Rural Economy of the Netherlands. 157 



comprises the provinces of Drenthe, Brabant, Limbourg, and 

 part of those of Over-Yssel and Gelderland, and of Utrecht. 

 One-half of this vast expanse is still uncultivated. In 1860 

 the province of Drenthe numbered only 94,000 inhabitants on 

 665,000 acres, namely, 36 to 250 acres, equivalent to the popu- 

 lation of our department at Landes, and less than that of any 

 other province of the Low Countries. Its population has almost 

 trebled since the end of the last century, when it was only 

 37,000. 



Encompassed on all sides with swamps and peat-bogs, this 

 region is like an island of sands and heaths, shut out from all 

 communication with the rest of the country. The old constitu- 

 tion of the Saxon Marches exist here up to the present time. The 

 word March applies, especially, to the waste lands that surround 

 the cultivated fields of a tribe, and form an uninhabited border 

 that serves as the frontier. In France we meet Avith the same 

 word, to designate one of our ancient provinces, which was 

 formerly almost a desert, and where there are immense breadths 

 of uncultivated commons even at the present time. In Drenthe 

 it has been decided by the Courts of Justice that the ancient 

 Marches can be sold, or divided among the co-proprietors. The 

 result of this decision is that the Marches disappear rapidly ; and 

 in proportion as individual ownership gains ground the popu- 

 lation increases. 



Even where the enclosures took place long since, some relics of 

 the old rural commonalty have been preserved. Formerly each in- 

 habitant had his plot for cultivation in the common fields allotted 

 to him every year. These allotments have now become pretty 

 nearly private property, but the ownership is far from being com- 

 plete, for all the old customs of common-field cultivation continue 

 to subsist. The cultivated land is divided into a number of small 

 plots, on which no stock can be turned while the general crop 

 is on the ground ; so that they must be all sown with the same 

 kind of grain, tilled, and seeded, and harvested at the same time. 

 The three-crop rotation is followed : — first, winter rye ; second, 

 spring rye ; third, fallow, now replaced by buckwheat. The 

 collective body of farmers is called The Boor (in other words the 

 countryman). They meet in full assembly under the venerable 

 oak-trees, to settle the periods for cultivation, seed-time and 

 harvest. After the gathering of the crop, the entire land is free 

 as common pasture. Similar customs still remain in the east 

 part of France, especially in Lorraine. 



The wretched system of cropping would have impoverished 

 the soil long ago, if they did not keep up its condition b}^ a plan 

 just as barbarous as the cropping — that of paring the turf and 

 heather from off the waste lands, and laying it on as compost. 



