FLANDERS HUSBANDRY. 



sive districts, which now have the ap- 

 pearance of the greatest richness at 

 harvest-time, the original soil was 

 once little better than the blowing 

 sands which are met with in the 

 neighbourhood of the sea. Neither 

 is it a genial climate which brings for- 

 ward the fruits of the earth in abun- 

 dance ; for the climate is inferior to 

 that of France or the southern parts 

 of Germany. 



" The soil may be divided into two 

 classes. The first consists of the al- 

 luvial clay-loams near the coast ; the 

 second, of various sands and light 

 loams which are found in the interi- 

 or. The most fertile is that of the 

 lowlands which have been reclaimed 

 from the sea by embankments : it is 

 chiefly composed of a muddy deposite 

 mixed with fragments of marine shells 

 and fine sea-sand. These lands are 

 called polders, and their great natu- 

 ral fertility causes them to be culti- 

 vated with less art and industry 

 than those lands which are much in- 

 ferior. 



" The cultivation in the polders has 

 nothing remarkable to entitle it to 

 much notice. Barley seems peculi- 

 arly suited to the soil, and very heavy 

 crops of this grain are obtained, es- 

 pecially in those polders which, hav- 

 ing been more lately embanked, are 

 not much exhausted. Eight, and even 

 ten quarters per acre have been ob- 

 tained with little or no manure, and 

 the second crop of barley sown in 

 succession has often been the best. 

 Oats are also very productive and of 

 good quality, from ten to twelve quar- 

 ters per acre. But these heavy crops 

 soon reduce the natural fertility, and 

 after a few years the produce is great- 

 ly diminished, and the land requires to 

 be recruited by manure and cleansed 

 by fallows. The usual rotation of 

 crops in the polders consists of, 1. 

 Winter barley after a fallow ; 2. 

 Beans ; 3. Wheat ; 4. Flax ; 5. Clo- 

 ver ; 6. Potatoes. If the potatoes 

 have a favourable season, and the 

 land can be cleared of weeds, the ro- 

 tation begins again without a fallow 

 year ; but this is seldom the case, 

 aud the land is usually fallowed once 



in six years. The crops here men- 

 tioned are occasionally varied accord- 

 ing to circumstances and manure, as 

 well as the small quantity of dung 

 made on the farm will permit. The 

 polder farmer seldom thinks of pur- 

 chasing manure, and even the ashes 

 made by burning weeds are usually 

 sold, to be sent to the poorer sandy 

 soils, where their effects are more 

 perceptible. When the polders have 

 been too much exhausted, they are 

 frequently laid down to grass, and in 

 a few years a very rich pasture is 

 produced. If, instead of sowing only 

 a few refuse hay-seeds from the lofts, 

 proper grass seeds were sown, after 

 land has been cleaned by a fallow, the 

 pasture would much sooner come to 

 perfection, and several years would 

 l)e saved ; but the improved modes 

 of converting arable land into pas- 

 ture, so advantageously practised in 

 the north of England and in Scot- 

 land, are almost entirely unknown in 

 Flanders. The extent of the farms 

 in the polders is from 100 to 250 acres. 

 The farmers in general are in good 

 circumstances, and the buildings sub 

 stantial. 



" In the interior of East and West 

 Flanders the soil varies considerably ; 

 but the principal part is of a sandy 

 nature. The sand, and a heavier 

 loam which scarcely deserves the 

 name of clay, are found much inter- 

 mixed, which is owing to an alterna- 

 tion of layers of sand and loam, which 

 are found by digging to a considera- 

 ble depth. These layers are not of 

 great thickness, and the accidental 

 circumstance of the washing away of 

 the sand in some places and the dep- 

 ositions from the rivers in others 

 easily accounts for this variety. Some 

 of the elevations, which are nowhere 

 considerable, consist of a very poor 

 sand, and suggest the idea of their 

 having once been the sands of the 

 sea blown into hills, as is observable 

 on the coast. These hills, if they 

 may be so called, are naturally so 

 barren, that they were, not very long 

 since, covered with heath, or at best 

 planted with fir-trees ; but they have 

 gradually been cultivated and impro- 



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