1011 



n.KCHK, LA. 



KUSTSH 



: 



wooden bun* of a triangular shape, covered with board*, which U 

 drawn over the ground to smooth the surface and press in the teed. 

 The harrow* in common use are al*o triangular, and made entirely of 

 wood ; the pins are driven obliquely and point forward*, *o a* readily 

 to enter into the ground when the harrow* are drawn by the angle. 



The most important instrument in Finnish agriculture Uthe spade, 

 which ia u*ed to a much greater extent than in Kngland ; and in some 

 instances i* the only instrument of tillage. The trenching cpade U 

 made light and long, and i* well adapted to the looee sandy soil*. 

 The first step to improvement U generally a complete nud deip 

 trenching ; and in the Waes district a sixth part of the whole farm is 

 trenched every year; and where this U not done, the intervals 

 Iwtwecn the stitches in which the laud has tieen ploughed are dug out 

 with the spade a foot or 1 6 inchm deep, and the earth thrown evenly 

 over the beds in which the seed has been sown. By shifting these 

 interval* a foot every year, the whole of the laud which lies in stitches 

 A feet wide i* dug, and the upper and under soil mixed regularly. 

 This process is extremely useful in producing an even crop, especially 

 of flax, the root* of which strike deep. 



Flax is everywhere a most important crop, for it much exceeds all 

 other crops in value. Where it can bo raised of a tolerable quality, 

 every other crop lias a reference to this ; and the rotation of crops 

 (which system of farming is very generally adopted) is arranged 

 accordingly. There is no country where more attention in paid to flax 

 than in Flanders, especially in the neighbourhood of Courtrai. The 

 land U brought into the highest state of richness and cleanness before 

 flax ia sown in it ; and the most abundant manuring with refuse oil- 

 cake and urine is thought essential to raise this crop in perfection. 



On the heavier loams colza, or rape, is an important crop for 

 the seed from which the oil is expressed. Potatoes and beetroot 

 are raised in considerable quantities, but the fanners prefer to beet- 

 root turnips and carrots, a crop of which can be raised on the same 

 land that has borne another valuable crop the same year. In the 

 heavier loams, which are chiefly to be met with in West Flandera and 

 about Aloet, the following rotation is adopted : flax, clover, barley 

 or oats, beans, wheat, rye and turnips, potatoes, colza and carrots, flax ; 

 or flax, colza, wheat, rye and turnips, oats, clover, wheat, rye. 



There are some very rich pastures in Flanders about Fumes and 

 Dixrnude, where excellent butter is made. A great many beast* arc 

 fed in summer. The best cows and oxen are of the Dutch breed ; 

 those which are bred in Flanders arc inferior. The breed of horses 

 in Flanders U large and heavy, but deficient in activity and clumsy in 

 form. The mares were once in repute for heavy carriages, but at 

 present an equipage drawn by Flanders mares would be an object of 

 wonder, if not of ridicule. Many horses have been imported iuto 

 England from Flanders an cart-horses. The Flemish sheep are coarse 

 in the wool, and inferior in carcass. The pigs too are as badly shaped, 

 but a better breed has been recently introduced. 



The farm building* are very good and convenient in general. The 

 farms are small, compared with those in other countries ; 120 acres is 

 considered a very considerable occupation. In the Waes country, 

 which lies in the north of East Flanders near Antwerp, and is culti- 

 vated like a garden; the farms are very small, SO acres being amongst 

 the largest, and the average is not above 15 acres. A farm of this descrip- 

 tion require* only one hone to cart the manure and plough the land ; 

 four or five cows are the usual complement, with two or three pigs. 



FLKCHE, LA. [SAHTIIE.] 



FI.KETWOOD. [LAXCASIIIHI:.] 



FLEOO, EAST and WEST, two hundreds in the eastern division of 

 the county of Norfolk, which have been constituted a Poor-Law 

 Union. The incorporated hundreds of East and West Flegg are 

 bounded N. by the river North, separating West Flegg from the 

 hundred of Happing ; E. by the North Sea ; S. by the river Bure, 

 separating East Flegg from the hundred of WaUhatn, and W. by the 

 hundred of Walsham. East and West Flegg hundreds comprise an 

 area of 29,087 acre*, and a population in 1851 of 8497. East and 

 Wet Flegg Poor-Law Union contains 20 parishes, with an area of 

 :i5 acres, and a population in 1851 of 8499. 



->I!<m<;, a town at the southern extremity of the Flens- 

 Iwrg Fjord, an inlet of the Baltic, and in the centre of the duchy of 

 Schleswig, stands in about 64 47' N. lot., 9 27' E. long., and has 

 about 16,000 inhabitants including the suburbs. The town is 

 encircled by hill* on the three sides facing the fjord. It U a pleasant 

 well-built town, inclosed by an old wall and ditch, outside of which 

 there are three suburbs. The streets are well paved and lighted. 

 Fleasborg ha* three German churches and one Danish, three market- 

 places, a town-hall, an orphan asylum, an hospital and school of mid- 

 wifery, a public library, a grammar school, an exchange, a theatre, 

 and a house of correction. It has several large manufactories, parti- 

 cularly of spirit*, refined sugar, tobacco, sailcloth, soap, paper, Ac. 

 There are shipbuilding yards, and the people of the town are owner* 

 of between 200 and SOO veswls. There i* a good harbour, deep enough 

 for Urge ships, but the entrance is difficult The trade i* considerable- 

 then are large import* of linseed, timber, coalu, and raw materials; 

 the export* are spirit*, corn, hides and skins, nil, soap, tallow, fish, 

 Ac. A railway, 43 miles in length, connects the town with Tunning 

 near the mouth of the Kydor. Flensborg is the capital of a bailiwick 

 of the came name, which ha* an area of about 336 square miles. 



