296 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
The Belgian .Campine. 
The first region that I shall refer to is the Belgian Campine, 
a large tract of sandy land in the vicinity of Antwerp. In 
wandering over this region-one sees much that reminds him of 
the plains and barrens of Southern New Jersey. The bushy 
oaks, the scrubby pines, sandy or gravelly soil, and many plants 
of the ‘heath family which cover the surface, are strikingly 
similar to those of Jersey. Here and there in this region are 
small houses of the Flemish farmers who often have a hard 
struggle in squeezing a livelihood out of the soil. Most of these 
peasants plant forests of pine with short rotation from which 
they get humus for their compost heaps and fuel-wood. It is 
not uncommon to see a woman and a dog in harness tugging 
together at a load of manure, or a man in the field plowing 
with a cow which is usually at the same time milked. The 
house and barn of the peasant are combined, and the manure- 
pile, which is close to the door, is his most precious posses- 
sion. Now and then green manuring is practiced, and a field 
of yellow lupine* is quite as beautiful as a field of crimson 
clover. 
Much that I have to say here in reference to the Belgian 
Campine was suggested by a little book entitled “ La Culture 
du Pin Sylvestre en Campine,” by L’? Abbé G. Smets, professor 
of agriculture at Hasselt, in Belgium. To this I have added 
my own impressions and have compared the two wherever possi- 
ble. A large number of the Belgian Scotch-pine (Pizzas syl- 
vestrts) plantations leave much to be desired. The trees are 
stunted and grow to a height of only a few meters. The volume 
growth rapidly attains its maximum, and even at the age of 
twenty years some of the forests begin to die. Parasites are 
abundant.t There are few old trees; the quality of the wood 
is poor and the best stands, according to Smets, yield small profits. 
* I have endeavored to grow this lupine (Lupinus Zutea) in South Jersey from seed bought in Hol- 
land, but it failed to flourish both on good and bad soil, owing probably to the dryness of the summer. 
Our purple lupine (Lupinus perennis) is worthy a trial on very poor, sandy soil. 
+In the pine forests of Northern France and Belgium a wood-eating insect known to en‘omologists 
as Hylesinus pini perdo attacks the pine in swarms. This little beetle bores into the young branches 
and tunnels along the medullary canals, The wind snaps off the damaged twigs, and now, in some pine 
districts, the forest floor is fairly strewn with the debris, The insect develops very rapidly under the 
bark of felled trees, and it is found that barking the logs immediately after they fall under the axe pre- 
vents the spread of the pest. 
