Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
3 
personal observations. It Is not a geological map, but merely a 
map of tlie soils, with lines showing in a general way the con- 
figuration of the surface. Although boundary-lines have been 
drawn between the regions, in reality the various classes of soil 
pass into one another ; and thus the loamy district of Central Bel- 
gium exhibits much lighter land near its junction with the sandy 
tract of Northern Belgium than it does where it joins the heavier 
land of the Polders, or the still stronger land on the south. Our 
four divisions are the following : — (1) The sandy district of 
Northern Belgium ; (2) The loamy district of Central Belgium ; 
(3) The Polders and River-valleys ; and (4) The plateau-region 
of Southern Belgium. The tract of country at the extreme south 
of Belgium, viz. the Bas Luxembourg might have been dis- 
tinguished by another colour ; but as its extent is small, and its 
agriculture has more connexion with that of the Grand Duchy 
than with the rest of Belgium, besides being of very little im- 
portance, we do not propose to notice it as a separate province 
of agricultural Belgium. 
1. Tlie Sandy District of Northern Belgium. — To the traveller 
this region presents the appearance of a dead flat ; but in reality 
it attains at the extreme eastern boundary of the Campine, be- 
yond Hasselt, an elevation of 250 feet. With the exception of 
the eastern Campine, however, the maximum elevation is 80 feet, 
from which height the surface-line gradually descends to the 
sea-level at the coast. This otherwise perfect inclined plane is 
interrupted, near its summit, by the wide depressions which form 
the valleys of the Escaut and its tributaries, and which are so 
deep that although the town of Ghent is only 16 feet above the 
sea-level, and Termonde is barely 10, the line of 75 feet eleva- 
tion is not more than 6 miles distant. 
This district comprises the long strip coloured yellow on 
our map, and therefore includes nearly the whole of Northern 
Belgium. Its soil is naturally the almost pure blowing sand 
which forms the subsoil, and which is known to geologists as 
the " Campine sands." 
With a sandy soil, an abundance of moisture, a sheltered 
position, and a coast-line washed by a sea warmed by the Gulf- 
stream, the climate of Northern Belgium is naturally favourable 
for the practice most characteristic of its agriculture, namely, 
the growth of two crops In one year. Like the greater portion 
of England, the kingdom of Belgium lies within the zone of 
50° Fahr. mean annual temperature; but neither this nor the 
mean annual rainfall have much bearing- on the agriculture of 
the countries, for it is the distribution of the moisture and the 
temperature which, as we shall see, really Influences differ- 
ences in agricultural practice. The mean summer temperature 
B 2 
