74 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



French Flanders. It is about ninety miles long, and sixty broad, and abounds with towns 

 and villages. 



437. The landed property of Flanders is not in large estates : very few amount to 

 2000 acres. It is generally freehold, or the property of religious or civil corporations. 

 When the proprietor does not cultivate his own lands, which, however, is most frequently 

 the case, he lets it on leases ; generally of seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years' endurance, 

 at a fixed money rent, and sometimes a corn and money rent combined. The occupier is 

 bound to live on the premises, pay taxes, effect repairs, preserve timber, not sublet 

 without a written agreement, and to give the usual accommodations to an incoming 

 tenant at the end of the lease. Leases of fourteen or twenty- one years are most common : 

 there are scarcely any lands held from year to year, or on the metayer system. Estates 

 are every where enclosed with hedges, and the fields are generally small. 



438. Farmeries are convenient, and generally more ample in proportion to the extent 

 of the farm than in England. On the larger farais a distillery, oil mill, and sometimes 

 a flour mill, are added to the usual accommodations. The buildings: on a farm of 150 

 acres of strong soil, enumerated by Radcliff, are : 1. The farm-house, with an arched 

 cellar used as a dairy, an apartment for churning, with an adjoining one for a horse 

 wheel to turn the churning machinery. 2. A small building for the use of extra- 

 labourers, with a fire-place for cooking. 3. The grange or great barn, 130 feet long, by 

 35 feet wide. The ground floor of this structure, besides accommodating by its divisions 

 all the horses and cows of the fann in comfortable stables, and furnishing two threshing 

 floors for the flail, is sufficient also for ^ considerable depot of com in the sheaf, in two 

 extensive compartments to the height of twelve feet, at which elevation an open floor of 

 joists, supported by wooden pillars, is extended over the entire area of the bam, and is 

 repeated at every five feet in height, to the top. Each floor is braced from the pillars, and 

 not only forms a connection of strength throughout the whole, but separates at the same 

 time, without much loss of space, the different layers of com, securing them from damage, 

 by taking off the pressure of the great mass. 4. A house for farming implements, with 

 granary over, and piggery behind. In the centre is the dunghill ; the bottom of which is 

 rendered impervious to moisture. 



439. A plan of a Flemish farmery, is given by Sir John Sinclair, as suited to a farm 

 of 300 acres : it is executed with great solidity and a due attention to salubrity, being 

 vaulted and well aired. Sir John mentions that he saw, in some places, " a mode of 

 making floors by small brick arches, from one beam to the other, instead of using deals, 

 and then making the floor of bricks," a mode generally adopted in British manufac- 

 tories, where the beams which serve as abutments are of cast-iron, tied together with trans- 

 verse wrought-iron rods. 



440. The accommodations of this farmery {fg- 55.) are. 



1, The vestibule, or entrance of the farm-house. 



2, The hall. 



3, 4, 5, Closets. 



6, Sheds destined for different purposes, but more espe- 

 cially.for elevating or letling down grain from the granaries, bj 

 machinery. 



7, I'iitchon. 



8, Washing-house. 



9, Chamber for female servants. 



10, Hall. 



11, 12, Closets. 



13, Necessaries. 



14, Room for the gardener. 



15, Shed for fuel. 



16, 16, Kitchen-garden. 



18, Poultry-yard. 



19, 20, Stables for cows and calves. 



'2i, Necessaries for the servants, connected with tl>e cis- 

 terns. 

 22, 23, Sheep-folds. 



24, 25, Sheds for carts. 



26, Bam. 



27, Area. 



28, Flax bam. 



29, 30, Sheep-houses 



31, 32, Stables for the horses and foals. 

 33, 34, 55, 36, Places for the hogs. 



37 and 38, Cisterns destined to receive the urine of the 

 cattle. 



39, Well. 



40, Dung-pit, concave in the middle. 



41, Pool serving to receive the superabundant waters of 

 the dung-pit, the weedings of the gardens, &c. 



42, 42, Reservoirs to receive the waters of the farm-yard. 



43, Entrance gateway with dovecot over. 



44, Small trenches, or gutters. 



45, 45, Sheds destined for clover, cut green in summer, or 

 dry in winter. 



46, Cistern for the wash-houses. 



47, 47, Situations of the com stacks, in years of abundance. 



