OF AGRICULTURE. 109 



bohm Rowntree mentions, for instance, the 

 wheat crop in the commune of Oirbeck, near 

 Louvain, which was, in 1 906, on the average, fifty- 

 seven bushels per acre, while the average of the 

 whole country was only thirty-four bushels, or a 

 yield of llli bushels of oats in the commune of 

 Neuve-Eglise, while the average for Belgium was 

 fifty-four bushels, and so on, the average crops of 

 several communes for some cereals being seventy- 

 three per cent, in excess of the average for Bel- 

 gium, and from 106 to 153 per cent, for roots.* 



All taken, they grow in Belgium more than 

 76,000,000 bushels of cereals that is, fifteen and 

 seven-tenths bushels per acre of the cultivable 

 area while the corresponding figure for Great 

 Britain is only eight and a half bushels ; and they 

 keep almost twice as many cattle upon each cul- 

 tivable acre as is kept in Great Britain. *f* 



Moreover, they even export cattle and horses. 

 Up to 1890 Belgium exported from 36,000 to 



* Land and Labour: Lessons from Belgium, pp. 178, 179. 



f Taking all horses, cattle and sheep in both countries, 

 and reckoning eight sheep as equivalent to one head of horned 

 cattle, we find that Belgium has twenty-four cattle units and 

 horses upon each 100 acres of territory, as against twenty same 

 units and horses in Great Britain. If we take cattle alone, the 

 disproportion is much greater, as we find thirty-six cattle units 

 on each 100 acres of cultivable area, as against nineteen in 

 Great Britain. The annual value of animal produce in Belgium 

 is estimated by the Annuaire Statistique de la Belgique (1910, 

 p. 302) at 66,040,000, including milk (4,000,000), poultry 

 (1,600,000), and eggs (1,400,000). 



