THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 519 



I have referred, (p. 517,) the first six crops were each of them 

 liberally manured. The seventh, which was buckwheat, and 

 completed the course, was without manure. In the next rota 

 tion, (p. 517,) where the rotation extended to eleven crops, five 

 of them were manured. That the manuring was of a liberal char 

 acter, is seen in the application of sometimes twenty tons of 

 manure to the acre, and sometimes twelve tons, with the addition 

 of fifty barrels of urine. Indeed, the first object of a Flemish 

 farmer is to increase his stock of manure ; to this end he suffers 

 nothing which can be converted into manure to be lost or wasted ; 

 and besides that which he makes from his savings and his do 

 mestic animals, he is always ready to purchase manure, where it 

 can be found accessible the various canals in the country fur 

 nishing great facilities for its conveyance. Perhaps there is only 

 one point in which he is often deficient, and that is, in not raising 

 sufficient green food for the support of cattle, with a view to 

 increasing his manure. 



7. LIQJJID MANURE. It is not merely in manuring liberally 

 that Flemish husbandry is remarkable, but in the particular mode 

 of applying this manure. The great object of the Flemish farmer 

 is to apply it in a condition to be immediately taken up by the 

 plants. Coarse and long manure he ploughs under in the autumn, 

 that it may be in a condition to serve the crop which is to be 

 sown in the spring. Or, if to be applied in the spring, he so 

 works it over and prepares it, that it is in a condition at once to 

 serve the plant. But the distinguishing circumstance in Flemish 

 husbandry is in the application of liquid manure, both to the land 

 before the sowing, and likewise to the growing crop. In such 

 case the growing crop immediately receives it ; receives it at a time 

 when, perhaps, the manure first applied has begun to lose some 

 what of its efficacy ; and in a form that its efficacy is felt at once. 



The difficulty of applying this liquid manure to the crops on 

 the land is often considered an objection to its use ; and there is, 

 with many persons, a fastidiousness in regard to the use of it, 

 which is quite absurd, and leads to the sacrifice of the most val 

 uable and efficacious manure which is at the command of the 

 husbandman. In some cases it is turned into the small ditches 

 or furrows between the beds or stitches, and then with a spade 

 thrown on to the beds with some of the soil by which it has 

 been absorbed. In this case a light plough is sometimes passed 



