FARMERS^ REGISTER. 



507 



enjoys a large portion of those comforts. The 

 houses of ihe small cultivators in Belgium are 

 generally eubslantially built and in good repair; 

 tliey have commonly a sleeping-room in the aitic, 

 and closets !br beds connected wiih the lower 

 apartment, which is convenient in size. A small 

 cellarage for the dairy, and store for the grain, as 

 well as an oven, and an outhouse for the potatoes, 

 with a roomy catile-sfall, piggery, and poultry- 

 lolt. The house generally contains decent furni- 

 ture, the beddmg sufficient in quantity ; and al- 

 though the scrupulous cleanliness of the Dutch 

 may not be every where observable, an air of 

 comfort and propriety pervades the whole esta- 

 blishment. In the cowhouse the cattle are sup- 

 plied with straw for bedding ; the dung and urine 

 are carelLilly collected in the tank : the diiches 

 had been scoured to collect materials for manure ; 

 the dry leaves, potato-tops, &c. had been collected 

 in a moist ditch to undergo the process of fermen- 

 tation, and heaps of compost were in course of 

 preparation. The premises were kept in neat and 

 compact order, and a scrupulous attention to a 

 most rigid economy was every where apparent. 

 The family were decently clad, none of them were 

 ragged or slovenly, even when their dress consist- 

 ed of the coarest material. The men universally 

 wear the blouse, and wooden shoes are in com- 

 mon use by both sexes. The diet consists to a 

 large extent of r>e bread and milk; the dinner 

 being lisually composed of a mess of potatoes and 

 onions, with the occasional addition of some 

 pounded ham or slices of bacon. The quantity of 

 brown wheaten bread consumed did not appear 

 to be considerable. I need not point out the 

 striking contrast of the mode of living here de- 

 scribed, with the state of the same class of persons 

 in Ireland ; and it appears important to investigate 

 the causes of this difi'erence. 



In the greater part of the flat country of Bel- 

 gium the soil is light and sandy, and easily worked; 

 but its productive powers are certainly inferior to 

 the general soil of Ireland, and the climate does 

 not appear to be superior. To the soil and the 

 climate, therefore, the Belgian does not owe his 

 superiority in comfort and position over the Irish 

 cultivator. The difference is rather to be found 

 in the system of cultivation pursued by the small 

 farmers of Belgium, and in the habits of economy 

 and Ibrelhought of the people. The cultivation of 

 the small farms in Belgium differs from the Irish 

 — 1st, in the quantity of stall-fed stock which is 

 kept, and by which a supply of manure is regu- 

 la.rly secured ; 2d, in the strict attention paid to the 

 coiled ins of manure, which is most skilfully ma- 

 naged ; 3rd, by the adoption of a system ol'rotatinn 

 of five, six, or seven successive crops, even on the 

 smallest farms, which is in striking contrast with 

 the plan of cropping and fallowing the land preva- 

 lent in Ireland. 



In the farms of six acres we found no plough, 

 horse, or cart ; the only agricultural implement, 

 besides the spade, fork, and wheelbarrow, which 

 we observed, was a light wooden harrow, which 

 might be dragged by hand. The farmer had no 

 assistance besides that of his wife and children, 

 excepting sometimes in harvest, when we found 

 he occasionally obtained the aid of a neighbor, 

 or hired a laborer at a franc per day. The whole 

 of the land is dug with the spade, and trenched 

 very deep ; but as the soil is light, the labor of 



digging is not great. The stock on the email 

 farms which we examined consisted of a couple of 

 cows, a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a 

 goat or two, and some poultry. The cows are 

 altogether stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, 

 vetcheo, carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup mads 

 by boiling up potatoes, peas, beans, bran, cut hay- 

 fee, into one mess, and which being given warm, 

 is said to be very wholesome, and to promote the 

 secretion of milk. In some districts (he grains of 

 the breweries and distilleries are used for the cattle, 

 and the failure of the Belgian distilleries has been 

 reckoned a calamity to the agriculture of the 

 country, on account of the loss of the supply of 

 manure which was produced by the cattle led in 

 the stalls of these establishments. 



The success of the Belgian farmer dependa 

 mainly upon the number of cattle which he can 

 maintain by the produce of his land, the general 

 lightness of the soil rendering the constant appli- 

 cation of manure absolutely necessary to the pro- 

 duction of a crop. The attention of t he cultivator 

 is always therefore especially directed to obtain a 

 supply of manure. Some small farmers, with this 

 view, agree with a sheep-dealer lo find stall-room 

 and straw for his sheep, lo attend to them, and to 

 furnish fodder at the market price, on condition of 

 retaining the dunt?. The small farmer collects in 

 his stable, in a fosse lined with brick, the dung 

 and urine of his cattle. He buys sufficient lime 

 to mingle with the scourings of his ditches, and 

 with the decayed leaves, potato-tops, &c., which 

 he is careful to collect in order to enrich his com- 

 post, which is dug over two or three times in the 

 course of the winter. No portion of the farm is 

 allowed to lie fallow, but it is divided into six or 

 seven small plots, on each of which a system of 

 rotation is adopted ; and thus, with the aid of 

 manure, the powers of the soil are maintained 

 unexhausted, in a state of constant activity. The 

 order of succession in the crops is various ; but we 

 observed on the six-acre farms which we visited 

 plots appropriated to potatoes, wheat, barley, 

 clover (which had been sown with the preceding 

 year's barley), flax, rye, carrots, turnips or pars- 

 nips, vetches, and rye "for immediate use as green 

 food for the cattle. The flax grown is heckled 

 and spun by the fiirmer's wife, chiefly during th© 

 winter, and "we were told that three weeks' labor 

 at the loom towards the spring enabled them to 

 weave into cloth all the thread thus prepared. 

 The weavers are generally a distinct class from 

 the small farmers, though the laborers chiefly 

 supported by the loom commonly occupy about an 

 acre ofland, sometimes more, their labor upon the 

 land alternating with their work at the loom. In 

 some districts, we were informed, every gradation 

 in the extent of occupancy, from a quarter or half 

 an acre, to the six-acre (arm is to be found ; and 

 in such cases more work is done in the loom by 

 the smaller occupiers. 



The labor of the field, the management of the 

 cattle, the preparation of manure, the regulating 

 the rotation ofcrops, and the necessity of carrying 

 a certain portion of the produce to market, call for 

 the constant exercise of industry, skill, and fore- 

 sight among the Belgian peasant farmers ; and to 

 these qualities they add a rigid economy, habitual 

 sobriety, and a contented spirit, which finds ita 

 chief gratification beneath the domestic roof, from 

 which the father of the family rarely wanders ia 



