40 
Rrport on the Agi'iculture of Belgium. 
by quick hedges trimmed to a lieiglit of between 3 and 4 feet, 
with perfectly parallel vertical sides, and having a thickness of 
not more than 6 or 8 inches. Draining is generally done by the 
landlord; but it is most frequently imperfect in consequence of 
the smallness of the pipes, the internal diameter of which is not 
much more than an inch. These pipes are secured together by 
means of collars, which of course impede the already too sluggish 
drainage of the land. 
3. The Rotations. — The native agriculture of this region is 
extensively associated with what accords more nearly with 
English notions of good farming. The rotation of crops is 
frequently much shorter than in Flanders, and it includes a 
fallow course of roots, chiefly sugar-beet, while on the best farms 
not more than two white crops are taken in succession. Catch- 
crops are for the most part limited to turnips after rye or flax in 
the western portion of the region, where also clover is sown with 
flax ; in the eastern district, flax is grown alone and sometimes 
succeeded by turnips, the seeds being sown with oats or barley. 
The details of the courses of cropping pursued by different 
farmers in the same or different districts of Central Belgium are 
rather puzzling ; but the ruling idea, wherever long and compli- 
cated rotations are in vogue, is the same as we have already 
described in treating of la petite culture. The " root-course " 
generally consists of potatoes, mangolds, or sugar-beet, and a 
portion devoted to one or more crops which cannot come under 
the designation of roots, namely, colza,* flax, beans, or oats ; but 
where these are extensively grown they come into their place in 
the rotation, which is therefore longer. 
The " root-course " is frequently followed by the three-years 
succession of white crops usual in the sandy district, viz. : 
wheat, rye, and oats with clover ; but on some farms either the 
oats or the rye is omitted, the clover in the former case being 
sown with rye. Thus they at last get a restorative crop of 
clover, after which is either a longer or a shorter succession of 
white crops before arriving again at the " root course." For some 
reason, clover is, in this district, seldom grown in the middle of 
the rotation, probably because wheat is best taken after it and after 
roots, the remainder of the course being made up by the usual 
succession of cereals after one of the courses of wheat. The old 
Hesbayan course will furnish an illustration ; it is as follows : — 
(1) Potatoes and mangolds, or sugar-beets, (2) wheat, (3) rye, 
* By Colza is meant rape-seed ; but ■vre liave preferred using the French name 
to prevent its being confused with rape grown as it is in England as food for sheep. 
Colza is almost as exhaustive a crop as a cereal. In some descriptions of 
Belgian farming we read of "rape and turnips," the meaning being Colza followed 
by turnips. 
