RAPR CAKR FOR FEEDING. 



19 



In thu farms of six acres, we found no jilow, horse 

 or cart; tlie only agriiMillui-ul iinploment, liesides the 

 spade, fork and wheelbarrow, which we observed, 

 was a lijjht wooden harrow, which might be dragged 

 by hand. The farmer had no assistance, besides that 

 of his wife and children, excepting sometimes in har- 

 vest, when we found he occasionally obtained the aid 

 of a neighbor, or hired a laborer at a franc per day. 

 The whole of the land is dug with the spade, and 

 trenched very deep ; but as the soil is light, the labor 

 of digging is not great. The stock on the small 

 farms which wo examined, consi-^ted of a couple of 

 cows, a calf or two, one or two pig.^, sometimes a 

 goat or two and some poultry. The cows are alto- 

 gether stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, vetches, 

 carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup made by boiling 

 up potatoes, peas, beans, bran, cut hay, &c., into one 

 mess, and which being given warm is said to be very 

 wholesome, and to promote the secretion of milk. 

 Iq some districts, the grains of the breweries and 

 distilleries are used for the cattle, and the failure of 

 the Belgian distilleries has been reckoned a calamity 

 to the agriculture of the country, on account of the 

 loss of the supply of manure which was produced by 

 the cattle fed in the stalls of these establishments. 



The success of the Belgian farmer depends mainly 

 upon the number of cattle which he can maintain by 

 the produce of his laud, the general lightness of the 

 Boil rendering the constant application of manure 

 absolutely necessary to the production of a crop. 

 The attention of the cultivator is always therefore 

 especially directed to obtain a supply of manure. 

 Some small farmers with this view, agree with the 

 sheep dealer to tind stall room and straw for his 

 sheep, to attend to them, and to furnish fodder at the 

 market price, on condition of retaining the dung. 

 The small farmer collects in hie stable, in a tank lined 

 with brick, the dung and urine of his cattle. Ue 

 buys sufficient lime to mingle with the scouring of 

 his ditches, and with decayed leaves, potato tops, 

 &c., which he is careful to collect, in order to enrich 

 his compost, which is dug over two or three times 

 in the course of the winter. No portion of the 

 ground is allowed to lie fallow, but it is divided into 

 six or seven small plots, on each of which a system 

 of rotation is adopted ; and thus, with the aid of 

 manure, the powers of the soil are maintained unex- 

 hausted, in a state of constant activity. 



The order of succession in the crops is various ; 

 but we observed on the six acre farms which we vis- 

 ited, plots appropriated to potatoes, wheat, barley, 

 clover, (which had been sown with the preceding 

 year's barley), flax, rye, carrots, turnips, or parsnips, 

 vetches, and rye, for immediate use as green food for 

 the cattle. The flax grown is heckled and spun by 

 the farmer's wife, chiefly during the winter, and we 

 are told that three weeks' labor at the loom towards 

 the spring, enabled them to weave into cloth all the 

 thread thus prepared. The weavers are generally a 

 distinct class from the small farmers, though the la- 

 borers chiefly supported by the loom commonly oc- 

 cupy about an acre of land, sometimes more, their 

 labor upon the land alternating with their work at 

 the loom. In some districts, we were informed, every 

 gradation in the extent of occupancy, from a quarter 

 or half an acre, to the six acre farm, is to be found ; 



and in such cases more work is done in the loom by 

 the smaller occupiers. 



The labor of the field, the management of the cat- 

 tle, the preparation of manure, the regulation of the 

 crops, and the carrying a portion of the produce to 

 market, call for the constant exercise of industry, 

 skill and foresight among the Belgian peasant fir- 

 mers ; and to these qualities they add economy, so- 

 briety, and a contented spirit, which finds its chief 

 gratification beneath the domestic roof, from which 

 the father of the family rarely wanders in search of 

 excitement abroad. It was most gratifying to ob- 

 serve the comfort displayed in the whole economy of 

 the households of these small cultivators, and the re- 

 spectability in which they lived. As far as I could 

 learn, there is no tendency to the subdivision of the 

 small holdings. I lieard of none under five acres, 

 held by the class of peasant farmers, and six, seven, 

 or eight acres, is the more common size. The provi- 

 dent habits of these small farmers, enable them to 

 maintain a high standard of comfort, and they are 

 therefore necessarily opposed to such subdivision. 

 Their marriages are not contracted so early as in Ire- 

 land, and the consequent struggle for subsistence 

 among their offspring does not exist. The proprie- 

 tors of the soil retain the free and unrestricted dispo- 

 sal of their property, whether divided into smaller or 

 larger holdings ; but we were assured, that an indus- 

 trious tenant was rarely, if ever, disposessed. The 

 common rent of land is about 20s. sterling, an acre, 

 and the usual rate of wages for a day laborer is a 

 franc (or lOd.) a day. — M. S. in Ulster Gazette. 



KAPE CAXE FOR FEEDING. 



Perhaps no agricultural subject has excited more 

 attention and discussion than the qualities and value 

 of materials for food. Boussingadlt and other cele- 

 brated writers have published tables of the theoretical 

 values of different materials derived solely from their 

 proportion of nitrogen, giving the highest value to 

 such as contain the greatest per centage of this ele- 

 ment. Consideration will, however, teach that highly 

 nitrogenous food has a greater value for special or 

 particular than for general purposes. If you examine 

 the composition of milk, taken as dry material, it has 

 the highest proportion, nearly 40 per cent, of nitro- 

 genous compounds; yet as food for building up the 

 frames of young animals, neither experience nor 

 science has been able to devise any substitute of 

 equal eflicacy. I have shown, too, that food rich in 

 albumen has a special value for the production of 

 milk; it has likewise a special value in making good 

 the deficiency of materials of food which do not con 

 tain a due proportion. We find that Swede turnips 

 which contain about 16 per cent, of albumen in theii 

 dry material fatten satisfactorily; that the rich pas 

 ture grasses, which have a very similar proportion, 

 have the like effect. We find that meadow hay, with 

 its 6 or 8 per cent., maintains, but does not fatten, 

 while on straw, with IJ per cent, of albuminous mat- 

 ter, cattle exist for a time but do not thrive. The 

 deficiency in these can be supplied only by materials 

 rich in albumen. In addition to my cattle, I main- 

 tain about iiO lambing ewes, which I purchase ia 

 October, and also shearlings. To the former, which 



