FLANDERS. 



to the English. They employ, however, the ' 

 spade to a much greater extent than is done in 

 England ; thus it is a common practice with 

 them to deepen the trenches between the lands 

 with the spade, and spread the earth over the \ 

 surface of the ground ; by this means the land 

 is gradually completely trenched, and the im- j 

 mediate good effect by keeping the soil of the 

 field dry is very considerable. 



Their rotation of crops on sandy soils is 

 commonly, 1. Flax and carrots; 2. Rye and 

 turnips ; 3. Rye and turnips ; 4. Potatoes, peas, 

 and carrots; 5. Oats and rye; 6. Clover; 7. 

 Rye, or barley and turnips ; 8. Turnips, oats, 

 and potatoes ; 9. Flax and carrots ; 10. Rye 

 and turnips. 



In a stiff loam near Alost, the following rota- 

 tion is adopted : 1. Potatoes, with 20 tons of 

 dung per acre ; 2. Wheat, with 3 tons and 50 

 barrels of urine ; 3. Flax, with 12 tons of dung, 

 50 barrels of urine, and 5 cwt. of rape-cake ; 4. 

 Clover, with 20 bushels of wood-ashes ; 5. Rye, 

 with 8 tons of dung, and 50 barrels of urine. 

 6. Oats, with 50 barrels of urine; 7. Buck- 

 wheat without manure. 



They grow large quantities of hemp and 

 tobacco ; and are large exporters of seeds of 

 all kinds. With such exhausting crops, there- 

 fore, an attention to the careful saving of all 

 kinds of manure is absolutely essential to the 

 preservation of the fertility of the soil ; and no 

 cultivators are more particular in this respect 

 than those of Flanders. 



They keep large quantities of cattle. " A 

 beast for every three acres of land is a com- 

 mon proportion ; and in very small occupa- 

 tions, where much spade husbandry is used, 

 the proportion is still greater. These are 

 maintained on turnips, potatoes, carrots, &c., 

 which are chopped together in a tub, with 

 beans, rye, or buckwheat meal, and mixed 

 with boiling water (which they call 6ra*'n), 

 about two pails full are given each cow. 



"The horses of Flanders have been long 

 noted for their bulk. Flanders mares were at 

 one time in request for the heavy town car- 

 riages of the nobility and men of fortune in 

 England and on the continent Since the im- 

 provement in the roads, and in the paving of 

 streets, activity has been preferred to strength, 

 and the English carriage horses now partake 

 more of the breed of hunters, and are more 

 nearly allied to full blood. The Flanders 

 horses are probably the same at this time as 

 they were a century ago ; but compared with 

 the present breeds of coach and cart-horses in 

 England they are inferior. They are in gene- 

 ral large in the carcass, and pretty clean in the 

 leg; patient and enduring, if not too much 

 hurried. They are steady in the collar, and 

 good at a dead pull, in consequence of their 

 weight ; but they are very heavy in the fore- 

 hand, inclined to get fat, and deficient in activity. 

 They fall off in the rump, and the hips stand 

 put too much from the ribs. The worst point 

 in most of them is the setting on of the tail, 

 which is low, and pointing downwards. These 

 are the general characters of the real Flemish 

 horse. A more useful kind of horse, although 

 not so sleek, is found in the provinces of Bra- 

 bant and Namur, where they draw heavy loads 



FLANDERS. 



of stones and coal over bad roads. The feet 

 of the Flemish horses are generally flat, de- 

 noting the moist pastures in which they are 

 fed when young, or the dung of the stables in 

 which they have stood : for many of them have 

 never been turned out loose, and have been 

 reared and fed in the stable as the cows are. 

 This will account for the want of vigour and 

 muscle, as well as for the propensity to get fat. 

 The food of the farmer's horses is not calcu- 

 lated to produce hard flesh : green clover in 

 summer, and roots with cut straw in winter, 

 are the chief provender." 



Of the spade-husbandry of Flanders, the fol- 

 lowing description is given by the author whom, 

 I have already quoted so freely: 



"The husbandry of the whole of the north- 

 eastern part of East Flanders, where the soil is 

 a good sandy loam, may be considered as a 

 mixed cultivation, partly by the plough, and 

 partly by the spade. Without the spade, it 

 would be impossible to give that finish to the 

 land, after it is sown, which makes it appear 

 so like a garden, and which is the chief cause 

 of the more certain vegetation of the seed. 

 There is great saving of seed by this practice, 

 as may be seen by comparing the quantity 

 usually sown in Flanders with that which is 

 required in other countries, where the spade is 

 more sparingly used. In large farms in Eng- 

 land, the spade is only used to dig out water- 

 furrows, and to turn heaps of earth, which are 

 made into composts with different kinds of 

 manure. But in Flanders, where the land is 

 usually laid in stitches of about six or seven 

 feet wide, the intervals are always dug out with 

 the spade, and the earth spread evenly (sifted, 

 as they call it) over the seed which has been 

 harrowed in. The earth may not be of a fer- 

 tile nature below the immediate surface ; some- 

 times it is only a poor sand, or a hard till ; but 

 this is no reason why it should not be dug out. 

 If it is very light and poor, a good soaking with 

 urine, a few days before it is dug out, will im- 

 part sufficient fertility to it. If it is very stiff, 

 the clods must be broken as small as possible 

 in the digging, as is done when stiff ground is 

 trenched in gardens ; and what is left unbroken 

 on the surface, and not pulverized by passing 

 the traineau (a kind of heavy broad wooden 

 sledge, made of beams of wood and boards) 

 over it, will inevitably be reduced to a powder 

 by the frost in winter. Thus the land is not 

 only perfectly drained, but the seed, being co- 

 vered by an inch or more of earth, is placed 

 out of the reach of birds, without danger of 

 being buried too deep. The soil from the bot- 

 tom of the trench contains few seeds of weeds, 

 and the root-weeds are necessarily cleaned out 

 in the spreading. This earth, spread over the 

 surface of the land, keeps it clean, by burying 

 the smaller seeds, which the harrows may have 

 brought to the surface, and preventing their 

 vegetating. It is for this reason that the roller, 

 or the traineau, is made to press the surface, or 

 that, in very light soils, men and women tread 

 it regularly with their feet, as gardeners do 

 after they have sown their beds. The trench, 

 which is thus dug, is a foot wide, or, more pro- 

 perly, one-sixth part of the width of the stitch, 

 or bed; and the depth is from a foot to 18 



483 



