Book 1. AGRICULTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS. 77 



9. Wheat. 14. AVTieat. 



10. Oats. 15. Hops, with abundant manure. 



11. Turnips. This last crop remains generally five years, and the ground 



12. Rye. is afterwards fit for any kind of produce. 

 I?. Tobacco, three times ploughed, and richly manured. 



455. In another part of this division, where hops are not grown, the following rotation 

 is observed : 



1. Potatoes, with manure. 9. Wheat. 



2. AVheat. 10. Oats, ! 



3. Beans, with manure. 11. Turnips, J ^^"^^ J"* 



4. Rye. 12. Fallow, without manure. 

 a. VVheat, with manure. 13. Rye. 



6. Clover, top-dressed with ashes. 14. Tobacco, richly manured. 



7. Turnips, with manure. 15. Wheat. 



8. Flax, highly manured with urine and rape cake. 



456. In addition to these crops in some parts of the district, particularly in the line 

 between Woomen and Ypres, magnificent crops of rape are cultivated, and are relied on 

 as a sure and profitable return. Flax is also a crop upon which their best industry 

 is bestowed, and their careful preparation of the soil is scarcely to be surpassed by that of 

 the neatest garden. 



457. Li the third divisigji the soil is a good sandy loam, of a light colour, and is 

 in a superior state of cultivation; it yields a produce similar to that of the foregoing 

 division, with the same quality of hay ; but plantations are here more numerous. The 

 succession is as follows : 



1. Wlieat, with dung. 10. Clover, with ashes, seeds sometimes saved. 



2. Clover, with ashes, seed sometimes saved. 11. Oats, without manure. 



3. Flax, with urine and rape cake. 12. Flax, with urine and rape cake. 



13. Wheat, with dung. 



. 1' lax. witn urme and rape cake. 



4. Wheat,with compost ofshort dung and various sweepings. 



5. Potatoes, with farm-yard dung or night soil. f Beans', with dung. 



6. Rye, with urine. 14. < Beet root, with rape cake, or 



7. Rape seed, with rape cake and urine. (.Tobacco, with rape cake in great quantities. 



8. Potatoes, with dung. Turnips are also grown, but are taken as a second crop aftei 



9. Wheat, with manure of divers kinds. rape, flax, wheat, or rye. 



458. Passing over the other divisions to the eighth and ninth, we find the reporter describes 

 them as of considerable extent, and, in the poverty of their soil and abundance of their 

 produce, bearing ample testimony to the skill and perseverance of the Flemish farmers. 

 The soil consists of a poor light sand, in the fifteenth century exhibiting barren gravel and 

 heaths. The chief produce here consists of rye, flax, potatoes, oats, buckwheat, rape- 

 seed, and wheat, in a few favourable spots ; clover, carrots, and turnips generally. 



459. 071 the western side of these districts, and where the soil is capable of yielding 

 wheat, there are two modes of rotation : one comprising a nine years' course, in which 

 wheat is but once introduced ; and the other a ten years' course, in which they contrive 

 to produce that crop a second time ; but in neither instance without manure, which, 

 indeed, is never omitted in these divisions, except for buckwheat, and occasionally for 

 rye. The first course alluded to above is as follows : 



1. Potatoes or Carrots, with four ploughings, and twelve tons 5. Oats with Clover, with two ploughings, and ten tons and a 

 Tj ' farm-yard dung per English acre. half of farm-yard dung per English acre. 



2. Hax, with two ploughings, and 105 Winchester bushels 6. Clover, top-dressed, with 105 Winchester bushels of peat or 



of ashes, and 48 hogsheads, beer measure, of urine Dutch ashes per English acre. 



,,J?er English acre. 7. Rye, with one ploughing, and 52 hogsheads, beer measure, 



3. Wheat, with two ploughings, and ten tons and a half of of night soil and urine. 



farni-yard dung per English acre. 8. Oats, with two ploughings, and 52 hogsheads, beer measure, 



4. Rye and Turnips, with two ploughings, and ten tons and of night soil and urine. 



a half of farm-yard dung per English acre. 9. Buckwheat, with four ploughings, and without any manure. 



460. Of the Flemish mode of cultivating some particular crops we shall give a few 

 examples. The drill husbandry has never been generally introduced in the Low Countries. 

 It has been tried in the neighbourhood of Ostend, forty acres of beans against forty acres 

 of drilled crop, and the result was considered to be in favour of the system. But the row 

 culture, as distinguished from the raised drill manner, has been long known in the case of 

 tobacco, cabbages, and some other crops. 



461. Wheat is not often diseased in Flanders. Most farmers change their seed, and 

 others in several places steep it in salt water or urine, and copperas or verdigrise. The 

 proportion of verdigrise is half a pound to every six bushels of seed ; and the time in 

 which the latter remains in the mixture is three hours, or one hour if cows' urine be used, 

 because of its ammonia, which is considered injurious. The ripest and plumpest seed is 

 always preferred. 



462. Rj/e is grown both as a bread corn, and for the distillery. In Flanders 

 frequently, and in Brabant very generally, the farmer upon the scale of from one 

 hundred to two hundred acres of light soil is also a distiller, purely for the improvement 

 of the land by the manure of the beasts, which he can feed upon the straw of the rye, and 

 the grains of the distillery. 



463. Buckwheat enters into the rotations on the poorest soils, and is sown on lands 

 not got ready in time for other grain. The chief application of buckwheat is to the 

 feeding of swine and poultry, for which it is preeminent ; it is also used in flour as a 

 constituent in the liquid nourishment prepared for cattle and horses ; and bears no incon- 

 siderable share in the diet of the peasant. Formed into a cake, without yeast, it is a very 

 wholesome, and not a disagreeable, species of bread; but it is necessary to use it while 



