104 FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURE OF THE NETHERLANDS. 



which makes an excellent light soil, but net so 

 rich as thatof Flanders, though preieral)le perhaps 

 for corn. The usual productions of this part of 

 the country are wheat, rye, oats, barley, beans, 

 peas, vetches, clover, turnips, carrots, and pota- 

 toes. No ground here lies falloAV ; the tarms are 

 seldom extensive : forty bunders may be taken for 

 an average. The distribution of a farm of this 

 size is usually into about six bunders of meadow, 

 and thirty four of arable land. 



These last are manured almost yearly, with 

 from twelve to sixteen wagon loads of manure to 

 each bunder, those in clover excepted. On these 

 it is usual to spread, in JMarch, turf-ashes brought 

 in boats from Holland. From eighty to one hun- 

 dred tubs of about sixty i)ounds weight each are 

 employed for a bunder, one third of which is kept 

 to be spread after the first cut. INIany of the 

 Flemish farmers n)ake great use of these ashes, 

 which being highly impregnated with salts, enrich 

 the land so as to render it capable of producing ex- 

 cellent crops of wheat, without any other manure, 

 except turning under the clover it was sown with 

 the preceding year. 



In most fiirm-yards, a deep ditch is dug near the 

 cow-house, into which the urine of the cattle runs, 

 and a suflicient quantity is gathered, for spreading 

 over tv/o or three bunders, which proves an excel- 

 lent manure. 



The arable part of such a farm as I am speak- 

 ing of, is distributed as follows : five bunders of 

 wheat, five of rye, two of meteil, two of barley, 

 four of oats, two of beans, peas, and vetches, five 

 of clover, four of turnips, carrots, and potatoes, 

 and five of coleseed ; in all thirty four bunders, 

 the other six being meadow. 



The following rotation is used in the culture of 

 these parts. The ground being well manured, the 

 first year coleseed is planted ; the second year it 

 is sown with wheat; and the third with rye, with- 

 out dunging. From two to three raziers of wheat, 

 of 80 lib. each, are usually sown on a bunder ; and 

 when the crop is good, it yields from thirty to for- 

 ty raziers of the same weight. 



Some farmers spread turf-ashes on the ground 

 where they have sown turnips and carrots, as well 

 as on that sown with clover. Sic. and then pass the 

 l)arrow over it. 



In a favorable year, a journal (a quarter of a 

 bunder) of land well manured, will produce from 

 fifty to sixty sacks of potatoes. 



Those that feed sheep in the districts where no 

 land lies fallow, feed them, as well as their other 

 cattle, with corn, beans, peas, vetches, turnips, 

 and other roots. 



jfgriculture of Flanders ; and first in the envi- 

 rons of Bruges. 



The quality of the soil varies greatly in dilVer- 

 ent parts of the district of Bruges, although the 

 main constituent of it be every where a light sand. 

 In many parts, continual manuring and cultivation 

 have rendered it extremely rich ; in some spots, 

 for want of these, it is less so ; but a more exten- 

 sive population would soon bring them into the 

 same state as the rest. 



There are many large farms in this part of the 

 country, belonging in general to the rich abbeys; 

 those of lay proprietors are for the most part less ; 

 and those of which the farmers themselves are pro- 



prietors, are still smaller. The culture in these 

 cantons is regulated as follows : 



A ghemet, or measure of land, is manured the 

 first year v/ith dung, or, near Bruges, with a boat 

 load of street dirt from that city ; it is then sown 

 with flax; the second year wheat is sown on it; 

 the third year rye; the fourth year it is again 

 slightly manured, and sown with oats or Turkey 

 wheat, and sometimes with clover, turnips, car- 

 rots, parsnips, or potatoes. 



Clover is sown along with oats, and only lasts a 

 year; it is afterwards ploughed, manured, and 

 sown with wheat and flax. 



Broom is sometimes sown as an amendment for 

 bad land, and pulled up at the end of the second 

 year, during winter. The ground is then dunged, 

 ploughed, and cultivated with later crops, sown in 

 the spring. 



Turnips, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes, supply 

 in Uiese parts the want of meadows, and great care 

 is taken to preserve them during winter for food 

 for their cattle. Turnips, carrots, and parsnips 

 are laid in the earth, in round heaps, of eight or 

 ten feet in diameter at the bottom, and five or six 

 -feet high; wlien the first layer is placed, it is 

 covered with long straw ; and so on alternately to 

 the top. These heaps are opened in the winter or 

 spring, according as the farmer has need of them A 

 for feeding his horses and cows ; they are given ^ 

 likewise to early lambs, when young grass is 

 wanting. 



Potatoes are kept in deep holes dug in sandy 

 ground, where they are seldom hurt by ordinary 

 frosts, and keep good till far on in the spring. 



In this tract of country, there are many little 

 woods of oak, elm, beech, alder, and here and 

 there fir of the maritime kind. Great quantities 

 of willows are planted, and some are let grow up 

 into trees, out of which are made windlasses for 

 the boats and barges of the country: these sell 

 dearer than oak. 



Lands on the Rivers Lysand Scheldt, from Menin 

 and Courtray to Ghent and Dendermonde, and 

 also of Maritime Flanders. 



The soil on the flat banks of the Lys and the 

 Scheldt is reckoned among the best in Flanders : 

 it is in general, a rich, sandy, moist loam, become 

 almost black with a long and uninterrupted culti- 

 vation. Hardly any great farms are found here; 

 those of from sixty to eighty ghemets are counted 

 the greatest, and they are generally less, as the 

 land is richer. 



In the largest of these farms, there are seldom 

 more than three or four horses, and ten or twelve 

 cows. The ftu-mer employs from twenty to thirty 

 wagon loads of dung for three ghemets of land, 

 and only fifteen or sixteen loads, if it be street dirt 

 from the great towns, or turf ashes brought by 

 wafer from Holland. 



These lands produce grain of every sort in great 

 abundance, as also every kind of esculent roots, 

 which are given to the cattle in winter, along with 

 their hay. The meadows along the rivers, and in 

 other parts of this rich and moist soil, are superi- 

 orly good, and the clover is the most luxuriant I 

 ever saw. It is usual to spread, in the spring, 

 sixty sacks of turf ashes on three ghemets of clover 

 sown the preceding year, which proves an excel- 

 lent manure to it. 



A great branch of culture in these parts, and 



