242 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



N. MARKET GARDENING IN BELGIUM. 



In 1885 the superficies given to market gardening in Bel- 

 gium was 99,600 acres. Now, a Belgian professor of agri- 

 culture, who has kindly supplied me with notes on this 

 subject, writes : 



" The area has considerably increased, and I believe it can 

 be taken at 112,000 acres (45,000 hectares), if not more." 

 And further on : " Rents in the neighbourhood of the big 

 towns, Antwerp, Liege, Ghent and Brussels, attain as much 

 as 5 1 6s. and ^8 per acre ; the cost of instalment is from 

 ; J 3 to 2 5 per acre; the yearly cost of manure, which is 

 the chief expense, attains from ;8 to 16 per acre the first 

 year, and then from ^5 to 8 every year". The gardens 

 are of the average size of two and a half acres, and in each 

 garden from 200 to 400 frames are used. About the Bel- 

 gian market-gardeners the same remark must be made as 

 has been made concerning the French maraichers. They 

 work awfully hard, having to pay extravagant rents, and to lay 

 money aside, with the hope of some day being able to buy 

 a piece of land, and to get rid of the blood-sucker who 

 absorbs so much of their money returns; having moreover 

 every year to buy more and more frames in order to obtain 

 their produce earlier and earlier, so as to fetch higher prices 

 for it, they work like slaves. But it must be remembered 

 that in order to obtain the same amount of produce under 

 glass, in greenhouses, the work of three men only, working 

 fifty-five hours a week, is required in Jersey for cultivating one 

 acre of land under glass. 



O. PETTY TRADES IN THE LYONS REGION. 



The neighbourhoods of St. Etienne are a great centre for 

 all sorts of industries, and among them the petty trades oc- 

 cupy an important place. Iron works and coal mines with 

 their high smoking chimneys ; noisy manufactories ; roads 

 blackened by coal, and a poor vegetation, give the country 

 the well-known aspects of the " Black Country". In certain 



