STATISTICS OF BELGIUM. 



431 



diseases, and furnish a smaller contingent to the army than the "Wallons. Is this 

 contrast due to differences of climate, or to qualities inherent in the two races ? 

 M. Meynne ascribes it to the poverty of the working population, whilst M. Yan- 

 kinderen traces it to " historical and moral causes," Flemish Belgium having 

 suffered most from the effects of foreign rule. 



"Whatever the cause, the increase of its agricultural produce enables Belgium 

 to provide for its ever-growing population. True the Yast majority of the 



Fig. 210.— Inchease of Population, 1840—75. 

 Scale 1 : 2,060,000. 



E.of P 



E.ofGr. 3- 



a 



Under W p/i 



D 



20 l(j so pX 



so lu iO p^ 



Ocer M ,,Z 



25 Miles. 



inhabitants are steeped in poverty,* but it is nevertheless surprising that so vast 

 a multitude, crowded within such narrow bounds, should manage to live at all. 



AoRICULTrUE. 



No country is more carefully cultivated than Belgium. Its great agricultural 

 regions coincide in a remarkable manner with its geological ones. In the 

 Ardennes, where the formations are most ancient, agriculture is carried on in the 



* In 18Ô3 10 per cent, of all families lived in easy circumstances; 42 per cent, were moderately well 

 off, though frequently embarrassed ; whilst 48 per cent, were poor, one-half of them living in absolute 

 •\7ant. (M. Meynne.) 



