Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
19 
tlepth to which the land is ploughed ; and the best fanners, 
therefore, prefer commencing with wheat, giving a ploughing of 
-about 5 inches, following it with rye and ploughing an inch 
-or two deeper, and again following with rye or oats and a 
still deeper ploughing. If they think there is no manure at 
■a still greater depth, clover will be sown in this course, other- 
wise still another white crop will be taken, and a still deeper 
ploughing will be given, — or at least attempted. On stronger 
land (south of Alost) the course is frequently shorter, being 
clover, then 3 or 4 or 5 white crops, and at the end of five or 
six years returning again to clover. A part of each shift is either 
potatoes every year, or the potatoes are not included in the 
course at all, but grown on any convenient piece of land. In fact, 
on the small farms, there is no course devoted to mangolds, 
swedes, or turnips, as a fallow crop. 
6. Cultivation : Potatoes or Hemp. — Commencing with pota- 
toes, the stubble of the previous course, generally buckwheat, 
rye, or " mixture," is manured in the autumn with 20 or 25 
tons to the acre of farmyard manure. This is ploughed in to 
the depth of about 6 inches, and left during the winter. In the 
spring the land is dug with a long-bladed spade to the depth of 
15 or 16 inches, and the manure-sodden earth turned uppermost. 
The land is then generally planted with potatoes ; but on some 
farms a great part of the course is sown with hemp. The 
•culture of hemp is almost restricted to the Pays de Waes ; it is 
not considered a paying crop, although the produce will fre- 
quently sell for 16Z. per acre in the field. It is pulled up, dried, 
sheafed and stooked, remaining in the field from eight to ten 
-days to get thoroughly dry. During the winter it is rotted in 
water-pits, in which it is sunk on rafts by means of grass-turf. 
It remains submerged from eight days to a fortnight, and is then 
taken up, dried, and broken by hand, each plant separately. 
This crop is thought to leave a good deal of manure in the 
ground, and is, therefore, always succeeded by wheat, with 
the addition of a very small dressing of dung. Potatoes are 
grown in this course to the extent which the farmer thinks he 
Avill require for his own use ; if he does not want the whole of 
the shift, and the land is unsuitable for hemp, either flax or 
colza is substituted for it. 
Wlieat {or Rye) and Carrots. — The potatoes having been har- 
vested, the tops and weeds are carted, or rather wheelbarrowed, 
to the compost heap as soon as possible, and the land ploughed 
about 5 inches deep, sown with about 8 pecks of rye or wheat per 
acre in October, and then harrowed. Some farmers, especially 
in some districts, sow their wheat in the spring ; but most 
people prefer to get it in as early as possible in October. This 
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