434 BELGIUM. 



progresses. Belgium, at the same time, has never had a reputation for its wool. 

 Whilst the minute subdivision of the soil has proved a hindrance to the extension 

 of sheep-breeding, it has led to a very considerable increase in the number of 

 goats, the domestic animal of the poor man. Pigs are likewise numerous, and 

 within the last fifty years the breeds have been much imj)roved. The Flemings 

 also breed rabbits and poultry. The beehives have recently decreased, owing to 

 large portions of the heaths of the Ardennes and the Campine having been 

 enclosed, but the value of wax and honey still amounts to £80,000 a year.* 



Mining and Industky. 



Belgitjm, from a very early epoch, has been one of the great industrial 

 countries of Europe. Its manufactories enjoy the advantage of having unlimited 

 supplies of coal within reach of them. The environs of Liège, Charleroi, and 

 Mons are richest in this subterranean treasure. f About one-fourth of the coal 

 raised is exported to France. In prosperous years the coal mines yield a revenue 

 of £13,600,000, but it happens fi'om time to time that the labouring population 

 agglomerated around them suffer from want of bread. Coal mining, moreover, as 

 practised in Belgium, exercises a demoralising influence on the population. As 

 recently as 1877 one-fourth of the miners and others employed in the pit were 

 boys and girls, many of them not yet ten years of age, whilst amongst the hands 

 working aboveground one-fourth consisted of women and children. A law, which 

 came into force on the 1st of August, 1878, determines that children under twelve 

 years of age must not be employed underground, but this law does not apply to 

 children already in that deplorable j)osition. The distress at present prevailing 

 amongst the Belgian co^d miners is partly caused by the vicinity of the German 

 coal basins, which are more easily worked. 



The soil of Belgium, in addition to coal, yields porphyry and marble, slate, 

 phosphates, potters' clay, iron pyrites ixsed in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, 

 and zinc (at Moresnet, close to the Oerman frontier) ; but by far more important 

 than either of these is its iron. The Belgian iron mines, unfortunately, are 

 nearly exhausted, and their produce- decreases from year to year.+ 



The use of charcoal has almost disappeared from Belgium in the manufacture 

 of iron and steel, Avhich is carried on extensively, but suffers perhajDS more than 



* Live stock (1866) :— 283,163 horses, 1,242,445 head of horned cattle, 586,097 sheep, 197,138 goals, 

 632,301 pigs, 878,000 rabbits, 4,410,000 barn fowls. 



M. Leyder (1873) estimates the annual produce of cattle-breeding, &c., as follows : — Beef and veal, 

 100,400,000 lbs. ; pork, 55,500,000 lbs. ; cows' milk, 297,000,000 gallons; goats' milk, 9,900,000 gallons; 

 wool, 2,650,000 lbs. 



t Coal produced in 1874 :— Hainaut, 10,698,000 tons ; Liege, 3,531,000 tons ; all Belgium, 14,609,000 

 tons. 



i In 1805 1,018,231 tons of iron ore were raised; in 1873, 503,565 tons ; in 1876, only 269,208 tons. 



In 1876 138,434 "hands" worked in mines and quarries (108,543 in coal mines, 25,643 in quarries, 

 4,248 in metallic mines). They raised 14,329,578 tons of coal (£7,764,720), -269,206 tons of iron ore 

 (£98,280), 23,588 tons of iron pyrites (£22,600), 37,713 tons of calamine and blende (£102,200), 12,422 tons 

 of galena (£08,080), stones, &c., valued at £1,545,800. In 1877 101,343 hands were employed in coal 

 mines, 4,245 in metjllic mints. 



