish 

 peasant farmers, that they depend greatlj' on dairy, and the 

 domestic manufacture of green flax into thread, two pursuits 

 eminently suited for cottage farmers, and which, if the habits 

 of the people permitted, might be advantageously copied 

 in Ireland. But there are special aptitudes in different races, 

 which it is very diflicult to transplant. If it were not so, 

 Flemish agriculture would long ago have made its way into 

 France, where, according to a large mass of reliable evidence, 

 the condition of the peasant proprietors continually deterio- 

 rates, in spite of the gigantic efforts of the Government to 

 improve their practices and their condition. But it cannot 

 astonish any one who has been familiar with the chronic and 

 offensive misery of French agricultural villages, that the young 

 men, in spite of the entreaties of their friends, their fathers, 

 and their employers, emigrate in crowds to the great towns. 

 The villages of the Flemings are more attractive. Nothing 

 can be more charming than the following picture : 



" The Flemish village is not formed of a collection of farm- 

 houses (as in Frauce), but of the trades supported by the 

 numerous population dispersed over the fields. The prevail- 

 ing feature is humble, unpretending neatness and close 

 economy. Near the church, whose spire springs from the 

 tree-planted grave-yard, is usually a square formed of houses, 

 all in the cleanest possible order. 



"The cottages of the labourers are usually to be found spread 

 over or near each farm. Near at hand is the parson's house^ 

 with its garden surrounded by a wall or trim hedge. Next comes 

 a building, not without architectural pretensions, which is the 

 communal or district school, and sometimes a school for 

 teaching weaving ; and another surmounted by a clock-tower 

 and cross, whore a religious community instruct the girls in 

 lace ir!i>i"!r. 



"iu aliaost every ' commune' country houses are seen, where 

 green lawns dotted over with trees remind one of English 

 country-houses on a small scale ; but mansions are rare, the 

 feudal aristocracy having never held « high position in a 



country ruled by the gre»t linen-cloth manufacturers. Flemish 

 agriculture owes nothing to the higher classes. 



" The distinguishing feature of rural Flanders is, that every 

 village is the centre of local enterprise and association, quite 

 indepemJeutly of the chief towns of the province. The spirit 

 of association peculiar to the Flemish race creates societies of 

 every kind everywhere, for the promotion of amusement or 

 some useful object. Musical societies, societies for giving 

 prizes to local poet', aad for local trotting matches, or to far- 

 mers who ride at the ring with a lance, as they did in the 

 middle ages ; agricultural societies, and bowling and cross- 

 bow shooting clubs. These last are ancient guilds, with coats 

 of arms and banners, some founded on charters dating from 

 the 13 th and l-^th centuries, and bound to meet at the call of 

 their Suzerain, Their rules, their expenses, their days of 

 meeting, all arc discussed, and all help to give the Flemings 

 the habit of transacting public business." 



Certainly this is an attractive picture of a state of rural 

 society of which we have no parallel ; but when we turn from 

 the poetry to the prose of figures the result does not present 

 anything very tempting to our English mechanics, or even 

 our best paid and lodged agricultural labourers. 



The author, from whom we have already quoted, says of the 

 large farmers of the clay soils : " They eat wheat bread every 

 day, bacon several times a-week, and beef on certain great 

 occasions. They are generally well-clad ; their wives are 

 often dressed elegantly in their ancient and picturesque 

 costumes. But the small farmer lives chiefly on rye bread 

 and potatoes : he drinks chicory for coffee, and uses the 

 coarsest produce of the beetroot for sugar ; beer he reserves 

 for fairs and feasts ; he never eats meat, and seldom bacon. 

 It is calculated that he does not get above three per cent, on 

 his capitsl, beside his wages as a labourer, and he and his 

 family all work in a manner almost unknown in other 

 countries. As for the hired labourer, he works and receives 

 less than any other labourer in civilized Europe. His wages 

 are from lOd.to lid. a-day, and he only exists from the in- 

 cessant toil of all his family. When the day is over, he toila 

 often far into a moonlight night, on a few roods of land he 

 rents near his cottage. His wife and daughter work at lace- 

 making ; the sons not fit for field-work collect weeds and grass 

 from the roadside, and feed rabbits for the London market. 

 They skin theoi before selling them — the skins being used in 

 Belgium in the manufacture of hats." 



Still, it must be admitted, that hard as the life is, the 

 Flemings seem to prefer rural to town life. That may be 

 greatly due to the " Societies" and " Guilds.'" A careful 

 examination of the con dition of cottage farmers in Ireland 

 and in Flanders as tenants, in France aud the colonies of Eng- 

 land as freeholders, in Switzerland and the Channel Islands 

 as freeholders as well as tenants, brings us to the following 

 conclusions ; Wherever, as in newly-settled countries, land is 

 plentiful and cheap, labour scarce and dear, there agriculture 

 can only be carried on by the hands of the settler and his family. 

 In the demand for labour that surrounds them, they have a 

 resource when they need cash or wages in any form, and they 

 will rise and prosper as the value of their land rises. 

 Wherever labour is abundant, and not iu demand, and markets 

 are so distant that there is no daily money-price for agricul- 

 tural produce, there a bit of land to grow food is essential to 

 the existence of the peasant. 



Wherever there is a a teady demand for agricultural labour, 

 at wages which rather increase than decline, there the pea- 

 sant, with a good cottage and garden, lives better as a labourer 

 for hire than if he worked for himseP, 



