B E L 



BEL 



sluii-e*. tnil sixteen reservoir*. lit supply of vrmter i drawn 

 from the Maete. The ranal from Bruges to Ghent minimi - 

 nicates at Bruge* with the canals of Damme and of Osteml. 

 The Bruges and Ghent canal was constructed in the begin- 

 ning of the seventeenth century, and is adapted for the pas- 

 age of vessels of 80 to 1 00 tons burthen ; its principal feeder 

 is the River Lys, with which it is connected by means of a 

 sluice at Ghent. Ghent has communication with the sea by 

 means of a canal, whose course is N.N.E. fromGhent through 

 Sus-de G.ind, where it is joined to the canal of Neuzen, which 

 communicates with the actuary of the East Scheldt. Tins 

 canal was projected for the purpose of draining the province 

 of East Flanders, and was undertaken by the general govern- 

 ment ; but in consideration of its depth and width being in- 

 created so as to render it navigable, the regency of Ghent 

 consented to bear a part of the expense, and their town by this 

 means was rendered a sea-port. Vessels drawing eighteen 

 feet water easily pass through this canal ; after the discharge 

 of their cargo, it is usual for them to descend the Scheldt to 

 Antwerp. This improvement was not completed until 1828. 

 A similar project is said to have been once contemplated by 

 Napoleon. 



The Louvain canal begins at that town, where it is fed 

 by the river Dyle, follows a north-west direction, and enters 

 the province of Antwerp a short distance from Malines, 

 passing under the walls of that town, and again joins the 

 river Dyle at its confluence with the Senne, at a place 

 called Senne-gal near Rumpst. The Louvain canal is 

 sixty feet wide, and eleven feet deep. The boats employed 

 upon it are sixty feet long, twelve feet wide, and draw 

 from two to three feet water. When the wind is fair they 

 sail up or down, otherwise they are drawn by horses. Tliis 

 canal was constructed in 1750, at the expense of the city ot 

 Louvain. Its cost was about 160, OOO/., and to reimburse 

 the city for its outlay the government granted to it a duty 

 on beer and on butter, as well as a toll upon vessels, the 

 produce of which was sufficient to pay for the canal in forty- 

 eight years. In fifteen years from its completion, the land 

 in the vicinity of the canal was doubled in value, by the 

 means which it afforded for procuring manure and for con- 

 veying agricultural produce to market. 



The Brussels canal which is supplied hy the water of the 

 river Senne at Brussels, proceeds to the north by Vilvoorde, 

 passes from South Brabant to the province of Antwerp, a 

 little below Thisselt, crosses the commune of \Villebrock, 

 and ends in the river Rupel opposite Boom. This canal, 

 begun in 1550, was not opened for navigation until 1591. 

 The object of its construction was to facilitate the commu- 

 nication between Brussels and Antwerp; its cost was 

 130.000/., a large sum for those days, and it is still consi- 

 dered one of the finest works in Belgium. 



The canal from Mons to Conde is supplied by the river 

 Haine, which gives its name to the province of Hainault. 

 It proceeds in a strait line to the west, enters France near 

 Valenciennes, and falls into the Scheldt at Conde, after a 

 course of about twenty-four miles, rather more than four 

 miles of which are in the French territory. It has seven 

 sluices, five in Hainault and two in France. It is crossed 

 at different places by fourteen drawbridges, three of them 

 in France. The mean depth of water in this canal is six 

 feet, and its mean breadth at the water-line fifty-five feet. 

 This canal was undertaken by the French government in 

 1807, and was finished in 1S14. Some judgment may be 

 formed of its utility from the number of boats which have 

 passed upon it in each year, from 1816 to 1828, the last 

 year of which any account is given : their numbers were 



I! ...! . 



EMU. 



1821 . . 3998 

 !H-2i . . 3942 



1823 . . 4052 



1824 . . 4881 



1825 . . 5370 



Boali. 



1826 . . 5430 



1827 . . 5440 



1828 . . 6009 



The principal use of this canal is to convey coals from 

 Hainault to France. In 1828, 3603 boats, loaded with 

 374.158 tons of coals, pa-ted along it. 



A rail-road between Brussels and Malines, through Vil- 

 voorde, wait finished and opened for use with much cere- 

 mony on the 5th of May, 1835. The carnages on this rail- 

 road are propelled by means of locomotive steam-engines, 

 the whole of which have been imported from England, 

 where they were constructed under the direction of Mr. 

