every fifty square yards. There is nothing- in 

 whicli they manifest such economy as in the sa- 

 ving- of tills material, which they prize as a most 

 valuable assistant to their labors. Rape-cake, 

 besides being applied, as mentioned above, with 

 the liquid manure, is also used in a dry state. 

 The rape is cultivated principally as a manure, 

 and is used extensively where Uie cropping is 

 very severe. Ashes are never used but as a 

 top-dressing to clover : but the traffic which is 

 carried on in them, between Holland and Bel- 

 gium, is sufficient to form a distinct trade with a 

 certain class of merchants in Belgium. The 

 farmers in Belgium set a high value on them, 

 and place so much dependence on them for the 

 success of their clover-crop, that {I understand 

 from what 1 have read) there is a current saying 

 among them, that ■' He who buys ashes for his 

 clover-crop, pays nothing ; but "he tliat does it 

 not. pays double." It is really surprising that 

 this manure, which has been proved to be so ef- 

 ficacious by a class of experienced farmers like 

 the Flemish, has never yet been tried, or at least 

 sufficiently tested, in Scotland. 1 believe some 

 were imported in the beginning of this year by 

 Messrs. John Mitchell & Co., in Leith; but I am 

 not aware that they have met with the reception 

 we would anticipate from the well-known suc- 

 cessful results of their application in Belgium. 

 There is nothing so much wanted at present, in 

 the Agriculture of Scotland, as a good lasting I 

 top-dressing for clover. The failures in this 

 crop have been frequent of late, and the effects 

 of nitrate of soda last only with the crop to which 

 it is applied, while sad disappointments have 

 been experienced in the use of gypsum. But 

 before recommending an extensive use of this 

 material, I would suggest a few comparative 

 trials to be made with it, gypsum, soot, and oth- 

 er substances ; for if the failure of gypsum arose 

 from there being a supply of it alreadv in the 

 soil sufficient for the growth of the plant, an ap- 

 plication of Dutch ashes might be attended with 

 a similar result, as the great proportion of the in- 

 gredients of the ashes are salts of lime, with the 

 useful addition, however, of some salts of soda. 

 Some attribute their .great effects in Belgium to 

 the lime which they contain, as few of the soils 

 there have any amount of lime in their compo- 

 Bition. They are applied in different quantities 

 to the soil, from ten to thirty bushels an imperial 

 acre. 



The crops raised in Belgium are wheat, oats, 

 rye, flax, potatoes, rape, and clover, as principal : 

 and, as secondarj-, turnips, carrots, buckwheat, 

 tobacco, and spurry. The fanners consider flax 

 and rape the best paying crops they cultivate, 

 and they are the most exhaustin? ;" hence the 

 enormous quantities of manure given them. — 

 The rape is sown in July, transplanted in Sep- 

 tember, and cut in June of the next year. The 

 clover, which is grown for seed as well as for 

 food for cattle, is an important crop with the 

 Flemish farmer. He is not particular among 

 what he sows it. We find it growing amongst 

 flax, wheat, oats or rje. There are two varie- 

 ties of ne used, winter and spring. The win- 

 ter variety is almost alway.s .sown after potatoes 

 in December, and some of it is cut green in 

 spring, before the clover is ready for cutting. It 

 thus answers the purpose of early tares in this 

 country. Another crop is taken the same year, 

 after it is cut. The ground is plowed several 

 limes for potatoes. When the la-^t plowing is 

 finished, the furrows of which are about seven 

 inches wide, one man walks up one of the fur- 



rows, and, w;ith an instrument similar to that 

 used for picking up turnips, makes a hole, into 

 which a boy drops tlie cutting of a potato. — 

 Eight inches farther on, another potato-set is put, 

 in making the hole for which he draws the soil 

 over the previous setting. This he does every 

 second furrow, so that the distance between 

 each row of potatoes is not more than fourteen 

 inches. One man and a boy do about 450 yards 

 in this manner in an hour. The turnips are 

 almost alwajs taken as a second crop in the 

 year. Immediately after the rye ia cut, they be- 

 gin to prepare the land for turnips ; and, by the 

 powerful agency of the liquid manure, a beau- 

 tiful braird is obtained in a few days. The tur- 

 nips have attained a pretty good size when they 

 are pulled, and, with the potatoes, form the win- 

 ter food for the animals on the farm. CaiTota 

 are often sown with flax, so tliat they are ena- 

 bled to have two crops the same j"ear from the 

 land ; for by the time the flax is pulled, the car- 

 rots are considerably advanced. This method 

 of double cropping is very frequent in Flan- 

 ders, and is another instance of what, by econo- 

 my of manure and a judicious application of it, 

 they are enabled to produce from the soil 



The next subject which comes naturally after 

 this is the rotation of crops practiced in Flan- 

 ders. I was prepared, before crossing the chan- 

 nel, to encounter some little difficulty in this 

 subject, from having read of the great variety of 

 rotations to be found there. Every field, Mr. 

 Radcliff tells us, has its own rotation. But the 

 four, five, or six years' course to which we are 

 accustomed in this country, made me form but a 

 faint idea of the difficulties of comprehending 

 the Flemish course ; and therefore, when I be- 

 gan to study them, these exceeded mj- greatest 

 anticipations, and everj- day that I renewed my 

 inquiries but plunged me into greater perplexi- 

 ties. I could perceive no fixed principle on 

 which they founded their constantly varying 

 rotations. The same fanner would give me one 

 day one rotation, and the next another totally 

 different from yesterday's, as the rotation he 

 practiced on his farm ; and were I to transcribe 

 all the various systems I jotted down in my 

 note-book, as those followed on farms within the 

 narrow compass of a few miles, I would fill as 

 many pages as this short sketch of Belgian farm- 

 ing would require. With such conflicting 

 .statements, and with no prospect of unraveling 

 the mystery, I began to solace myself with the 

 thought that the Flemings had no such tiling aa 

 a rotation ; that they knew the value of a change 

 of crops each year, and therefore they practiced 

 a succession rather than a rotation of crops. If 

 they are rotations, it is difficult to tell where 

 they commence and where they end ; and they 

 are, besides, extremely long. The principle 

 they seem to go upon is, that the same crop shall 

 not be taken two successive years from the 

 same land. And on examining my heterogen- 

 eous mass of rotations, I have been enabled to 

 trace out the few following facts :— That wheat 

 and rye almost always .sucseed potatoes; and 

 rye, potato w heat : the place of flax seems to 

 be after oats, and before wheat or rye. Clover 

 is sown witli any of the principal crops. Rape 

 seems to succeed oats or rye. I think I cannot 

 do better than conclude this part of tlie subject 

 in the words of Mr. Radclift": 



" In Flanders they would consider their in- 

 dustry and their manure inefficacious without 

 the aid of a precise and well-regulated rotation; 

 hence the variety of successions which we ob- 



