1907.] 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



439 



material, and should readily sell for £2 per ton. The average crop yields from 16 to 

 18 bushels of seed, worth $s. to 5^. 6d. per bushel, and 1^ to 2 tons of straw. The 

 gross value is not likely to be .greater than that of oats and barley, and is 

 usually somewhat less. The advantage, where there is a demand for straw, is that 

 the crop may be sown somewhat later than the cereals, and may thus occupy a field 

 not ready for oats or barley. 



Draining the Znyder Zee. — -In 1 90 1 it was proposed, according to a note in the 

 Beard of Trade Journal (8th August, 1901), to close the Zuyder Zee by a dyke 

 running from the North Holland coast to the Island of Wieringen, and thence to the 

 Frisian coast, and to drain parts of the enclosed sea. The plan would involve the 

 recovery in 18 years of nearly 114,900 acres of fertile land. With regard to this 

 scheme H.M. Minister at The Hague writes : — " It may be well to set forth briefly 

 the manner in which it is intended to dispose of the land when reclaimed. In order 

 to prevent it from falling into the hands of speculators, it has been decided 

 to divide the new polders into lots of 20 hectares, to be sold in successive 

 zones. The object of this is to avoid the depreciation which would result from 

 putting on the market a large number of lots at the same time. The authorities 

 will try as far as possible to sell to cultivators, who will be afforded facilities of 

 payment by means of annual instalments over a certain number of years. These 

 cultivators will even receive advances for the construction of dwellings, stables, 

 barns, &c. The proprietors are to be responsible for the maintenance of the dykes, 

 locks, exhaust mills, &c. 



" Four-fifths of the land thus given over to cultivation will be of excellent quality. 

 By means of numerous soundings it has been established that the layer of soil 

 varies from 5 J to 12 feet. This soil is so fertile that at the present time the peasants 

 go and collect it on the flats at ebb tide, in order to use it as manure for their fields. 

 The new polders can be cultivated for 40 or 50 years before it is necessary to 

 manure the soil. The price, therefore, of ^"156 to £160 at which the hectare is 

 valued, is in no way exaggerated. The average rent will be about 127 francs per hectare 

 (£2 is. 2d. per acre), and it has been calculated that to become a proprietor it will be 

 merely necessary to pay annual instalments of approximately £6 8s. per hectare 

 (£2 us. lod. per acre) over a period of 35 years. There will thus be created a large 

 number of small peasant proprietors, who, it is true, will be able eventually to sell 

 or let their holdings, but who will not easily be induced to do so, for in the Nether- 

 lands the peasant has an intense love of the soil." 



H.M. Minister adds that he has received information to the effect that for the 

 present the Government are not taking up the whole scheme, but will in| the first 

 instance confine themselves as an experiment to making the North-Western of the 

 four proposed polders. Should this be successful the entire undertaking will no 

 doubt be carried through without further delay. The cost of the North- Western 

 polder, which will be formed, by means of a dyke conecting the Island of 

 Wieringen with the mainland and continued South to Medemblik, is expected to 

 amount to some 40,000,000 florins (^3, 330,000), as against some 189,000,000 florins 

 (,£15,750,000) for the entire scheme. {Board of Trade Journal, 19th September, 1907.) 



Spurrey.— This plant, Spergula arvensis, is one of the commonest weeds on light 

 land, and, if not checked, seeds rapidly and sheds its seed readily. In dealing with 

 it an effort should be made to prevent it running to seed. Where it occurs in root 

 crops they should be hoed by hand at least twice in the season, and hoeing should 

 also be done in corn crops which contain much spurrey. If labour is not available tor 

 hoeing corn, sowing may be delayed until as late in the season as practicable, and an 

 attempt should then be made to destroy spurrey and other annuals by working the 

 land to a tilth as early in spring as possible. Weed seeds will then germinate rapidly,, 

 and the young weeds may be killed by harrowing before sowing corn. 