 Stcphenson, the engineer of the Manchester and Liverpool 



railway. It is intended that branches of the Brussels rail- 

 way Khali proceed fiom Malines to Dendcrmond and Ant- 

 werp: the lines for these roads arc already sunvvcd and 

 marked out. 



Natural prndwtimu. It has been seen how very consi- 

 derable a portion of the kingdom of Belgium has been 

 brought under cultivation. This has been ellectcd by a long 

 course of industry on the part of the inhabitants. N;i- 

 turally. the soil is unproductive, consisting in some par 

 sand, and in other parts of clay. Separately, these would 

 yield no return to the husbandman, but by a due admixture 

 of both, and the addition of manure, the soil has been mudc 

 highly productive. The most general objects of cultivation 

 are wheat, rye, barley, oals, ineslin, buck-wheat, hemp, lla\, 

 madder, hops, chicory, colxa (Hratsica oleracta, arventit), 

 and the artificial grasses clover, trefoil, lucerne, and sain- 

 foin. The ruta buga, or Swedish turnip, turnips, carrots, 

 parsnips, and potatoes, are raised to a considerable amount 

 by field culture. Tobacco is grown in some situations, and 

 every where fruits of the kinds grown in England are objects 

 of careful cultivation. 



In addition to the materials commonly used in England 

 for manure, the Belgian farmers employ considerable quan- 

 tities of turf-ashes, which are prepared in Holland, and con- 

 veyed by inland navigation to the different provinces of Bel- 

 gium. They also collect with the utmost care the draining* 

 of dung-heaps, and other fertilizing liquids, in which rape- 

 cake is dissolved, in the proportion of six pounds of rape-cake 

 to five gallons of liquor. Turf-ashes are found to be an ex- 

 cellent dressing for clover land, in the proportion of eighteen 

 or twenty bushels to the English acre. By means of their 

 crops of clover and other artificial grasses, a large number 

 of cattle is bred and fatted, and these again are serviceable 

 in providing manure for the land. 



The following table of the number of horned cattle, horses, 

 and sheep, which were found in each province in the year 

 1825, is taken from a collection of statistical documents 

 published by the Netherlands government in 1829. As 

 this enumeration was made previous to tin; separation of 

 Belgium from the northern provinces, the returns compre- 

 hend the whole of Limbourg and Luxembourg. We have 

 not been able to find any similar statement compiled since 

 the revolution of 1830. 



Horned 

 Cattle. 



South Brabant . . . 93.007 



Liege 70,800 



East Flanders . . . 118.024 

 West Flanders . . 127,713 



Hainault 98,999 



Namur 55,571 



Antwerp 85,532 



Limbourg .... 101,637 

 Luxembourg . . .131,651 



Totals 



882,934 



lionet. 

 50,543 

 21,403 

 27,549 

 23,752 

 51,812 

 21,922 

 30,500 

 24,769 

 37,195 



289,440 



32.725 



96,344 



34,707 



38.604 



95,916 



113,657 



28.408 



126.913 



206,860 



774,134 



Returns have been made from some of the provinces to 

 the year 1829 ; but they do not exhibit any great difference 

 from the numbers of 1 825 given above, which may therefore 

 be taken as representing pretty nearly the numbers actually 

 existing at this time (1835). The graziers in Belgium do 

 not appear to have paid much attention to the improvement 

 of the breed of their cattle or sheep. The breeders of horses 

 have taken some trouble in this respect, and a considerable 

 number of draft-horses are every year sold for exportation. 

 Pigs are also bred, and the sale of those animals to the 

 northern provinces formed an important branch of trade 

 before the separation of Belgium from Holland. 



It is customary to plant trees on the borders of fields, and 

 round the villages. There are few woods, except in l.i ye 

 and Luxembourg; these two provinces, with Namur, include 

 a portion of the antient forest of Ardennes. Among the 

 timber-trees are the oak, chestnut, horse-chestnut, beech, 

 elm, horn-beam, ash, walnut, fir, and different descriptions 

 of poplars. 



Metals and minerals. The mineral productions of Bel- 

 gium are iron, calamine, coals, and building stone. The 

 men employed in extracting coal, are now between 14,000 

 and 15,000, and the different mines are furnished with 1 15 

 steam-engines for pumping out water, and for raising tin- 

 coal to the surface. 



Population. The number of inhabitants in each pro 



