STATISTICS OF BELGIUM. 433 



extensively. As to the vineyards in the valley of the Meuse, around Liège, Huy, and 

 Dinant, they yield but an indifferent wine. 



Horticulture and market gardening are carried on with great success, being 

 stimulated by the demands of numerous populous towns. "Brussels sprouts" 

 enjoy a high reputation amongst vegetables, and much fruit is annually exported 

 to London. As early as the sixteenth century the Flemings were celebrated for 

 their love of flowers. . They founded societies to promote the cultivation and pro- 

 duction of rare varieties, and instituted flower shows. Horticultural societies are 

 still numerous, and every large town has its greenhouses and hothouses, in which 

 exotic and other plants are cultivated. The greenhouses of one of the most 

 successful horticulturists contain 1,200 species of orchids, and to obtain these he 

 travelled for several years in tropical America, and sent botanists into various 

 quarters of the globe. The gardeners of Belgium, besides suppl^dng the home 

 demand, which is very brisk, export plants into nearly every country of the world. 



The subdivision of the soil is carried to a considerable length, at all events in 

 the plain, and, as a rule, the smaller the plot, the greater the yield. In Eastern 

 Flanders, on property hardly exceeding 2 acres in extent,* the land yields 

 nearly thrice the quantity of food a similar area does in England. Of agricul- 

 tural machinery there is hardly any, the spade being the great implement of 

 husbandry. In those parts of the kingdom in which the soil is best tilled its 

 cultivators earn least. The agricultural population, as a rule, live upon rye or 

 raangcorn bread, potatoes, a few vegetables, skimmed milk, and coflee with chicory. 

 Meat and beer are reserved for holidays. In the Ardennes, where higher wages 

 are paid, the living is far better, although the soil is less productive. f 



The number of horses is larger than would be expected in a country where 

 spade husbandry is so universal, but these draught animals are indispensable for 

 carrying the agricultural produce to market, and in the home trade generally. 

 The heavy Flemish horses are highly esteemed, and in the Middle Ages, when 

 cumbrous armour was still worn, it was Flanders which furnished the European 

 chivalry with chargers. The small wiry horses of the Ardennes are renowned 

 for their endurance, and none supported the horrors of the retreat from Moscow 

 better than they did. 



The number of asses and mules is small, but horned cattle play an important 

 part in the rural economy of Belgium, grazing in thousands upon the fat meadows 

 and hillside pastures of the countr}'. The breeds are various, and whilst in the 

 Ardennes there are cows weighing, when alive, hardly 330 lbs., others in the 

 plains have four times that weight. Oxen are rarely employed as beasts of 

 draught. The district of Ilerve, an uneven plateau extending from the Vesdre to 

 the Meuse, is more especially noted for its dairy- farming and orchards. Its butter 

 and cheese are as highly esteemed as similar productions of the Campine. 



The number of sheep decreases in proportion as the enclosure of pastures 



* Number of landed proprietors (1876), 1,131,112; average extent of each i^roperty, 64 acres. 

 (F. de Laveleye, " Patria Belgica.") 



t Average wages of agricultural laboui'crs (187Ô) : — In Flanders, lid. to Is. 4d. a day ; Hesbaye, 

 Is. 6d. ; Ardennes, 2s. to 2s. 6d. 



