Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



83 



is drawn by a pair of horses with swingle-trees. It is used to lessen inequalities of 

 surface, by removing a part of the soil from the heights to the hollows, which it does 

 in an easy and expeditious manner. The driver, who uses long reins, by pressing 

 moderately on the handle (a) as the horses go forward, collects and transports about five 

 hundred weight of earth to the place where it is to be deposited ; which is effected in the 

 most summary manner by his letting go the handle : this causes the front, or edge of 

 the machine, (6) to dip, and catch against the ground, whereby it is at once inverted and 

 emptied of its load. The extremity of the handle, to which a rope (c) is affixed, by this 

 inversion strikes against, and rests upon the swingle-tree bar, arid in this manner the 

 mouldebaert is drawn along towards the accumulated earth, when, by taking up the rope, 

 the driver draws back the handle, collects his load as before, ^ 60 



proceeds to the spot which is to receive it, and the horses are 

 never for a moment delayed. The saving of time and labour, in 

 filling and emptying, gives this implement a decided superiority 

 over the cart ; nor is the ground so much injured by this, as by 

 wheels. 



509. The Hainault scythe {fig. 60.) is the general reaping instrument both 

 in the Netherlands and in French Flanders. The handle is fourteen inches, 

 with a shield for the hand of four and a half inches, in all eighteen and a half 

 inches : the blade is two feet three inches in length, the point a little raised; 

 and the entire edge bevelled upwards so as to avoid the surface of the ground, " 

 and the frequent use of the sharpening stone. The handle of the crook being 

 of hard wood, is used as a scythe board. A farther account of the mode of 

 using this instrument, and of a series of trials which have been made with it in Scotland, will be found 

 in a succeeding part of this work. 



510. The great Brabant scythe {fig. 61.) differs little from the British implement, and is in general use 

 for mowing clover. 



511. The kylanderie, to which Radcliff seems to attach unmerited importance, is 

 nothing more than a screen for freeing grain from vermin, dust,, or small seeds. It 

 resembles a gravel screen, and is used in the same manner. 



512. The trenching spade consists of a blade of iron fifteen inches long, and a han- 

 dle of two feet. The labourer standing in the last formed trench, with his left hand at 

 the bottom of the handle, and his right near the top, by the weight of his body, and 

 without the assistance of his foot, sinks the spade about eighteen inches, and 

 standing sideways, throws off the soil with a peculiar sleight and turn of the wrist, 

 so as to lodge it in an oblique position in the trench, and against the preceding line 

 of work, retiring as he casts it from the spade, and thereby effecting some little mix- 

 ture of the two strata, though the upper surface is at the same time placed below the 

 other. 



513. The pronged hoe has a pronged blade on one side, and a common plate on the 

 other ; it is exceedingly useful ; one side may be used for cutting weeds where they 



I prevail, and the other for stirring a surface already clean. 



514. The chariot, or great cart {fig. 62.), is the only machine of the Flemish farmer 

 which appears to transgress the bounds of a rigid economy. This, as it is not only 

 to be used for the transport of grain, but of the farmer and his family occasionally, 

 to the market-town, is more ornamentally finished than any other, and is painted 



in showy colours, chiefly green and red ; an awning also is very ingeniously contrived, as an occasional 

 defence against the rain and sun. From the natural spring of so long a perch, the centre part of this machine 



is by nameans an uneasy conveyance ; and there the farmer sits in all solemnity, whilst a well appointed 

 boor acts as a postilion, and his fine and spirited pair of well-trained horses bring him home from market 

 at a rapid trot. 



515. Agricultural operations of every kind are performed with particular care in 

 Flanders. The most remarkable feature in the operations of culture consists in the fre- 

 quent ]3loughings given on all soils ; in strong soils for the sake of pulverisation as well as 

 cleanliness ; in the lighter, chiefly for the destruction of weeds, and blending the manure 

 with the soil. But, considering that but one pair of horses is in general allowed to about 

 thirty acres, it is surprising how (with the execution of all the other farming work) 

 time can be found for the number of ploughings which is universally given. Very 

 generally, the number, for the various crops, respectively, is as follows : 



G 2 



