506 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



Expenses : 



Civic charges at the mayory. For a public engine and carriage to 



To the police officers, or country protect against fire, 

 watch. 



I have thus given the items of accounts kept on this excellently 

 managed estate, not so much to recommend the precise form in 

 which they are kept, as to show their particularity and exactness. 

 The great value of this extreme precision is, that the owner is at 

 once enabled to discover what are the particular sources or occa 

 sions of expense, and to determine, if it should be necessary or 

 expedient, what he may at once retrench or forego. The keep 

 ing of such accounts requires time and care, and, perhaps, in this 

 case, they may be too much extended. But a careful and orderly 

 arrangement, together with punctuality and exactness, so that 

 the work may never get into confusion or arrears, will overcome 

 much of the difficulty. The satisfaction and advantages arising 

 from it, will be a full compensation for the labor and expense 

 which it may require. I cannot understand why on a large farm 

 a bookkeeper should not be kept as much as in any shop or other 

 trading concern. 



I only add, that I have the results of the accounts of this farm 

 from 1816 to 1846 thirty years ; that the receipts vary consid 

 erably, as products and prices vary ; but that, in not more than 

 three years in the thirty, was there any loss, and in the other 

 cases a fair and reasonable gain. 



CXXX. AGRICULTURE OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



I pass now to the agriculture of Belgium or Flanders. My 

 remarks will embrace the whole of the Low Countries, Holland 

 as well as Flanders. Though they differ in many particulars, 

 yet they may be considered together. I entered these beautiful 

 countries, beautiful in the eye of an agriculturist from the rich 

 ness of their crops, and the perfection of their cultivation, in the 

 month of June ; and I confess my expectations, excited as they 

 were, were more than answered. 



