Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
71 
must place a considerable waste on account of chaff not being 
used as fodder ; we were frequently told that it was used, but 
invariably, on seeing it, we found it to be "oavings." Most of 
the straw is used as litter, only a very small portion being given 
to the cattle, and that in a long state. Much labour is expended 
in the frequent removal of the dung and litter to either a midden, 
a manure-house, or the courtyard ; and extraordinary trouble, 
especially in the northern and central districts, is taken in the 
collection and application of liquid manure. The remarkable 
crops of clover, so generally noticed, seem to have but this one 
circumstance in their favour, in addition to those which are 
fountl in England. Nightsoil is invariably turned to account, 
its collection in the towns, its transport into the country, and the 
sale of it to the farmers being the chief occupation of a large 
number of people. 
Of the yield generally we have been somewhat reticent, we 
think discreetly so. No point in farming is more difficult to 
report upon, especially in such a country as Belgium. The 
Government collect statistics annually, and it is very likely that 
the farmers, in giving their returns, keep in mind the possible 
contingency of an increased rent ; while to us, foreigners, we were 
sadly dubious whether a love of national prestige did not occasion- 
ally lead them into the opposite extreme of romance. At any 
rate the two sets of statements rarely agreed. When one 
considers how few of these farmers have any means of weighing 
and measuring, it seems impossible that they can know, although 
they may estimate, their produce of anything that they do not 
sell. We found that the yield of wheat, a produce that is sold, 
ranged in different districts from 24 to 30 bushels per acre on 
an average, for good farmers ; but in 1868 (a very good year) 
some of the best farmers got as much as 35 bushels. The 
Government returns give the average of the kingdom in 1868, 
in round numbers, as follows : — Wheat, 24 bush. ; barley, 38 J 
bush. ; oats, 37 bush. ; rye, 23 bush. ; mixture, 24 bush, per 
English acre. These figures certainly do not bear out the 
Flemish reputation for enormous crops ; but that ihey are not 
unfavourable to Flanders is apparent by the fact that the large- 
farm province of Hainaut carried off the palm in wheat, barley, 
and oats. The small-farm province of East Flanders was best 
in rye and mixture, but these crops are not grown by good 
farmers in the south. We found that oats, in 1868, yielded to 
the best farmers, who do measure their crops, from 35 to 40 
bushels per acre, and barley, which is always a comparatively 
good crop where it is grown, from 40 to 45 bushels. For the 
general run of Belgian farmers, a deduction from these figures of 
20 per cent, would probably be not far from the truth. 
