CHAPTER LXI 



THE BELGIAN FARMER 



LEAVING Holland with regret, we crossed the 

 Schelde into Belgium, the cockpit of Europe. It 

 is here that one sees what intensive farming is 

 like. No fences to occupy space, no animals 

 roaming at large, nothing but small strips of 

 land tilled to the utmost, chiefly by hand. Little 

 machinery is used, and much of the work is done 

 after primitive fashions ; but the land is produc- 

 tive, and it is worked to the top of its bent. 



The peasant-farmer soils his cows, his sheep, 

 his swine, in a way that is economical of space 

 and food, if not of labor, and manages to make 

 a living and to pay rent for his twenty-acre strip 

 of land. His methods do not appeal to the 

 American farmer, who wastes more grain and 

 forage each year than would keep the Nether- 

 lander, his family, and his stock ; but there is a 

 lesson to be learned from this subdivision and 

 careful cultivation of land. Belgian methods 

 prove that Mother Earth can care for a great 

 many children if she be properly husbanded, and 

 that the sooner we recognize her capacity the 

 better for us. 



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