6f> Observations upon the Polders of Flanders. 



to diminish the fertility of the soil. The common rent per day for a cow 

 is twenty-two cents, and two cows are allowed to each hectare. The sea- 

 son lasts six months, from mid-April to mid-October, giving a rent per 

 hectare of about eighty-four florins. Inferior lands yield a return of from 

 sixty to sixty-eight florins. 



The inundations to which the polders are liable, are of three kinds j — 

 from rain water, from brackish water, and from sea water. When the 

 September rains fall in greater abundance than usual, the means employed 

 are found inadequate to carry off the surplus water, and the low lands are 

 inundated, nor can they be completely drained before the following April. 



To inundate the higher lands, artificial means are employed ; and thus 

 frequently during the interval we have indicated, the country presents the 

 aspect of a fresh-water lake, the villages and their homesteads being alone 

 above water. Such inundations are injurious only to the pastures and 

 arable lands ; to those set for hay, they are, when confined to the above 

 period, positively beneficial, from the deposit which they leave upon the 

 soil. 



The influx of brackish water occurs in April and May. The tides, 

 elevated by the March moon, and forced up the mouths of the rivers by 

 the powerful north-westers, obstruct the egress of the rain water, and 

 together they overflow the embankments. 



In proportion to the admixture of salt water, is calculated to be the 

 injury inflicted upon the deluged lands. 



The salt water inundations are effected entirely by the sea, and occur 

 usually in June, when the fresh water has sunk to its summer level. The 

 damage is very considerable, as the earth, being in a dry state, imbibes a 

 large quantity of deleterious saline matter. 



In considering the amount of damage inflicted by the above inundations, 

 they should be divided into two classes ; the ordinary, or those attendant 

 upon every species of inundation; and the extraordinary, or those caused 

 by inundations of a particular description. Now those inflicted during the 

 late siege, were entirely of the latter description j the water admitted was 

 exclusively salt, and the lands inundated, from their natural fertility and 

 from their proximity to the markets of Antwerp, were of great value. 



The damages sustained by such of these Polders as were inundated by 

 the military operations of 1830 and 1832, have recently come under the 

 consideration of the Belgian government, and the report of the surveyor 

 general upon the state of the land, which we have not had an opportunity 

 of seeing, is said to afford much useful information. 



The losses consequent upon an inundation, may be divided into two 

 classes. 



' First, those which result from the diminished produce of the inundated 

 land, from the time of the inundation until all traces of it shall have dis- 



