Book L AGRICULTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



85 



being kept the greater part of the winter in the house. In summer the principal article 

 of food in Flanders is clover, cut and carried to the stall. On a small scale, when 

 pasturage is to be had, they are left at liberty ; when this is not the case, each cow is led 

 by a rope, and permitted to feed round the corn fields, the grassy borders of which are 

 left about ten feet wide for this purpose. 



524. The food for one cow in winter, for twenty-four hours, is straw, eighteen pounds ; turnips, sixty 

 pounds. Some farmers boil the turnips for them ; others give them raw, chopping them with the spade : 

 one or other operation is necessary to obviate the risk of the animal being choked, where the turnips, 

 which is usually the case in Flanders, are of too small a size. In lieu of turnips, potatoes, carrots, and 

 grains are occasionally used. Bean-straw is likewise given, and uniformly a white drink, prepared both for 

 cows and horses, consisting of water in which some oilcake has been dissolved, whitened with ryemeal, 

 oatmeal, or the flour of buckwheat. 



525. In the dairies the summer feed is pasturage day and night; in winter, hay, 

 turnips, carrots, grains from the breweries, cakes of linseed, rapeseed, bean and other 

 meals, and the white drink before mentioned. For the sake of cleanliness, the tails 

 of the cows are tied to the roof of the cow-house with a cord during the time of milking. 

 The cow-houses, both in Flanders and Holland, are kept remarkably clean and warm ; so 

 much so, that a gentleman " spoke (to Radcliff) of having drunk coffee with a cow- 

 keeper, in the general stable, in winter, without the annoyance of cold, of dirt, or of 

 any offensive smell. " The Dutch are particularly averse from unfolding the secrets of 

 their dairy management ; and, notwithstanding the pointed queries of Sir John Sinclair 

 on the subject, no satisfactory idea was given him of their mode of manufacturing 

 butter or cheese. 



526. The woodlands of Flanders are of considerable extent ; but more remarkable for 

 the care bestowed on them, than for the bulk of timber grown. To this purpose, in- 

 deed, the soil is inadequate j most of these woods having been planted or sown on land 

 considered too poor for tillage. 



527. Informing artificial plantations, the general mode is to plough the ground three or four times, and 

 take a crop of buckwheat ; afterwards the plants or seeds are inserted and hoed for a year or two, till they 

 cover the surface. For the Scotch pine, which is sometimes sown alone on the poorest soils, the most 

 common and the simplest mode is that of burning the surface, for which process its heathy quality gives 

 great facility. The ashes being spread,the ground is formed into beds from six to fifteen feet wide, accord- 

 ing to circumstances ; the seed sown at the rate of six pounds to the English acre, and covered by a 

 light shoveling from the farrows, which are sunk about two feet, not only to supply covering to the beds, 

 but as drains to carry off the surface water. 



528. Extensive artificial woods have been created in this manner, converting a barren 

 soil into a state of productiveness, the least expensive, very profitable, and highly orna- 

 mental. Of six years' growth, there exist flourishing plantations (treated in this manner), 

 from five to nine feet in height. At about ten years from its formation, they begin to thin 

 tlie wood, and continue to do so annually, with such profit by the sale, as at the end of 

 thirty years to have it clear of every charge ; a specific property being thus acquired, by 

 industry and attention merely, without the loss of any capital. 



529. Pine woods are often sown, and with great success, without the labour of burning 

 the surface ; as at Viadsloo, in the neighbourhood of Dixmude, where a luxuriant crop, 

 seven feet high, tliough of but five years' growth, had been cultivated by Madame de Cleir, 

 by merely ploughing the heathy surface into beds of fifteen feet, harrowing, sowing at the 

 rate of six pounds to the Englisli acre, raking in the seed, and covering the beds lightly 

 from the furrows, which are sunk about eighteen inches deep. 



530. Another mode of sowing, practised by the Baron de, Serret, in the vicinity of Bruges, was productive 

 of a growth not less luxuriant, merely by sowing the seed upon sand (taken from the excavation for a 

 building) which was spread over the heathy surface, the seed raked in, and the furrows shoveled up. 



531. The sowing of pine seed in many cases is adopted for the purpose of bringing waste land into an 

 arable state, which, when the timber has been disposed of, is found to yield admirable crops, from a 

 surface soil formed by the accumulation of the leaves which have fallen for so many years. For this 

 purpose also, the broom is frequently sown upon waste lands of a similar description, and at the end of 

 four or five years is pulled away, leaving the soil capable of yielding crops of corn. 



532. The j-)reservation of trees is attended to in the strictest manner, not only by 

 proprietors, but by the government. As an example of this, Radcliff mentions that at 

 a certain season of the year, when the caterpillars commence their attack upon the trees, 

 every farmer is obliged to destroy those upon his own premises, to the satisfaction of the 

 mayor of his particular commune, or to pay the cost of having it done for him. As a 

 proof of the strictness with which this is enforced, the governor sends round a circular 

 letter annually, reminding the sub-intendants and mayors of the obligations and penalties 

 for nonperformance. 



533. There are a number of royal forests in Flanders ; and, besides these, all the trees 

 on the sides of the public roads belong to the government. In West Flanders there are 

 five, amounting together to nearly 10,000 acres. They are superintended by eighteen 

 persons : an inspector, resident at Bruges ; a deputy inspector, resident at Ypres ; two 

 gardes generaux, and fourteen particuliers, or privates. The inspector is answerable for 

 all : from him the garde general takes liis instructions, and sees that they are enforced by 

 the privates, to whom is conmiittcd the rogiilalion of the necessary labour. 



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