502 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



manure, and consists of the urine of cattle in 

 which rape cake has been dissolvcJ, and in which 

 the vidanges conveyed fiotn the privies of the ad- 

 joining tov\^iisanti villages, have also been blended. 

 This manure is graduaily collected in subterraneous 

 vaults of brick work, at the verge of the farm next 

 to the main road. Those receptacles are gene- 

 rally forty (eet long by fburleen wide, and seven 

 or eight feet deep ; and in some cases are con- 

 trived with the crown of the arch so much below 

 the surface of the ground, as to admit the plough 

 to work over it. An aperture is left in the side, 

 through which the manure is received fiom the 

 cart by means of a shoot or trough, and at one 

 end an opening is lel't to bring it up again, by 

 means of a temporary pump which delivers it 

 either into carts or tonneaus. 



The liquid is carried to the field in sheets or bar- 

 rels, according to the distance. Where the cart 

 plies, the manure is carried in a great sheet called 

 ^ voile, closed at the corners by running strings, 

 and secured to the four uprights of the carts ; two 

 men, standing one on each side of the cart, scat- 

 ter it with hollow shovels upon the rolled' ground : 

 or where the tonneaus are made use of, each is 

 carried by two men witli poles, and set down at 

 equal intervals across the field, in the line of the 

 rolling. 



There are tv^o sets of vessels, which enable the 

 men who deposile the loaded ones, to bring back 

 the others empty. One man to each vessel, with 

 a scoop or rather a kind of bowl with a long han- 

 dle, spreads the manure so as to cover a certain 

 space; and thus by preserving the intervals cor- 

 rectly, they can precisely gauge the quantity for a 

 given extent of surfice. Ib'or the flax crop they 

 are profuse, and of this liquid mixture, in this part 

 of the country, they usually allow at the rate of 

 2480 gallons, beer measure, to the English acre. 



With culinary ves;etables the Flemish markets 

 are abundantly supplied. Most of these are grown 

 by the small farm.ers, and are of excellent quality. 

 To every cottage in Flanders a garden of some 

 description is fittached ; and according to the 

 means, the leisure, and the skill of the possessor, 

 is rendered more or less productive. The general 

 principles of management with all are, fi-equent 

 digging, careful weeding, ample manuring, and 

 immediate succession. The rotation depends on 

 circumstances. The chief vegetables in common 

 use are parsnip, carrot, turnip, scorzonera, savoy, 

 jettechou, cabbage, (Brussels sprouts,) onions, 

 leeks, pease, beans, and all kinds of salading, with 

 another vegetable called feve haricot, a large 

 species of French bean, which has a place in the 

 field or garden of almost every farmer; and being 

 sliced down, pod and seed, is made a chief ingre- 

 dient in all larm-house cookery. 



The treatment of aspa.rag\ts here, and generally 

 in Flanders, diH'ers considerably from our method : 

 in forming their beds, they arc not by any means 

 particular as to very deep trenching, or a piotu- 

 sion of manure; nor, as they grow up, do they 

 cover the beds with litter ibr the winter, nor iork 

 and dress them in the spring; in the furrows they 

 form a rich and mellow compost of earth and 

 dung, with which before winter sets in, they dress 

 up their beds to the height of nearly eighteen 

 inches from the level of their crowns, and without 

 any further operation, (except supplying the fur- 

 rows again ibr the ensuing year,) as soon as the 



buds appear, they cut them nine inches under the 

 surface ; by which means, having just reached 

 the light, the whole of the stock is" blanched and 

 tender. 



Every substance that constitutes, or is converti- 

 ble to manure is sought after ivUh avidity, Aviiich 

 accounts for the exn-eme cleanliness of the Flem- 

 ish towns and pavements, hourly resorted to with 

 brooms and barrows, as a source of profit. Even 

 the chips which accumulate in the formation of 

 shoes worn by the peasantry, are made to constitute 

 a part of the compost dung heap ; and trees are 

 frequently cultivated in barren lands, merely to re- 

 main till Uieir deciduous leaves shall in the course 

 of time, have formed an artificial surface for the 

 purpose of cultivation. The manures in general 

 use are — r 



The farm-yard dung, which is a mixture of 

 every matter that the iiirm-yard produces, formed 

 into a compost, which consists of dung and litter 

 from the stables, chaff, sweepings, straw, sludge, 

 and rubbish, all collected into a hollow part of the 

 yard, so prepard as to prevent the juices from being 

 loasted ; and the value of this, by the cart load of 

 1500 lbs. of Ghent, is estimated at five francs. 



7'he dung of sheep, pigeons or poultry, by the 

 cart load, five francs and a half 



Sweepings of streets and roads, same quantitj', 

 three fi-ancs. 



Ashes of peat and wood mxxed, same quantity, 

 eight francs. 



Privy manure and urine, same quantity, seven 

 francs. 



Lime, same quantity, twenty-four francs. 



Rape cake, per hundred cakes, fifteen francs. 



Gypsum, sea mud, and the sediments of canals, 

 have been all tried experimentally, and with fair 

 results ; but the two fbrmer have been merely tried ;_ 

 the latter is used successflilly in the vicmity of 

 Burges. 



Bone manure was altogether unknown in Flan- 

 ders, but at the suggestion of Radcliff, is now un- 

 der experiment in- that country. 



MALARIA OF MARSHES. 



Substance of a paper read by 31. Gaetano Giorgi- 

 ni, at the jlcademie Royal des Sciences, (Pa- 

 ris,) July 12, 1825, a)id recently published in, 

 the j^nnales de Chcmie et de Physique. 



M. Gaetano begins by observing, that man, bet- 

 ter than any other organized being, adapts iiim- 

 self to all climates, living in the middle of the 

 burning sands of Africa, as well as in the midst of 

 the eternal ice of the polar regions. Nevertheless, 

 he finds in the insalubrity of the air in some places 

 causes of destruction, where the temperature and 

 the fertility of the ground otherwise provide him 

 with the nieans of happiness and opulence. The 

 causes of this insalubrity are dilfererit, but the 

 principal ones are, the bad quality of the water, 

 the nature of the soil and its vegetable produc- 

 tions, the exhalations which arise from it, but, 

 more fiequeutly, the neighborhood of stagnant wa- 

 ters, and the "nature of their sediment. These 

 causes sometimes disappear as the country is cul- 

 tivated, and Wi'e and health are preserved in_ dis- 

 tricts befbre deserted and inhospitable. It is of 

 great consequence, therefore, that the causes and 



