474 



Belgian Agricultural Inquiry. 



exhibit any material change, although a slight extension 

 appears in 1895 in the cultivation of rye. 



Potatoes show a decline in acreage of about 36,000 acres. 

 The yield of this tuber in 1895 is returned at 5 J tons per acre, 

 and the total production ai 2,632,900 tons. 



Details of the industrial crops show that, although the 

 total area under this group has been augmented by less than 

 10 per cent, material alterations have taken place since 1880 

 in the classes of plants which it has apparently been found 

 most profitable to grow. The area under sugar-beet is 

 larger by two-thirds, the increase being over 50,000 acres ; 

 the progress since 1866, when the area was little more than 

 half that of 1880, being thus continued. Tobacco has 

 increased by nearly 36 per cent., and chicory (for coffee) by 

 16 per cent. On the other hand, the area under flax, almost 

 all grown in the two provinces of Flanders, which are 

 watered by the Lys, has lost 23,000 acres, or 24 per cent. 

 As the area under this fibre declined by nearly 42,000 acres 

 between 1866 and i88o> it appears that it occupies now but 

 little more than half the extent that it did thirty years ago. 

 Oleaginous plants — such as rape and colza — have nearly 

 disappeared, the decline in acreage being' over 70 per cent. 

 The small area under hemp has also been contracted by a 

 quarter. The details of these industrial crops are as 

 follows : — - 



i Crops. 



Area. 



Production, 1895. 



1895. 



1880. 



Per Acre. 



Total. 



Hemp - - - - 

 Flax - - . . 

 Colza, rape, and other 



oleaginous plants 

 Tobacco 



Hops - - - . 



Chicory- 

 Sugar-beet - 



Acres. 



1,509 

 75,618 



4,463 

 5,306 

 9,152 



31.507 

 133,625 



Acres. 



1,988 

 98,993 



15,899 

 3,895 

 10,337 



27,233 

 80,589 



\ Cwts. 

 7-6* 

 4-1* 



12-4 

 16-9 

 IO-5 

 Tons. Cwts. 



9 17 

 12 12 



Tons. 



573" 

 15,577* 



2,776 

 4,479 

 4,/ 89 



309,611 

 1,684,301 



Total - 



261,180 



238,934 







*Fibre. The yield of flax seed was 381,081 bushels, or 5*04 bushels to the acre. 



