BELGIUM 



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BELGIUM 



France, and here were situated the fortresses 

 and important strategic points of Liege, Na- 

 mur, Mons and others, that have been the 

 object of numerous and famous sieges. South 

 of these rivers extends the plateau of Ardennes, 

 reaching an average altitude of 1,400 feet and 

 containing fine and extensive woods, mostly of 

 beech. 



The Flemish Plain. Its Historic Cities. The 

 most interesting part of Belgium is the Flemish 

 plain, that represents to-day a wonderful tri- 

 umph of human industry over nature. The 

 sandy soil is nearly barren, yet the incessant 

 labor of its inhabitants has transformed it into 

 one of the most populous, best cultivated and 

 most productive areas in the whole world. 

 The Flemish plain has played an important 

 role in the civilization of Europe, and here 

 are situated many old cities with their relics 

 of ancient fame and their records of past 

 greatness. The old city walls are usually gone, 

 but the town halls, the guild halls and the bel- 

 fry, the possession of which was for a medieval 

 town the greatest of chartered privileges, re- 

 main. Some of these cities are but the ghosts 

 of their former greatness. But the belfry still 

 rises in their midst, chiming the hours and 

 quarters over streets that are now quiet and 

 pigeon-haunted, but that were formerly filled 

 with bustling crowds surging to the sound of 

 its tocsin. Such a city is Bruges, the belfry 

 of which is immortalized by Longfellow in the 

 well-known lines: 



In the market place of Bruges 



Stands the belfry old and brown ; 



Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, 

 Still it watches o'er the town. 



Such cities also are Malines, Termonde, Ypres. 

 The famous hall of the clothworkers' guild at 

 Ypres, built early in the thirteenth century, 

 was one of the finest examples of Gothic archi- 

 tecture at its best. But it was something more; 

 it was the earliest and noblest piece of archi- 

 tecture designed for a civic purpose in Bel- 

 gium, and perhaps in Europe. It was here 

 that the guilds were first organized (see GUILD). 

 The Germans burned this building in 1914. 

 In these cities of Belgium the first free munici- 

 pal life was established, and here the first 

 industrial activity in the north of Europe was 

 developed. In other cases modern industrial 

 revival has been effected upon the ancient sites. 

 Such cities are Ghent and Antwerp; and, in 

 other parts of Belgium, Brussels and Liege. 



Rivers. Belgium is watered by the Scheldt 

 with its chief tributary, the Lys, in the north, 



and by the Meuse and its chief tributary, the 

 Sambre, in the south. All these rivers rise in 

 France, while the main rivers, the Scheldt and 

 the Meuse, have to pass through Holland 

 before reaching the sea. This fact has greatly 

 retarded the development of Antwerp and of 

 other towns. In West Flanders, the river 

 Yser, which receives the little Yperlee, runs 

 into the sea at Nieupoort. Besides these there 

 are other small streams flowing in all parts 

 of the country, so that Belgium is exceedingly 

 well supplied with rivers. 



Agriculture. Belgium is typically, but not 

 wholly, a country of very small farms, espe- 

 cially when compared with the United States 

 and Canada. But the intensive system of 

 agriculture has attained a high degree of per- 

 fection, and the production per acre, regard- 

 less of the fact of a thousand years of cultiva- 

 tion, is the highest in Europe. Of its total 

 area of 7,369,000 acres, 4,340,000 acres were 

 under cultivation, 1,303,000 acres were forests 

 and 476,000 acres were fallow and uncultivated, 

 in 1913. Belgium yields per acre more oats, 

 barley, potatoes, flax and tobacco than any of 

 its neighbors, Great Britain, France, Germany, 

 Holland or Denmark. Except Denmark and 

 Holland none of the above countries has as 

 many cattle and pigs to the square mile. In 

 proportion to its size it feeds a greater number 

 of persons than any of its neighbors. All this 

 agricultural wealth is raised on small farms 

 ranging from one and one-half to twelve and 

 fourteen acres in size, which are not owned by 

 the men who till them, but are rented at a 

 high price. For this reason the Belgian agri- 

 cultural classes do not enjoy any such pros- 

 perity as falls to the lot of the peasant pro- 

 prietors of Holland and Denmark. Of later 

 years the inhabitants, with their accustomed 

 painstaking industry, have reclaimed for agri- 

 cultural purposes tens of thousands of acres 

 in the sandy Campine district, while fertile 

 pasture lands now replace the old marshes in 

 the northwestern part of the country. 



Mining. The mineral wealth of Belgium is 

 very great; size for size, it is greater than 

 that of any other country in the world. The 

 chief products are coal, zinc, lead and iron. 

 The coal fields cover an area of over 550 square 

 miles and extend across the country along 

 the rivers Sambre and Meuse. The chief coal- 

 bearing districts are around Mons, Charleroi 

 and Liege. A new and extensive coal-field has 

 been discovered in the Campine district, and 

 has been worked since 1906. The output of 



