AGRICULTURE 0>' THE KHrNE. 29 



Flax is sown here after clover, carrots, oats, and buck- 

 wheat. " At Neukirchen, near Geldern," says Schwertz, 

 " the rotation — barley, clover, flax, wheat, is held to be 

 good. Flax must not come on the same land more than 

 once in six years. The clover- stubbles after seeding are 

 ploughed deeply before the winter, and ten one-horse 

 carts of dung are laid upon an acre of land and re- 

 main there. In spring the straw is harrowed off, the 

 ground once more harrowed, sown, harrowed again, and 

 rolled. About five bushels of seed are sown per acre ; 

 Riga seed is found to last good longest, but the seed 

 from the Palatinate, which must be brought fresh for each 

 sowing, gives the best flax." It has been observed that 

 when the dung has been allowed to lie on the land 

 through the winter, the flax yields most, but the rye 

 after it requires manure. Where the dung is ploughed 

 in before winter, the flax is less luxuriant, but the land 

 remains after it in better heart. The flax is steeped for 

 some time in water, and then is spread out on clover-land 

 for six or eight weeks to finish the rotting of the husk. 

 It is broken and hackled by hand in the Belgian manner, 

 and is said to yield 8 cwt. of fine flax per acre (16 cwt. 

 per Dutch morgen). From 8 cwt. of dried flax, about 

 2 cwt. is obtained by the Belgian dressers, and this pro- 

 portion we have adopted in our calculation given above. 



A few miles to the north of Pfalzdorf, the cross road 

 drops into the lowlands, which is raised but little above 

 the valley of the Rhine, and there the more luxuriant 

 vegetation indicates a change both of soil and climate. 



In these lowlands, which extend from near the 

 frontier of Holland up the Rhine for thirty miles 

 along the river's bank, the farms are large and the land 



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