Rural Economy of France since 1789: 
This part of Flanders exhibits also the happy results of 
liberal political and social institutions. In the words of M. 
Lavergne : " In 1789 the department called Le Nord had already 
one inhabitant to every 2^ acres, that is to say, was at least 
twice as populous as the rest of France. M. Cordier justly 
remarks in his ' Agriculture of French Flanders,' that this 
country owed its wealth much more to its sound political insti- 
tutions than to the fertility of the soil. Louis XIV. himself, 
after his conquest, respected these ancient liberties. This district, 
which liad for centuries been emancipated from feudal burdens 
and indirect iniposts, was still in 1789 governed by home- 
appointed unpaid magistrates. Rural districts, as well as towns, 
had the right and habit of undertaking public works ; private 
companies were formed when required ; and certain voluntary 
associations for reclaiming bogs and swamps, called Watterinyues, 
flourished under a system of management which we should do 
well to imitate at the present day." 
Arthur Young (an authority often quoted by M. Lavergne, 
as every Englishman will observe with pride and satisfaction) 
remarked in his tour, that the line of demarcation between 
French and Flemish husbandry followed precisely the line of 
the ancient boundary of the two countries. Tire difference did 
not depend upon the soil, for a finer plain can hardly be found 
than that which extends, almost without interruption, as far 
south as Orleans. It v/as despotism on the one side, with 
poverty-stricken neglect and a detestable system of corn-crops 
and fallow ; and on the other freedom with a soil that never 
knew and never needed rest. 
Even at the present day Flemish rotations are much more 
largely diversified than those practised in England, thus indi- 
cating a greater advancement in agricultural science ; and 
nothing can exceed the perfection of the means used by Flemish 
farmers to restore to the soil those elements of fertility which 
their heavy cropping has withdrawn from it. 
The principal feature of the agriculture of this division is the 
cultivation of beetroot as raw material for the manufacture of 
sugar, which has taken a most wonderful development — a sure 
test of its success. The department called Le Nord alone contains 
no less than 150 sugar-mills out of a total of 350 for the whole of 
France. This branch of industry has exercised so great an influ- 
ence upon the agricultural production of the district, that in the 
town of Valenciennes a triumphal arch was erected in 1853 on 
which the following inscription is engraved : " Tlie growth of wheat 
in this district before the production of beetroot sugar xcas only 
122,569 quarters^ the number of oxen 700 ; since the introduction 
