1HK LAND >VSTEM OF BELGUM AND HOLLAND 467 



bread ; at 4 P.M., bread and butter again, and for supper the same 

 fare as for dinner ; very seldom a little bacon, and as for butchers' 

 meat four or five times in a year. Those who live with the 

 farmers get pork more frequently. 



( h\ the other hand, the farm-labourer is generally well housed. 

 For himself and his family he always has a house, with at least 

 two, more frequently four, rooms, generally kept in good condi- 

 tion, and having an acre or half an acre of land belonging to it, 

 where the man grows vegetables, potatoes, and rye ; and there is, 

 besides, a goat which gives milk to the household. 



NUMBER OF FAMILIES FOR EVERY 100 HOUSES IN THE Rl 



DISTRICTS OF 



Thus the number of houses in Flanders has increased as 

 compared with the rural population, who have by this means 

 found better accommodation. 



No remarks need be made on the beneficial effects of a good 



on a man's morality and self-respect. This applies to the 



country as well as to towns, and accounts for the fact that the 



Flemish population, badly fed and little educated as it is, yet 



nts all the outward appearance of well-being and civilisation. 



It may be affirmed that in normal years no pauperism is to be 

 found in the rural districts of Flanders, and beggars arc very 

 rare. The labourers and small artisans live poorly; yet having 

 nearly all of them a little plot of land to work, they are at any 

 rate kept from starving. At the time i supplanted hand- 



spinning, a severe crisis took place indeed ; but the last traces of 

 it have now disappear 



A visiting 1 landers should guard against rashly 



drawing unfavourable inferences from certain facts arising 

 custom. A Walloon, for instance, seeing women w.. iking in the 



