34-4> Remarks on the State of Gardening, 



here, after a time, to lose heart. The people are either not a 

 reading nation, or the fashion, as yet, has not taken sufficient root 

 to enable a botanical work to answer. There is at present a 

 piratical work at Brussels, named the Flore Universelle, ou En- 

 cyclographie du Regne Vegetal, conducted by the secretary of the 

 Horticultural Society, which contains drawings taken from the 

 greater part of the works published in England. The figures of 

 the plants are by no means well executed ; but, from the cheap- 

 ness of the work, and from the idea it gives of the plants, it is 

 one which ought to answer ; and yet, I am given to understand 

 that it scarcely pays its expenses, our Continental neighbours 

 esteeming both plants, and publications on plants, more for their 

 cheapness than for their real merit. The only work that I really 

 know deserves mentioning is the Bon Jardinier, published at 

 Paris, by Messrs. Vilmorin and Poiteau ; but, as this is published 

 in French, it is a work very little read by the working gardeners 

 in Belgium, who, for the most part, are only acquainted with the 

 Flemish language. The Bon Jardinier, as a work for beginners, 

 is inestimable; and no amateur, who has the garden mania in 

 the least degree, ought to be without a copy. The part written 

 by M. Vilmorin, on the agricultural seeds and grasses, is well 

 worth the perusal of any agriculturist. Its fault [which is alto- 

 gether unavoidable] is, that every year nearly the same matter is 

 published which was published the preceding year. 



Between the towns of Courtrai and Menin, and in the environs 

 of Lockeren and St. Nicholas, in the Pays de Waes, the finest 

 flax in Europe is considered to be cultivated ; and yet, from want 

 of means, the farmer cannot make the most of it. In the first 

 place, his farm is generally too small to enable him to give his 

 land rest between the different sowings of his flax ; and the 

 longer the interval between each sowing of flax, the better is the 

 produce. He can neither afford to procure his seed direct from 

 Riga, which is considered amongst flax-growers as indispensable, 

 nor can he afford to employ machinery to turn his produce into 

 linen. All these circumstances are to the disadvantage of the 

 Fleming, and all arise from the same cause, the want of capital ; 

 which want of capital arises, in a great measure, if not wholly, 

 from the laws on property. It is a curious cii'cumstance (and I 

 have every reason to believe that it is true, and, if so, it serves to 

 mark the benefit of large capital to the community in general), 

 that flax purchased in the neighbourhood of Courtrai, by the 

 English merchant, in its rough state, and thence sent to the 

 North of Ireland to be manufactured into what is called Irish 

 linen, will, on its return to Belgium, in the form of Irish linen, 

 sell for less than linen of the same quality manufactured in this 

 country. 



The town of Lille, in France, formerly a part of Flanders, is 



