Agriculture in Holland. 



369 



a distinct feature of the local agriculture, is an essential 

 forage crop in the rotation ; indeed, it so benefits the soil, 

 mechanically and chemically, that outgoing tenants receive 

 -compensation when they give up the land after a sulla crop. 



The statistics giving the number of animals in the colony 

 in 1898 do not separately distinguish the horses, mules, and 

 asses, which together amounted to 8,862 animals, or one to 

 every twenty inhabitants. The once famous Maltese donkey 

 is reported to be very rarely seen, and the breed will pro" 

 bably become extinct unless preventive steps are taken in 

 the matter. Mules, farm cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs are 

 reared locally, but horses and meat cattle are imported. 

 The number of sheep is given as 13,895, of which nearly half 

 are found in Gozo. They yield milk, which is exclusively 

 employed for the manufacture of cheese. Goats supply the 

 fresh milk demand, and 2,500 of these animals are brought 

 into the town of Valetta every day for milking purposes. 

 The total number of goats in the colony exceeds 15,000, and 

 in the vear 1898 there were 7,058 pigs. 



Agriculture in Holland. 



Holland has a total area, exclusive of lakes and rivers, of 

 8,040,000 acres, of which, according to the return for 1897, 

 5,163,000 acres, or 64 per cent., were occupied by orchards, 

 nurseries, and garden land. The extent of the arable land 

 was 2,142,000 acres, while meadows and permanent grass 

 account for 2,928,000 acres. Of the corn crops returned in that 

 year, rye is the principal, with an acreage of 527,216 acres ; 

 oats rank next with 331,457 acres; while wheat and barley 

 follow with 153,632 acres and 89,710 acres respectively 

 Among the minor cereals and pulse are buckwheat, 77,165 

 acres ; beans 95,330 acres; and peas, 67,337 acres. Potatoes 

 were. grown on 373,494 acres, roots and green crops for 

 forage on 68,456 acres, and clover and rotation grasses on 

 156,650 acres. Of certain forage crops, mainly spurrey and 

 turnips, two crops are taken in the year, and these occupied 



