48 
Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
by drawing the earth into a ridg^e on each side of the lines of 
])lants. In the latter case the clover-seed is sown in the spring, 
and covered by raking down the ridges ; the crop is harvested 
in June, and a cutting of clover is frequently got the same year. 
If no clover has been sown in the colza, turnips are sown as soon 
as possible after harvest, except on some farms where a long 
succession of white crops, coupled with a paucity of beasts (and 
consequently of manure^ renders a summer fallow almost im- 
perative. 
7. Clover. — No point in the farming of Belgium is so remark- 
able as the general excellence of the "seeds;" and there is no 
subject upon which the farmer, especially in Flanders, is more 
sensitive. An exceptionally good crop of clover is as much 
a matter for congratulation there as a fine root-crop is in Eng- 
land ; and in other respects the clover-crop is regarded much as 
we look upon the turnip-fields as indicative of the nature of the 
farming. 
We were so much struck with the bulk of the clover-crop in 
North Belgium, and the general absence of cases of failure, that 
the subject necessarily attracted a large share of our attention. 
Of all natural phenomena against which the farmer has to fight, 
there is none more baffling than clover-sickness ; and we, there- 
fore, were careful to observe the conditions which appeared to 
exist in a country where clover-sickness is a rarit^'. 
One generalization is easily made, namely, that clover-sickness 
is unknown on farms worked on a long course, consisting chiefly 
of successive white crops. This may be due to the number of 
years between each clover-coarse — seven, eight, or nine ; but as 
the whole " seed-course " is sown with cow-grass, that explanation 
ought to be as valid in England, where the winter is not so severe, 
and where, especially on light land, as in Norfolk, red clover 
cannot be grown with certainty even once in twelve years. On 
sugar-beet farms, where the course is only of four or five years' 
duration, red clover can only be taken on a portion of the "seed- 
course " every year, and not always on so much as one-half of it. 
In long rotations clover is sown either with a grain crop or an 
industrial crop, occasionally a part being sown with each. Thus 
clover is sown on some farms in winter at the same time as wheat, 
rye, or winter oats; generally it is sown in spring on wheat, 
barley, or rye, with oats or flax, or amongst colza-plants ; and 
occasionally, in small-farm districts (so great is the liberty that 
may be taken with it), it is sown late in the summer in 
carrots which have been sown with flax, or with stubble turnips 
after rye, colza, or flax has been harvested. On sugar-beet farms 
it is sown with oats, or on rye or wheat. There is much dif- 
ference of opinion and of practice as to the treatment of the young 
