Book I. AGRICULTURE IN HOLLAND. 85 



being kept the greater part of the winter in the house. In summer the principal article 

 of food in Flanders is clover, cut and carried to the stall. On a small scale when 

 pasturage is to be had, they are left at liberty ; when this is not the case, each cow is 

 led by a rope, and permitted to feed round the grassy borders of the corn-fields, which 

 are left about ten feet wide for this purpose. 



517. The food for one cow in mnter for twenty-four hours, is straw, eighteen pounds; turnips, sixty 

 pounds. Some farmers l)oil the turnips for them ; others give them raw, chopping them with the spade : 

 one or other operation is necessary to obviate the risk of the animal being choked, where the turnips, 

 which is usually the case in Flanders, are of too small a size. In lieu of turnips, potatoes, carrots, and 

 grains, are occasionally given ; bean-straw likewise, and uniformly a whit^' drink, prepared both for 

 i:ows and horses, and consisting of water in which some oilcake has been dissolved, and whitened with rye- 

 meal, oatmeal, or the flour of buckwheat. 



518. In the Dutch dairies the summer feed is pasturage day and night; in winter, 

 hay, turnips, carrots, grains from the breweries, cakes of linseed, rapeseed, bean and 

 other meals, and the white drink before mentioned. For the sake of cleanliness, the 

 tails of the cows are tied to the roof of the cow-house with a cord during the time of 

 milking. The cow-houses both in Flanders and Holland are kept remarkably clean and 

 warm; so much so that a gentleman ''spoke" to Kadcliff *' of having drank coffee 

 with a cowkeeper in the general stable in winter, without the annoyance of cold, of 

 dirt, or any offensive smell." The Dutch are particularly averse to unfolding the 

 secrets of their dairy management, and notwithstanding the pointed queries of Sir John 

 Sinclair on the subject, no satisfactory idea was given him of their mode of manu- 

 facturing butter or cheese. 



519. The woodlands (f Flanders are of considerable extent ; but more remarkable for 

 the care bestowed on them than for the bulk of timber grown. For the latter purpose, 

 indeed, the soil is too poor ; most of these woods having been planted or sown on land 

 considered too poor for tillage. 



520. Informing artificial plantations^ the general mode is to plough the ground three or four times , and 

 take a crop of buckwheat ; afterwards the plants or seeds are inserted and hoed for a year or two, till they 

 cover the surface. For the Scotch pine, which is sometimes sown alone on tlie poorest soils, the most com- 

 mon and simplest mode, is that of burning the surface, to which process its heathy quality gives great fa- 

 cility. The ashes being spread, the ground is formed into beds from six to fifteen feet wide, according to 

 circumstances ; the seed sown at the rate of six pounds to the English acre, and covered by a light shovel- 

 ling from the furrows, which are sunk about two feet, not only to supply covering to the beds, but as drains 

 to carry off' the surface water. 



521. Extensive artificial woods have been created in this manner, converting a barren 

 soil into a state of production, the least expensive, very profitable, and highly ornamental. 

 Of six years' grov/th, there exist florishing plantations (treated in this manner), from 

 five to nine feet in height. At about ten years from its formation, they begin to thin the 

 wood, and continue to do so annually, with such profit by the sale, as at the end of thirty 

 years to have it clear of every charge ; a specific property being thus acquired, by indus- 

 try and attention merely, without the loss of any capital. 



522. Pine ivoods are often soivn, and with great success, without the labor of burning 

 the surface, as at Vladsloo, in the neighborhood of Dixmude, where a luxuriant crop of 

 but five years' growth, and seven feet in height, had been cultivated by Madame de Cleir, 

 by merely ploughing the heathy surface into beds of fifteen feet, harrowing, sowing at the 

 rate of six pounds to the English acre, raking in the seed, and covering the beds lightly 

 from the furrows, which are sunk about eighteen inches deep. 



523. Another mode of sowing, practised by the Baron de Serret, in the vicinity of Bruges, was productive 

 of a growth not less luxuriant, merely by sowing the seed upon sand (taken from the excavation for 

 building) which was spread over the heathy surface, the seeit raked in, and the furrows shovelled up. 



524. The sowing of pine seed in many cases is adopted for the purpose of bringing waste land into an arable 

 state, which, when the timber has been disi)Osed of, is found to yield admirable crops, from a surface soil 

 formed by the accumulation of the leaves which have fallen for so many years. For this purpose also, the 

 broom is frequently sown upon waste lands of a similar description, and at the end of four or live years is 

 jmlled away, leaving the soil capable of yielding crops of com. 



525. The preservation of trees is attended to in the strictest manner, not only by pro- 

 prietors, but the government. As an example of this, Kadcliff mentions, that at a 

 certain season of the year, when the caterpillars commence their attack upon the trees, 

 every farmer is obliged to destroy those upon his own premises, to the satisfaction of the 

 mayor of his particular commune, or to pay the cost of having it done for him. As a 

 proof of the strictness with which this is enforced, the governor sends round a circular 

 letter annually, reminding the sous intendaqts and mayors of the obligations and 

 penalties for non-performance. 



526. There are a number of royal forests in Flanders ; and besides these, all the trees on 

 the sides of the public roads belong to the government. In West Flanders there are five, 

 amounting together to nearly 10,000 acres. They are superintended by eighteen persons, 

 an inspector, resident at Bruges; a deputy inspector, resident at Vpres; two gardes 

 generaux, and fourteen particidiers, or privates. The inspector is answerable for all : from 

 Jiim the garde general takes his instructions, and sees that they are enforced by the pri- 

 vates, to whom is committed the regulation of tlje necessary labor. 



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