OF AGRICULTURE. 115 



nous plants and vegetables grown and consumed 

 in Belgium), and still more so if we took into 

 account what is grown upon the small holdings 

 less than two and a half acres each. The number 

 of such small holdings was 554,041 in 1895, and 

 the number of people living upon them reached 

 nearly 2,000,000. They are not included in the 

 official statistics, and yet upon most of them some 

 cereals are grown, in addition to vegetables and 

 fodder for cattle. 



If Belgium produces in cereals the food of 

 more than two-thirds of its very dense population, 

 this is already a quite respectable figure ; but it 

 must also be said that it exports every year 

 considerable quantities of products of the soil. 

 Thus, in the year 1910 she exported 254,730 tons 

 of vegetables (as against 187,000 imported), 

 40,000 tons of fruit, 34,000 tons of plants and 

 flowers (the whole nearly 3,000,000 worth), 

 256,000 of oleaginous grains, 18,500 tons of wool, 

 nearly 60,000 tons of flax, and so on. I do not 

 mention the exports of butter, rabbits, skins, an 

 immense quantity of sugar (about 180,000 tons), 

 the vegetable oils and the spirits, because con- 

 siderable quantities of beet and potatoes are 

 imported. In short, we have here an export 

 of agricultural produce grown in the country 

 itself attaining the figure of 48s. per head of 

 population. 



