118 



Suggestions on Fattening Cattle with Native instead of Foreign 



Produce. 



Thi-: Agriculture of the Netherlands is said greatly to excel 

 that of England or of any part of the world. Copious details 

 of those peculiar modes which rendered the husbandry of that 

 country so eminently superior to ours, are published in ' The 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Journal,' in 'The Farmers' 

 Magazine for June, 1840,' and 'Farmers' Series of the Library 

 of Useful Knowledge,' under the head ' Outlines of Flemish 

 Husbandry.' These works were written during a tour made 

 by the authors through East and West Flanders ; and as 

 reference is given to particular farms, their accuracy cannot 

 be doubted. I venture strongly to recommend an attentive 

 perusal of those excellent accounts, being persuaded that they 

 will tend materially to advance the objects of the following 

 pages. 



It is far from my intention to draw any invidious com- 

 parison between the farmers of the Netherlands . and those of 

 my own country ; on the contrary, from all I can discover, 

 the Flemish farmer is much beneath the British agriculturist 

 in the possession of capital, station, education, and general 

 knowledge. Our advantages consist in machinery, in the 

 breed of our horses, in cattle, and in sheep. " But," says the 

 author of the Outlines of Flemish Husbandry, "in the minute 

 attention to the qualities of the soil, in the management of 

 manures of different kinds, in the judicious succession of crops, 

 and especially in the economy of land, we have still to learn 

 something of the Flemings." 



The climate is described as differing very little from that of 

 England ; but the winters are more severe, and snow covers 

 the ground longer ; consequently tillage and sowing cannot be 

 performed till a late period of the spring. The greater por- 

 tion of the soil is far from being naturally productive; much 

 of it is of a poor sandy description. It is compared to the 

 sandy soil of Norfolk and Lincolnshire ; but by indefatigable 

 industry is rendered extremely fertile. Of all their crops flax 

 is the most profitable. It fetches from 201. to 25/., and even 



