Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
(57 
All these valley-pastures are celebrated feeding-grounds, and 
their richness is very remarkable. We find here the same objec- 
tion to oxen that we have previously noticed as existing in the 
sugar-beet districts ; but draft cows, if not more than 6 or 7 
years old, are preferred to heifers, as the latter grow rather than 
fatten. Cows that are rejected on account of being poor milkers 
are most in demand. In the valley of the Dendrc, near Gram- 
raont, for instance, the land will carry fully one cow per acre, so 
that, if it was tolerably young and in pretty good condition to 
begin with, it can be sold off in about three months' time ; but if 
it was too old or too poor when bought, it would take the whole 
summer. A first lot, having been put on in April, Avill be sold 
off about the first or second week in July, when a second lot, to 
the number of one cow to two acres, can be fed off by the winter ; 
but some are occasionally finished off in the stables. Cows are 
bought lean at about b7. to 10/., but occasionally one will fetch 
12/. After three months' grazing, they are supposed to have 
gained in value from 6/. to 8/. When sold off, they weigh from 
7 to 8 cwt. 
On this land the dairy cows remain on the grass during the 
summer, from May to the middle of October ; but if the weather 
is bad, they are taken in at night and fed with turnip and man- 
gold tops and some young turnips. It is found that cows give 
much more milk when kept out on pastures than when kept 
most of the day in-doors, according to the practice of the small 
farmers. 
Occupiers of river-side meadows are anxious to allow the 
sheep belonging to other farmers to run over their grass. They 
are usually folded during the day (except when snow is on the 
ground) from the middle of October to New Year's-day, and go 
which 25 years ago was quite uncultivated, Government caused to be construct 
about 120 miles of canals, which are fed by the River Meuse, and which serve 
simultaneously for navigation and irrigation. Since the year 1848 we have been 
able to create, by means of these canals, irrigated meadows, which occupy now 
a superficies of about 9,250 acres. The insutficiency of water has not permitted 
us to extend them more. The soil of the ' Campine ' district being on about 
a level, it is set out in ridges for irrigation, and this is effected by tapping the 
main courses. The comparative expenses come to about 52s. 6d. per acre. A new 
law on water-courses is at this moment before the Chamber. Its application will 
probably admit of the utilization, for the profit of the agriculturist, of hose 
riches which are at present lost or badly employed, on account of the state of the 
■water-courses. Irrigation would then develop itself in a manner quite impossible 
at the present time. Sewage water has not been used for irrigation in Belgium up 
to the present time. An English public company (the Belgian Public Works 
Company) is carrying out at this time at Brassels an important work of purifica- 
tion, which comprises the utilisation of the sewage water of this town for the 
irrigation of 150 acres of meadow situate in the valley of the Seune. But this 
portion of the work is not yet begun, and it is likely that it will not give a good 
result, because the extent of the meadows to be irrigated appears much too 
limited for the quantity of sewage water to be employed." 
F 2 