FLINT, Flint. hirr, a market-town, sea-port, and parliamentary 

 iroiiuii. i" left side of the actuary of the Dee, in 



53' 15' N. lat., 3' 0' W. long. ; distant I'.'T mil.'* N.W. fn.m I 

 by road, and 191 miles by the North-Western, and Clint, r ami Holy- 

 head railways. The borough of Flint is governed I :iu-ii 

 ninl twelve councillors, one of whom ia mayor ; and with St. Asaph, 

 Holywell, Mold, and four other places, returns ono me:: 

 Imperial Parliament. The living U a perjietiMl curacy in the arch- 

 deaoonry and diocese of St. Asaph. The population of tin. borough 

 of Flint in 1851 was 3296. 



Flint, from which the county derive* its name, was formerly the 

 county town, but for some time past the assizes have b 

 Mold. Flint was probably a Homan station ; many Roman u-.uniiM 

 hare been dug up in the neighbourhood. Traces exist if I: 

 works for smelting lead ore. The castle appears to have boon built 

 by Henry 11., and strengthened by Edward I. It was taken by the 

 Welsh iii l'J-_'. In the civil war of Charles I. it was garrison, 

 the king, but taken by the Parliamentarians. It shortly aft- 

 again into the hands of the Royalists ; but was finally taken by General 

 Mytton, and with other Welsh castles was dismantled in 1647 by 

 order of the Parliament. The remains of the castle K 

 north-east of the town, on the summit of a rock of freestone. It was 

 a square building with a round tower at each of the four corners. 

 Quo of these towers, of much larger dimensions thau the other*, was 

 used as a keep, and was separated by a deep moat from the rest of 

 the building, with which it communicated by a drawbridge. 



The public buildings are a handsome gothic church of recent 

 erection, a county jail built in 1785, a neat town-hall recently built, 

 a national school-house, almshouses for 12 poor burgesses, and a 

 chapel for Dissenters. The trade of the port is small The sostuary 

 of the Dee is many miles wide, but the low water channel is narrow 

 and shallow. The shifting sands in the channel of the Dee r< -ndcr 

 Flint harbour inaccessible to any but small vessels. The neighbour- 

 ing lead and coal mines, and the works for smelting the lead give 

 extensive employment, mid furnish the principal articles of export. 

 A portion of the miners drawn from the inland part of Wales speak 

 Welsh only, but tha great majority of the inhabitants speak English. 

 The market has fallen into disuse. There ore three yearly fairs. The 

 town is resorted to in summer for bathing ; there aro several hot and 

 cold baths. Some pleasant walks ore in the vicinity. There is a 

 ferry boat to the Cheshire side of the icstuary. Small boat* for the 

 conveyance of passengers ply between Chester and Flint. 



(Parry, Cambrian Mirror; Land We Lint In, vol. iii. ; Cliffe, Book 

 of Korlk Walt*.) 



FLINTSHIRE, a county in North Wales, in the north-eastern 

 part of the principality. The main portion of the county extends 

 along the astunry of the Dee, between 53 4' and 53 

 2 53' and 3 29' W. long. ; and there are two outlying portions. 

 The principal outlying portion is bounded N.N.E. by the county of 

 Chester, E.S.E. and S.S.W. by Shropshire, and W.H.W. by Denbigh- 

 shire, from which it is separated by the Dee. The smaller outlying 

 portion is situated between the main portion of the county ami the. 

 larger outlying portion ; it is bounded on every side by Denbighshire, 

 and is very small. Flint is the smallest county in Wales ; its area 

 is only 289 square miles, or 184,905 statute acres ; the population in 

 1851 was 68,150. 



Coiut, Surface, Hydrography, and Communication!. Tho only 

 promontory on the coast is the Point of Air. The coast in low, and 

 is skirted in almost every part by sands. On the north-west coast 

 are several pools, called Trewyn pools, forming a line along the shore 

 of about two miles. 



Flintshire has no hills of great elevation : the south-west boundary 

 lies along the hills which skirt the valleys of the Upper Aleii and 

 the Clwyd ; and a range of hills connected with these ex 

 through the county from north-west to south-east, separate 

 Alen and the lower part of the Clwyd from the astuary of the Dee. 

 Oarreg Mountain, towards the north-west extremity of this run 

 835 feet high, and Gwaunyagaer Down, still farther to the uort). 

 U 732 feet high. Frum the slopes of this range of hills a munN i- 

 of small streams flow, on one side into the Dee, and on tin 

 into the Clwyd and Alen. These rivers, though they have p.-u-t of 

 their course on or within the border of Fliiitfhiiv, rather belong to 

 other counties. [Ci.wyu; DEE; CiiKsniitK; DEMIIMISIUKK.] The 

 new channel of the Dee below Chester is indeed for the most part 

 within the county, and constitutes the only inland navigation which 

 ; ' - -. 



Two main line* of road rim through the county in a north-western 

 direction. One of them enters Flintshire from Chester near Shep- 

 herd's House on the Dee, and passes through Broughton, Hawarden, 

 and Holywell, where it divides, one of the branches running through 

 St. Asaph, the other through Hhuddlan. The other main road 

 Flintshire near Caergwrle, from Wrexham in Denbighshire, and 

 passe* through Mold to Bodfarris and thence to Denbigh. Cross 

 roads connect these main lines with each other, and with the. villages 

 in the interior of tho county. The Chester and Holyhead railway 

 passes along tho whole of the icstuary of the Deo and tho coast-linn 

 of this county. The Mold branch quits the main lino near the 

 Saltney station, and runs first south-west and then north-west to 



