130 CLIMATE AND SOIL. 



be doubted. I venture strongly to recommend an attentive 

 perusal of those excellent accounts, being persuaded that they 

 will tend materially to advance the objects of the following 

 pages. 



It is far from my intention to draw any invidious com- 

 parison between the farmers of the Netherlands and those of 

 my own country ; on the contrary, from all I can discover, 

 the Flemish farmer is much beneath the British agriculturist 

 in the possession of capital, station, education, and general 

 knowledge. Our advantages consist in machinery, in the 

 breed of our horses, in cattle, and in sheep. " But," says the 

 author of the Outlines of Flemish Husbandry," in the minute 

 attention to the qualities of the soil, in the management of 

 manures of different kinds, in the judicious succession of crops, 

 and especially in the economy of land, we have still to learn 

 something of the Flemings." 



The climate is described as differing very little from that of 

 England ; but the winters are more severe, and snow covers 

 the ground longer; consequently tillage and sowing cannot be 

 performed till a late period of the spring. The greater por- 

 tion of the soil is far from being naturally productive ; much 

 of it is of a poor sandy description. It is compared to the 

 sandy soil of Norfolk and Lincolnshire ; but by indefatigable 

 industry is rendered extremely fertile. Of all their crops flax 

 is the most profitable. It fetches from 201. to 25/., and even 

 to 30/. per acre in the best cultivated districts, independent of 

 the seed, which is worth 5/. or 6/. more. In other parts the 

 crop is of much less value, being rated at 121 per acre only. 

 French and Brabant merchants deal extensively with the 

 Flemings for flax : they purchase it as soon as the seed is 

 threshed, and prepare it for exportation at their own expense ; 

 so that the profit of an acre of flax to Flemish farmers must 

 be considerable, and may well be termed their "golden crop." 



The offal was once highly appreciated in this country as 

 linseed-cake for fattening cattle ; but, in consequence of the 

 demand becoming greater than the supply, a spurious descrip- 

 tion of cake was palmed upon the agriculturists, who now, 

 perceiving the imposition, hold it in less estimation. 



A society for the improvement of the growth and prepara- 



