G4 Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
The fleeces of ewes will weigli about 9 lbs. each, and hoj^gs will 
yield as much as from 11 to 14 lbs., according to the liberality 
with which they have been kept during the winter. These 
figures seem very large, but we could not ascertain how much of 
the weight was wool, and how much was dirt;* for it is not the 
practice either to wash or to dip sheep unless they have some 
disease which renders it necessary. We mention this more par- 
ticularly in consequence of the number of foreign sheep imported 
into England which are found to be suffering from scab and 
other diseases. 
3. Improved Sheep-breeding. — Under this head we wish to show 
that the ordinary Polder farmers, whose practice we have just 
described, are not in want of good example. The services 
rendered to Belgian agriculture by M. le Baron Peers, of Oost- 
camp, have been frequently eulogized ; but we are not aware that 
any detailed account of his system of sheep-keeping (only one 
out of many admirable points in his farming practice) has ever 
been published. For this reason, and because the Baron's farm 
is very close to the Polder district, though not quite on it, we give 
here the following account of his mode of sheep-farming. It is 
necessary to begin our description by stating that the Baron farms 
on the Norfolk four-course shift, and that the root-course is appor- 
tioned especially with a view to providing food for sheep in a 
climate where swedes, if left in the land, are very apt to freeze in 
winter. He has in hand nearly 200 acres, of which about 40 are in 
grass. The root-course will therefore consist also of nearly 40 acres, 
divided between mangolds, swedes, potatoes, carrots, chicory (for 
cattle-feeding), and cabbages succeeded by kohl rabi. The 
mangolds, swedes, potatoes and carrots are pitted before winter, 
and the chicory is consumed. Cabbages are sown in seed-beds 
in October, planted out in March, and are ready for use about 
the end of June. Kohl rabi is sown in seed-beds in the spring, 
and planted out in the middle of July, when the plants grow very 
fast, owing to the stimulus of liquid manure which they receive. 
If they were planted earlier they would run to seed and become 
woody. This evil being avoided, they stand the winter without 
injury, and are fed off by sheep on the ground in February or 
March. Thus Baron Peers is one of the few agriculturists in 
Belgium who recognize the value of folding sheep on the land. 
At the time of our visit. Baron Peers had 450 sheep on his 
farm, about equally divided into breeding ewes, feeding sheep, 
and lambs. For some years he kept Hampshire Downs, but he 
now crosses them with Oxford Down rams, two or three of which 
* A proprietor-farmer told us that he pot 1 J fr. per kilo, for his wool. This 
■would not be more than IG3. per tod of 28 lbs. 
