76 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



their embankment, are called schorres. They are flooded at every tide by the water of 

 the sea, and are augmented by mire, bits of wood, rushes, sea-weeds, and other marine 

 plants decayed and putrid, also by shells and flshy particles which the ebb always leaves 

 behind in considerable quantity. This growing soil soon produces various plants and 

 grasses, and improves daily. When such lands have acquired a crust or surface of black 

 earth, three or four inches deep, they may be embanked and fallowed. Those are always 

 the most productive which have been deepened in their soil by the augmentations of the 

 sea ; and experience proves, that in the corners and hollows where, from an obstructing 

 boundary, the greatest quantity of mire has been deposited, the soil is doubly rich and 

 good, and cannot be impoverished by the crops of many years. In some instances, the 

 embankments are made on the part of government, in others, by companies or individuals, 

 under a grant of a specific tenure, (generally twenty-one years), rent free, or according 

 to circumstances, at some moderate annual payment. 



441. The polder of Snaerskirke, near Ostend, contains about 1300 acres. It is of late 

 formation, and was overflowed by a creek with its minor branches every spring tide. By 

 constructing two banks and a flood-gate at the creek the sea is excluded, and the space 

 subdivided by roads, and laid out in fields of thirteen acres each, surrounded by ditches. 

 The bank is fifteen feet in height, thirty feet in the base, and ten feet across the top : the 

 land which has been reclaimed by it, was let for a sheep pasturage at 600 francs (25/.) per 

 annum, and was thrown up by the farmer as untenable. Upon being dried by this sum- 

 mary improvement, the lots of which are one hundred, of thirteen acres each, and were 

 sold by auction at an averaage of 7000 francs (29H. 13s. 4rf.) each, would now 

 bring nearly double that rate. They are let to the occupying farmers at 36 guilders the 

 mesure, or about 21. 15s. the English acre, and are now producing superior crops of rape, 

 of sucrion, (winter barley), and beans, which constitute the usual rotation ; this, how- 

 ever, is varied according to circumstances, as follows ; 1 . oats, or rape ; 2. winter 

 barley, or rape ; 3. winter barley ; 4. beans, pease, or tares. 



442. Other examples of reclaimed lands are given. One called the Great Moor, reco- 

 vered through the spirited exertions of M. Hyrwein, contains 2400 acres. Attempts had 

 been made to recover it by the Spaniards, in 1610, but without success. This marsh was 

 seven feet below the level of the surrounding land; therefore, to drain it, the following 

 operations became necessary : 



443. To surround the whole with a bank of eight feet in height, above the level of the enclosed ground, 

 formed by the excavation of afossee, fifteen feet wide and ten feet deep, which serves to conduct the water 

 to the navigable canal. ro construct mills to throw the water over the bank into the fosste. To intersect 

 the interior by numerous drains from eight to twelve feet wide, with a fall to the respective mills, to which 

 they conduct all the rain water, and all the sokeage water which oozes through the banks, 



444. The mills in use for raising the water, are of a simple but effectual construction, 

 and are driven by wind. The horizontal shaft above works an upright shaft at the bottom, 

 of which a screw bucket, twenty-four feet in length, is put in motion by a l)evil wheel, at 

 such an angle as to give a perpendicular height of eight feet from the level of the interior 

 drain to the disgorging of the water, which is emptied with great force into the exterior 

 canal. Withfull wind, each mill can discharge 150 tonneaux of water every minute. The 

 height of the building from the foundation is about fifty feet, one half of it above the level 

 of the bank. The whole is executed in brick-work, and the entire cost 36,000 francs, about 

 1500/. British. It is judiciously contrived that the drains, which conduct the water to the 

 mills, constitute the divisions and subdivisions of the land, forming it into regular oblong 

 fields of considerable extent, marked out by the lines of ozier which ornament their banks. 

 Roads of thirty feet wide lead through the whole in parallel directions. 



445. The soil of this tract, which has been formed by the alluvial deposit of ages, is a clay 

 loam, strong and rich, but not of the extraordinary fertility of some polders, which are 

 cropped independent of manure for many years. The first course of crops commencing 

 with rape, is obtained without manure, and the return for six years is abundant ; the 

 second commences and proceeds as follows . 



1st Year, fallow, with manure from farm-yard. 5th Year, clover. 



id Ditto, sucrion (winter barley) 6th Ditto, beans and pease mixed. 



3d Ditto, beans. 7th Ditto, oats. 



4th Ditto, wheat. 



446. The second division adjoins Picardy, but does not extend to the sea. The soil 

 may be described as a good loam of a yellowish colour, mixed with some sand ; but is 

 not in its nature as strong as that in the former division. Its chief produce is wheat, 

 barley, oats, hops, tobacco, meadow, rape-seed and flax, as primary crops; and as se- 

 condary, buck-wheat, beans, turnips, potatoes, carrots, clover. This division, unlike the 

 former in this respect, is richly wooded. 



447. The general course of crops in this division is as follows : 



1 . Wheat upon manured fallow. 7 Beans 



% Clover, top dressed with ashes. ' 5, in lieu of the last three crops, thus : 



i. Turnips,) *'^'"^ >'^='''' 'thout manure, ^- FaUow manured. 



'>. Flax, hi>{hlj manured with urine and rape cake. 7! U'lie 



6. Wheal. 



