No. 4. 



Belgian Husbandry. 



109 



"Of this farm, near twenty acres are in 

 fine meadows along the river, occasionally 

 flooded in winter, but not irrigated. About 

 ten acres are rich, heavy land, adjoining the 

 meadows, in which beans and wheat thrive 

 well : all the remainder, about one hundred 

 and six acres, lies in an oblong form, bounded 

 by a hedge-row; at one corner of which, 

 nearest the river, stand the farm buildings. 

 A road or path, six feet wide, runs through 

 the middle of the field, and the road or path 

 that leads to the farm-yard, skirts one end 

 of it. The soil of this large field, is a rich, 

 light loam, which lies over a substratum of 

 clay, but at such a depth as to be perfectlv 

 sound and dry: it is not very fertile in its 

 own nature, but has been rendered so by 

 many years of an improving husbandry: 

 every part of the land has been repeatedlv 

 trenched and stirred two or three feet deep, 

 and the immense quantity of manure, chiefly 

 liquid, put on year after year, has converted 

 the whole into a rich mould; the strength 

 and vigour of the crops bear witness to the 

 goodness of the husbandry. 



"As we walked along the path, which is 

 just wide enough to admit the wheels of a 

 cart, the whole produce might be seen at 

 once. The flax had been pulled, and re- 

 mained stacked on the ground; the colza 

 (cole, or rape seed,) had been beaten out, 

 but the stems remained where they had 

 been cut ; there were fifteen acres of most 

 beautiful flax, of a bright straw colour, and 

 the stems a yard long; this, besides the seed, 

 was worth in the stack, from twenty-five to 

 thirty pounds sterling, per acre; twelve 

 acres of colza had produced about four hun- 

 dred bushels of seed; eighteen acres of oats 

 looked so promising, thatf they could not be 

 set at less than seventy bushels per acre ; 

 eighteen acres of wheat, which stood well, 

 with short, plump ears, were estimated at 

 forty bushels per acre : eighteen acres of 

 rye, with straw six feet high, would proba^ 

 bly produce rather more than the wheat 

 There were six acres of white poppy, of 

 which every plant was strong and upright, 

 and the produce of which was estimated 

 from twenty to twenty-three bushels of seed 

 per acre; six acres were in potatoes, ex- 

 pected to produce at least twenty-two hun- 

 dred bushels; about an acre was in carrots, 

 which looked fine and large; twelve acres 

 were in clover, nearly the whole of which 

 was cut green, as food for horses and cows. 

 and produced three good cuts in a year; the 

 ten acres of heavy land were partlv in beans, 

 and partly in wheat ; and the stock kept on 

 this farm, consisted of twenty-seven cows in 

 milk, five or six heifers, nine horses and 

 three colts." 



It cannot fail to strike the most inatten- 

 tive reader, that the crop of this one hun- 

 dred and twenty acres arable, greatly ex- 

 ceeds, perhaps doubles, that of our ordinary 

 farms of the same size ; while on many of 

 what are called our dairy farms, of about 

 the same size, not more stock is kept than 

 on this grain farm. Manuring and deep 

 tillage have done this for the Brabant farm, 

 and it will do the same for any, or almost 

 any, on which it is adopted. We are con- 

 vinced that money expended in converting 

 land into rich garden mould, is well applied, 

 although for the moment, it may seem to be 

 thrown away, particularly on lands, the 

 owners of which are expecting to get to the 

 far West, by "year after next, at furthest." 

 We add a description of the tillage culture 

 of another farm of about four hundred acres, 

 of naturally first rate land, but which, by 

 being treated as described, is so much dete- 

 riorated, that the crops rarely more than half 

 equal those on the same number of acres on 

 the one just noticed. 



"The rotation on this farm, is as follows: 

 1, fallow; 2, winter barley; 3, beans; 4, bar- 

 ley, or wheat; 5, beans, clover, potatoes; 6, 

 wheat; 7, oats. Thirty cart loads per acre, 

 of long manure, the straw not much decom- 

 posed, are put on the fallows before the last 

 ploughing, and the winter barley is sown in 

 October; the produce being eight quarters, 

 or sixty-four bushels per acre. Wheat, on 

 the same preparation, gives from thirty-two 

 to forty bushels per acre, so the barley gives 

 the largest crop, and with the least exhaus- 

 tion to the soil ; every year a portion of the 

 pasture is broken up and planted with colza. 

 The natural fertility of the soil is shown by 

 the succession of crops produced on the new- 

 ly broken up land, without manure, viz. : 

 colza, wheat, beans, barley, beans, wheat, 

 clover, wheat, beans, oats ; but after this 

 scourging, no wonder the land needs rest; 

 and this is given without much care, by 

 merely allowing the natural grasses to 

 spring up, without the trouble of sowing the 

 seeds: it takes, however, three years before 

 there is any tolerable pasture, but as it re- 

 mains nearly twenty years before it is again 

 broken up, the deterioration is not so appa- 

 rent; but under a regular and judicious 

 course of husbandry, this land might be 

 kept up to the highest state of fertility, and 

 the ultimate profit would be much greater." 



This is a picture of the farming so preva- 

 lent in this country, and which is fast less- 

 ening our products and ruining our lands : 

 it may be fairly called the exhausting pro- 

 cess, as the whole object seems to be, to get 

 as much from the earth, and return to it 

 as little as possible. By the first mode of 



