362 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



stitutes chiefly the great secret (I might, perhaps, 

 add alleged necromancy,) that has added already 

 so much verdure to my previously exhausted soil, 

 and been so profitable to me, and so surprising to 

 my neighbors. 



No farmer can imagine, that has not tried the 

 experiment, what a prodigious quantity of rich, 

 vegetable, and fibrous earth may be collected from 

 corners and by-places, which lie out of the way 

 of cultivation, and which, from their retired posi- 

 tion, have, perhaps, never so much as attracted 

 his notice. All such refuse trash, and fibrous 

 earths and weeds, by being conveyed to his barn- 

 yard, at intervals, during the fall and winter, and 

 judiciously combined with its contents, will be 

 converted into a rich, fertilizing, and durable ma- 

 nure, merely by absorbing and retaining that ex- 

 cess of putrescent fluids and effluvia, which is 

 otherwise lost by filtration and evaporation ; that 

 is, by soaking away and drying up. W. H. 



Plttstown, Salem Co. JV. J., May 20th, 1838.— 



From tlie Fanner's Series of the Lil)rnry of Useful Knowledge. 

 FLEMISH HUSBANDRY. 



The poor sandy heaths, which have been con- 

 verted into productive farms, evince the indefati- 

 gable industry and perseverance of the Flemings. 

 They seem to want nothing but a space to work 

 upon ; whatever be the quality or texture of the 

 Boil, in time they will make it produce somethmg. 

 The sand in the Campine can be compared to no- 

 thing but the sands on the sea-shore, which they 

 probably were originally. It is highly interesting 

 "to follow, step by step, the progress of improve- 

 ment. Here you see a cottage and rude cow- 

 shed erected on a spot of the most unpromising 

 aspect. The loose white sand blown into irregu- 

 lar mounds is only kept together by the roots of 

 the heath : a small spot only is levelled and sur- 

 rounded by a ditch ; part of this is covered with 

 young broom, part is planted with potatoes, and 

 perhaps a small patch of diminutive clover may 

 show itself: but there is a heap of dung and com- 

 post forming. The urine of the cow is collected 

 in a small tank, or perhaps in a cask sunk in the 

 earth ; and this is the nucleus from which, in a 

 iew years, a little farm will spread around. 



In another spot more extensive improvements 

 are going on; a wealthy proprietor or lessee is 

 trenching and levelling the surface, sowing broom- 

 eeed, and plantmg young fir-trees, which are to 

 be cut down in a few yeaVs. In another, the pro- 

 cess has gone on further, the firs or the broom are 

 already cut down : a vein of loam has been found. 

 and is dug out to be spread over the sandy sur- 

 fixce : the cart with liquid manure is preparing the 

 surface for the reception of seed, or the same, di- 

 hited with water, is poured over the young blade 

 just appearing above ground. The soil is created, 

 and, if the cost and labor were reckoned, is paid 

 for at a dear rate : but perseverance insures suc- 

 cess, and there are few instances of improvements 

 being abandoned, after they are fairly begun, un- 

 less they were undertaken on too large a scale ; 

 but then the land is soon divided into smaller por- 

 tions, and improvements go on from different cen- 

 tres, and with more certainty. 



We are here describing the labor of brinmnfr a 



soil absolutely barren info a state of cultivation ; 

 but in most of the districts which have been ori- 

 ginally waste and covered with heath, and which 

 are now fertilized, a less ungrateful soil was found. 

 Deep trenching and levelling at once presented a 

 surface which required only to be manured to pro- 

 duce rye, flax, and potatoes. This is what vve 

 should call a moderately good sand, in which a 

 small portion of clay and oxide of iron produces a 

 certain degree of compactness, so as at least to re- 

 tain moisture: under this kind of sand a stratum 

 of loam is usually found at the depth of two or 

 three feet, and, almost invariably between the 

 sand and the loam, an indurated crust of earth ce- 

 mented by carbonate of iron, which is well knovvn 

 to all improvers of poor sands by the name of the 

 iron pan: this pan must be broken up and the 

 loam under it mixed with the sandy surfiice, be- 

 fore any cultivation can succeed ; and in this ope- 

 ration the Flemings are very dexterous. The in- 

 strument they use is a light wooden trenching 

 spade, the end of the blade only being shod with 

 iron : the handle of this spade is about two feet 

 loner, the blade from twelve to fifteen inches. A 

 light pick-axe is used to break the pan where it 

 appears. A ditch is dug with the trenching 

 spade, two or three feei wide, and as deep as the 

 trenchinw is intended, fjenerally two feet, or at 

 least twenty inches ; this ditch is filled with the 

 earth which is taken in long thin slices from the 

 edge of the solid side of the ditch. Every slice 

 is distributed carefully, so as to mix the whole, 

 and keep the best soil at top, and likewise to fill 

 up hollows and level eminences. If there is more 

 than can conveniently be spread level, little heaps 

 are made of the superfluous earth, which are af- 

 terwards carried, in an ingenious manner, to fill 

 up more distant hollows, by means of horses and 

 an instrument which is called a nioUebarf. Wher- 

 ever there is a pan, it is carehilly broken, and the 

 loam, which is always found under it, is mixed 

 with the sand dug out. Draining is seldom re- 

 quired here, except that which is efl^ected by mak- 

 ing deep ditches to carry off the superfluous rain- 

 water, which, in a country almost as level as a 

 lake, is no great difiiculty. A canal near at hand 

 is, however, an essential condition of extensive 

 improvement, to bring manure, and carr}'' off the 

 produce of the land, as well as to be an outlet for 

 the water in the ditches. When Count Chaptal 

 traversed a barren part of Flanders, accompany- 

 ing the Emperor Napoleon, the latter expressed 

 his surprise, at a meeting of the Council of the 

 Department, that so great a tract of land remain- 

 ed uncultivated in so industrious a nation. The 

 answer Avas, "If your majesty will order a canal to 

 be made through this district, we pledge ourselves 

 that in five j^ears it will be all converted into fer- 

 tile fields." The canal was ordered to be made 

 without delay, and in less time than they promised 

 not an unproductive spot remained. (See Chap- 

 tal, "Chimie appliquee a I'Acrriculfure," vol. i. p. 

 347.) One great cause of the agricultural pros- 

 perity of Flanders is the ready transportation of 

 manure and produce by canals. But to return to 

 the newly trenched land. If there is no manure 

 at hand, the only thing that can be sown on poor 

 sand, at first, is broom : this grows in the most 

 barren soils ; in three years it is fit to cut, and pro- 

 duces some return in fagots for the bakers and 

 brickmakers. The leaves which have fallen have 



