CHAPTER LXI 
THE BELGIAN FARMER 
Leavine Holland with regret, we crossed the 
Schelde into Belgium, the cockpit of Europe. It 
is here that one sees what intensive farming is 
like. No fences to occupy space, no animals 
roaming at large, nothing but small strips of 
land tilled to the utmost, chiefly by hand. Little 
machinery is used, and much of the work is done 
after primitive fashions; but the land is produc- 
tive, and it is worked to the top of its bent. 
The peasant-farmer soils his cows, his sheep, 
his swine, in a way that is economical of space 
and food, if not of labor, and manages to make 
a living and to pay rent for his twenty-acre strip 
of land. His methods do not appeal to the 
American farmer, who wastes more grain and 
forage each year than would keep the Nether- 
lander, his family, and his stock; but there is a 
lesson to be learned from this subdivision and 
careful cultivation of land. Belgian methods 
prove that Mother Earth can care for a great 
many children if she be properly husbanded, and 
that the sooner we recognize her capacity the 
better for us, 
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