THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 467 



bread ; at 4 p.m., bread and butter again, and for supper the same 

 fare as for dinner ; very seldom a little bacon, and as for butchers' 

 meat four or five times in a year. Those who live with the 

 farmers" get pork more frequently. 



On the other hand, the farm-labourer is generally well housed. 

 For himself and his family he always has a house, with at least 

 two, more frequently four, rooms, generally kept in good condi- 

 tion, and having an acre or half an acre of land belonging to it, 

 where the man grows vegetables, potatoes, and rye ; and there is, 

 besides, a goat which gives milk to the household. 



NUMBER OF FAMILIES FOR EVERY 100 HOUSES IN THE RURAL 



DISTRICTS OF 



1846 



1856 



Flanders, West 

 Flanders, East . . 

 The entire kingdom 



103 

 104 

 104 



101 

 102 

 104 



Thus the number of houses in Flanders has increased as 

 compared with the rural population, who have by this means 

 found better accommodation. 



No remarks need be made on the beneficial effects of a good 

 home on a man's morality and self-respect. This applies to the 

 country as well as to towns, and accounts for the fact that the 

 Flemish population, badly fed and little educated as it is, yet 

 presents all the outward appearance of well-being and civilisation. 



It may be affirmed that in normal years no pauperism is to be 

 found in the rural districts of Flanders, and beggars are very 

 rare. The labourers and small artisans live poorly ; yet having 

 nearly all of them a little plot of land to work, they are at any 

 rate kept from starving. At the time machinery supplanted hand- 

 spinning, a severe crisis took place indeed ; but the last traces of 

 it have now disappeared. 



A stranger visiting Flanders should guard against rashly 

 drawing unfavourable inferences from certain facts arising from 

 custom. A Walloon, for instance, seeing women working in the 



