ROTATION OF CROPS IX HOLLAND. 45 



kitchen; and besides all these natural resources, manure is 

 manufactured in great quantities. The commonest way is to 

 add sulphate of iron to animal manures at the rate of one kilo 

 of the sulphate dissolved in twenty pints of water, to the manure 

 of twenty head of cattle. Cattle abound. The introduction of 

 Durham cattle added one third to the value of this kind of stock; 

 but other breeds are used. 



The rotation practiced in Flemish husbandry is as follows : 

 First, potatoes; second, rye, with carrots; third, flax; fourth, 

 rye; fifth, turnips; sixth, oats. This is for a poor, sandy soil. 

 For the best soils: first, tobacco; second, colza; third, wheat, 

 with clover; fourth, clover; fifth, rye; sixth, oats; seventh, flax; 

 eighth, turnips. We have here the great principles of suc 

 cessful farming admirably illustrated rotation, fine tillage, high 

 manuring. Even flax growing, which is considered in England 

 an exhausting crop, is made beneficial to the soil of Flanders, 

 and gives an average crop of thirty-three or thirty-four hundred 

 weight to the acre. Between Ghent and Antwerp a cow is kept 

 for every three acres of land. The beet-root is of immense 

 value to Holland, and also to France and Germany, in support 

 ing their cattle and in giving additional value to the manure. 



Throughout Modern Germany, from the Baltic Sea to the 

 borders of Italy and Turkey, the resources of science and edu 

 cation are fully utilized in the development of agriculture. The 

 beet sugar culture, in which not less than one hundred and fifty 

 colleges are giving practical instruction, is but one of many 

 examples of the earnestness of government in this direction. 

 Austria is giving great attention to the culture of maize, and the 

 utilization of the whole plant, leaves, stalks, and grain. 



But it is in Russia, the great rival of the Pacific Coast in the 

 production of cereals, that we find the most remarkable improve 

 ments. She is already in a position, through the unexampled 

 development of her agricultural and manufacturing resources, 

 to be the dictator of all Europe, because she can consume more 

 of all that they produce, and can produce more of all that they 

 consume. Her trade is worth nearly or quite 600,000,000 of 

 rubles. Great Britain and the other European countries de 

 voured over 100,000,000 rubles worth of her wheat in 1867; and 

 she has been increasing her export at the rate of 20,000,000 

 rubles per annum. She has been exporting flax, and flax seed, 

 tallow, raw wool, honey, wax and hemp, in a steady stream for 



