258 On the Agrimlture of the Netherlands. 



which from time immemorial is the only spot where hemp is ever sown. 

 The Flemish farmers have no hemp-lands ; and they seldom sow this 

 crop again in the same spot in less than eight or ten years. Hemp re- 

 quires so much care and manure, that it is not a favourite crop : it clears 

 the land from weeds, and is a good preparation for wheat; but flax is 

 upon the whole more profitable, and therefore preferred. 



" When the hemp has been steeped and dried, the fibres are separated 

 from the wood by hand, or by a mill which crushes the woody part. 

 This mill consists of a stone of a conical shape revolving on another 

 circular stone laid horizontally, as in a cider-mill ; the wood is thus 

 broken, and afterwards easily separated from the fibre by beating and 

 combing; but it is more commonly separated by hand, and the hemp 

 thus treated is preferred. It is an easy employment for old people and 

 children, by the winter's fire, or in a summer's evening; but it is too 

 tedious to answer on a large scale." 



The mode in which cows are fed in Flanders, where they are 

 invariably kept in the stable, and fed chiefly on the produce of 

 arable land, is worthy of notice. In summer their chief food is 

 clover, vetches, or barley cut green. In winter they are fed prin- 

 cipally upon roots, such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes. 



" These roots are chopped up together in a tub, and some bean-meal, 

 rye-meal, or buckwheat-meal, is added : boiling water is poured over this 

 and allowed to cool ; or the whole is boiled together in a copper, w^hen 

 fuel is not too scarce. Of this mixture, which they call brassing two 

 pailsfull are given milk-warm, morning and evening, to each cow, and 

 this is their food during the whole winter with a little wheat or barley 

 straw. Hay is only given in a few districts, where the pastures are ex- 

 tensive, as about Furnes and Dixmude, but never in that unbounded 

 quantity in which the cows eat it in England. Very little hay is made 

 in any other district, and that only clover-hay, which is reserved for the 

 horses when they work hard. Near the towns or large villages, where 

 there are brewers, grains are added to the other ingredients of the brassin, 

 and they greatly increase the milk." 



" After comparing the accounts given in a variety of places and situa- 

 tions of the average quantity of milk which a cow gives when fed in the 

 stall, the result is, that it greatly exceeds that of our best dairy-farms, 

 and the quantity of butter made from a given quantity of milk is also 

 greater ; an ordinary cow fed on yovmg clover will give at three milkings, 

 for the first three months after calving, from fifteen to eighteen quarts 

 per day, which will produce Ij lb. of butter, that is, nearly 9 lbs. of 

 butter per week. Where the number of cows is great, the average is 

 much less, because, when there are only two or three cows, a deficiency 

 in one of them is immediately noticed ; the cow is got rid of, and a better 

 one purchased. In a great number, there are always a few inferior cows, 

 and a lower average is the consequence." 



" The cattle are kept on brassin and cut straw till May, when they 

 are turned into the pastures, if there are any. But in all the upland 

 farms, where the land is mostly arable, the food is cut for them and 

 carried into the stalls. This consists of winter barley, or vetches, and 



