THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 445 



credit, having a lien on the crop produced by the aid of his 

 manure. In November he gets his money : the produce has 

 been doubled, and the land improved. The small farmer does 

 as the labourer does ; each opens an account with the manure- 

 dealer, who is the best of all bankers. 



The large farmers of Hainaut and Namur do not buy manure, 

 fancying they would ruin themselves by doing so. The Flemish 

 small farmers invest from fifteen to twenty millions of francs in 

 guano every year, and quite as much in other kinds of manure. 

 Where does large farming make such advances .-* 



The chief objection made to la petite culture is, however, that it 

 does not admit of the use of machinery, being reduced, as it is al- 

 leged, to the employment of the most primitive implements of hus- 

 bandry, and .never raising itself above the first stage of cultivation 

 in that respect. This has been put forward as an incontestable 

 axiom, baffling refutation, and I believe is so regarded in England. 



To disprove this I need not point out that to Flanders are 

 due the best forms of the spade, the harrow, the cart, and the 

 plough Brabant ploughs having for a long time been imported 

 from Flanders into England. It may be said that these are 

 primitive and not very costly implements. I need only reply, 

 Look at what is going on in Flanders at the present day. 



The most costly agricultural machine in general use in Eng- 

 land is the locomotive steam threshing-machine. Well, this 

 machine is to be found everywhere in Flanders. Some farmers 

 will club together to purchase one, and use it in turn ; or else a 

 villager, often the miller, buys one, and goes round threshing for 

 the small farmers, on their own ground, at so much per day, and 

 per hundred kilos of corn. The same thing takes place with the 

 steam-plough as soon as the use of it becomes remunerative. 



To keep hops in good condition very expensive machines are 

 required to press it. At Poperinghe, in the centre of the hop 

 country, the commune has purchased the machines, and the farm- 

 ers pay a fixed rate for having their hops pressed which is at 

 once an advantage to them and a source of revenue to the town. 



The example of Flanders proves, therefore, that the division 

 of land forms no obstacle to mechanical economy in farming. 



