254 On the AgriciiUure of the Netherlands. 



farms is much greater, and where so much labour cannot well he spared 

 for each crop. It is a less perfect method, and the plants do not take 

 root so certainly, or grow so well as by the other. An acre of good colza 

 produces on an average thirty bushels of seed." 



" The poppy is cultivated in Flanders for its seed, from which an ex- 

 cellent oil is expressed, little inferior to that of olives. There is a white 

 variety of the poppy and a purple : the first produces the best oil, the 

 latter the greatest quantity. A rich loamy soil is the best for this plant, 

 as it is for most others which bear oily seeds : and it is prepared in the 

 same manner as for any other spring crop which requires a rich deep 

 soil. Two ounces of seed is an ample allowance for an acre of land, 

 which is ploughed in stitches, and harrowed before the seed is sown : 

 the earth out of the intervals being thrown over the seed, the harrows 

 reversed are drawn over it. In May the plants are thinned to a foot 

 distance each way ; for each throws out many stems. In August the 

 seed is ripe, and it is gathered in a manner which will appear tedious, 

 but which is effectual to obtain all the seed in perfection. When some 

 of the heads begin to dry, and the openings through which the seed 

 sheds appear under the crown, men and women go along the rows of 

 poppies, and shake every head in succession over a basket or box hung 

 on the left arm, without breaking the stems : all the ripe seeds which 

 are loose in the head, drop out, and in time the basket is filled, and the 

 seed is put together in sacks. A few days after the same operation is 

 repeated, after which the stalks are pulled up and tied in bundles, which 

 are placed upright in the field, that the remaining seeds may ripen : 

 they are then finally shaken out, and the whole produce added together 

 may amount to twenty bushels per acre. The heads and stalks are of 

 little use, and are either burnt on the ground for the sake of the ashes, 

 or are carried home to help to heat the copper in which the food is boiled 

 for the cows, as we shall see hereafter. When the poppy-heads are 

 wanted for the druggists, they are cut off, with a portion of the stalk, 

 before the seed is ripe, and when there are no apertures under the crown. 

 They are tied together, and hung in a shady and dry place to lose their 

 moisture. In this state they contain the soporific juice, for which they 

 are used in fomentations, &c. The cultivation of the poppy for this 

 purpose is chiefly in gardens." 



Flax, being one of the most important agricultural products of 

 the Netherlands, deserves especial notice. Flanders is the country 

 where the cultivation of it is best understood, and, as a detailed 

 account has been given in the ' Outlines,' we shall extract from 

 this work the most important particulars : — 



** The soil most proper for this plant, if there is a choice, is a deep, 

 rich, friable loam, neither too dry in summer nor wet in winter ; in 

 short, the best and deepest soil that can be found : but as this is scarcely 

 ever to be obtained to any great extent, art and labour must supply the 

 deficiency of nature ; and trenching, working, and manuring must create 

 a deep soil and enrich it. A porous subsoil, or one that is well drained, 

 is essential. In a course, or rotation, in which flax enters as a prin- 

 cipal crop, the whole management of the land should have a reference 



