On the Agriculture of the Netherlands. 263 



power to keep it straight when the crooked pole has not a steady 

 foot to guide the front wheels. The Dutchmen always make their 

 horses trot in the waggon when not heavily loaded, by which 

 much time is saved in haymaking and harvest ; and the horses, 

 being accustomed to it, naturally trot like carriage-horses, when 

 the load and the roads permit. Many of the roads in Holland 

 are paved with hard bricks called klinkers, set on edge, and run 

 like railways. On the whole there are many points in the hus- 

 bandry of the Netherlands which are worthy of adoption. The 

 principal object of good farmers seems to be to imitate as much 

 as possible the garden culture in the tillage and clearing the 

 ground from weeds. The spade is much more in use in finishing 

 the work of the ploughs and harrows than with us, and also in 

 trenching the ground. Manure is carefully accumulated and 

 preserved, and seldom allowed to be washed away, or diminished 

 by long and injudicious fermentation, but is mixed with earth 

 to retain all the volatile parts, and carried to the land in a state of 

 compost. All the urine is carefully collected, and its value is 

 fully appreciated. 



There are no doubt many farms which do not come up to the 

 description here attempted ; but our object is to present to the 

 reader what may be worthy of imitation, or which may lead to 

 some improvement in our own practices — without drawing invidi- 

 ous comparisons of the general state of agriculture, when the de- 

 fects of one system are contrasted with the improvements introduced 

 into another, and the best cultivated lands in one district are com- 

 pared with the least improved in another. 



XX. — On the Planting and Management of Forest-Trees, 

 By Charles Falkner. 



The subject of the following pages is immediately connected 

 with the promotion and improvement of agriculture, by the bene- 

 ficial effect of woods and plantations in deepening and enriching 

 the soil upon which they grow, by the improvement their shelter 

 effects in the climate of adjoining lands, and their consequent in- 

 creased fertility, and by their affording an abundant supply of 

 indispensable material for buildings, implements, and fuel. 



To these must be added the indirect benefit they afford, by 

 giving employment to agricultural labourers at a period of the 

 year when many would otherwise be unemployed. 



Besides the direct and indirect advantages which the cultiva- 

 tion of woods and plantations yields to agriculture, it presents a 

 sure and rapid means of increasing the value of landed property 



