342 Remarks on the State of Gardening, 



which have remained on those estates perliaps for centuries, are 

 here almost unknown, except on property belonging to govern- 

 ment. The planting of oaks is becoming every day more rare, 

 because the present generation has but little chance of reaping 

 any profit from them except as underwood ; whereas poplars 

 (P. ^Iba and P. canadensis), which here become large trees in 

 twenty-five or thirty years, are almost universally planted. It 

 is a common practice in this country for the members of the same 

 family, who have an equal interest in the property, to live all 

 together in the old family mansion ; by which means an old tree, 

 and a fine establishment of plants, have a chance afforded of con- 

 tinuing a few years longer ; but, should a dispute take place 

 amongst the members of the family, both trees and plants run a 

 great risk of being brought to the hammer. 



From the mediocrity of people's fortunes in Belgium, it 

 cannot be wondered that gardeners and labourers are so badly 

 paid as they are, and that gentlemen's gardens are kept in such a 

 slovenly state. What satisfaction has a gentleman, in that country, 

 in building a handsome range of plant structures, and heating 

 them by steam and hot water ; or in keeping up his garden in the 

 first style of neatness, and employing first-rate artists in the lay- 

 ing out of his grounds ; when he knows that, at his death, should 

 he have three or four children, his fine establishment must either 

 come to the hammer, or be neglected for want of funds to keep 

 it up ? There is no country, that 1 know of, where the taste for 

 gardening is so strong as in Belgium ; but, instead of the fine 

 collections of plants which ought to be seen, they are, with a 

 few exceptions (such as the orange trees of the Due d'Aremberg, 

 some of which are very old), really not worth looking at as 

 collections. This is not only the case here, but it is the same 

 about Paris ; where, with nearly a million of inhabitants, there 

 is scarcely a passable ■private botanic collection of plants. 



Yet, with this law of division of property, are the lower 

 orders better paid, better clothed, better fed or better instructed 

 than in England ? The labourer obtains here, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ghent (which may be called the Manchester of Belgium), 

 \0d. a day in winter, and \s. per day in summer, without food. 

 In point of clothing, in winter, the English and Flemish labourers 

 are nearly on a par, with the exception of the sabots, or wooden 

 clogs, which retard the motions of the Flemings considerably; 

 but which are constantly worn, though the soil is so dry and 

 sandy, that leather shoes (about 2^. 6d. a pair) would be much 

 preferable. In summer, however, the Flemish labourer dispenses 

 with the use of both shoes and stockings when at work. In 

 point of diet, black bread made of rye, potatoes, buttermilk, with 

 at times the fat of pork spread on bread, instead of butter, is the 

 common food. 



