No. 9. 



The Agriculture of Belgium. 



287 



flight of the fly, and with a common paint 

 brush or swab, tarring their noses can very 

 quickly be performed, and far more effec- 

 tually than it can be done by themselves in 

 the troughs. 



The writer salts his sheep upon the ground 

 before the dew evaporates, selecting a place 

 which is clean, and the grass short, and di- 

 vides a handful into two or three parts, as a 

 large quantity thrown upon one spot will not 

 scatter sufficiently the quantity used for the 

 flock, and thereby the sheep are afforded a 

 more equal chance. Salt is a fertilizer of the 

 soil, and should any be left uneaten, which 

 is not very likely, of course its effbcts will 

 not be lost. 



Many suppose that sheep, late in the fall, 

 require little or no salt. This is quite a mis- 

 take, it being the very period when it will 

 prove most useful to them, by contributing 

 to extract the little nutriment left in the de- 

 caying herbage, as well as causing its better 

 relish. 



Salt is quite as necessary in the foddering 

 season, if not more so, than at any other time, 

 for the reason that dry food being harder of 

 digestion than green, the stimiilaling proper- 

 ties of salt is requisite to aid the process. 

 It is not important that the hay, or whatever 

 else may be fed, is salted, if the sheep have 

 access to it in troughs or mangers. But if 

 the hay is salted when it is secured, none 

 else will be required. This is deemed by a 

 large mnjority to be the better way, and coin 

 cides with the writer's views and practice.— 

 MorrelVs American Shepherd. 



The Agriculture of Belgium. 



No country in Europe of so limited a ter 

 ritory, presents a greater variety of aspect 

 than Belgium. The natural landscape of 

 the two Flanders and Antwerp is charac- 

 terized by a gloominess and monotony which 

 the variety of soil and production can scarcely 

 compensate. Here and there are scattered 

 plains, bounded only by the visible horizon, 

 and intersected by sluggish streams and arti- 

 ficial communications, that serve to drain the 

 country, and afford innumerable facilities for 

 inland navigation. Flanders has a dense 

 population, and her rural districts are de- 

 lightfully diversified % woods and arable 

 lands, and thickly studded with towns and 

 villages. Towards the sea coast rise the 

 gently undulating towns or dunes, composed 

 of loose sand, often extending three miles in 

 breadt!i, but of very moderate heiglit. On 

 the contrary, turn to the coast of Hainault, 

 Brabant, and the Walloon provinces, and 

 you will find charming and romantic situa- 

 tions. Here is a surface, broken by ravines 



or abrupt rocks, and there clothed with great 

 masses of forest. Indeed, the whole of Bel- 

 gium has a woody appearance. Trees are 

 planted in the hedge enclosures of the fields, 

 while the roads are lined with double rows 

 of the majestic linden, and the canals shaded 

 with poplars and willows. 



The western part of Belgium was early 

 known as the centre of European manufac- 

 tures and commerce, and while the rest of 

 the civilized world was merged in compara- 

 tive barbarism, the mechanical arts were 

 successfully cultivated in this region. At 

 the period of the crusades her navigation 

 was so generally developed, that when the 

 kings of France and the emperors of Ger- 

 many sent their mariners by land or in Vene- 

 tian or in Genoese bottoms to Asia, the 

 Flemish marine boldly coasted France and 

 Spain, passed the Straits of Gibraltar, and 

 disembarked her troops on the coast of the 

 Levant. 



There is Bruges, a few centuries ago the 

 entrepot of the whole commercial world; 

 and during the palmy days of the Hanseatic 

 League, she was a leading city, and grand 

 compting house for that wonderful trading 

 establishment. Her ancient and splendid 

 edifices are monuments of her former opu- 

 lence and grandeur; but this whole country, 

 except the margin of streams, was either a 

 di-y sand bunk, or an immense morass, on 

 which grew the heath and aquatic plants. 

 Even now, if left to nature, instead of in- 

 creasing in fertility, it would return to its 

 original state. And what proves beyond the 

 shadow of doubt that it was formerly sub- 

 merged, is the alternation of its layers of sand 

 and clay, mingled with marine shells. In- 

 deed, the Rhine has brought down from the 

 Alpine regions and deposited its debris, in 

 the sha pe of sands. The Meuse and Scheldt, 

 in their advances to the ocean, have formed 

 a fine argillaceous and calcareous soil, the 

 remains of animal and vegetable substances, 

 drawn from their basins or brought by the 

 oceanic tides. The barren heath, by a happy 

 combination of clay and vegetable and animal 

 manure, has thus become a garden, and its 

 rich, black, loamy mould indicates the fertili- 

 zation of centuries. Those salt marshes, 

 called in the language of the country, 

 schorres, have been reclaimed from the in- 

 undation of tides by embankment and dykes, 

 and are now proverbial for their fertility. 

 In the vicinity of Ostend, the great Polden, 

 for example, bearing the appellation of 

 Snaerskinke, has been formed in this way, 

 and exhibits a noble specimen of I'lemish 

 industry and perseverance. Travelling over 

 Pays de Waes, a perfect garden, we should 

 (little suspect that the fine dark loamy soil 



