72 
Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
Mr. James Howard, M.P., lias kindly placed at our disposal 
an estimate of the crops of 1 8G9, published in ' L' Agronomc ' 
(Namur), for November 13tli. The crop of wheat was con- 
sidered good, and estimated at 23^ bush, per acre ; rye was 
thought fair at 22 bush, per acre ; barley good at 34 bush. ; oats 
good at 37^ bush. ; and beans good at 24 bush. These figures 
are the average estimates for the whole kingdom. 
Returning from produce to practice, we cannot help drawing 
attention to the fact that sheep are never allowed to feed off a crop 
on the land, except by a few landowners, like JBaron Peers, who 
have adopted the English model. The system of meat-making 
altogether is anything but good ; and the results would not, we 
think, satisfy an English farmer, with the exception, perhaps, of 
those obtained by the best methods of pulp-feeding. Arable- 
land dairying, however, is the most striking feature in Belgian 
stock-farming. Feeding-land is a different matter ; but that is a 
gift, not a practice. 
VIII. — EuEAL Economy. 
1. Capital. — It is remarkably difficult to obtain anything 
like reliable information regarding the capital employed by 
Belgian farmers, for two reasons : — first of all, the meaning 
which they attach to the term capital is so elastic, that very few 
of them understood precisely what we meant ; and, secondly, the 
tendency to exaggerate the importance oi la petite culture, by show- 
ing how much more capital is employed, proportionately, on small 
farms than on large ones. In the small-farm districts, a large 
number of farmers cannot get so much land as they have capital to 
work, while in other districts, where there is less competition, 
farmers are tempted to hold more land than they have capital to 
occupy to advantage. The latter consideration does diminish the 
capital employed per acre, while the former does not enhance it. 
It would be ridiculous to assert that a millionaire who rented a 
farm of 1000 acres, employed on it a capital of 1000/. per acre. 
The capital employed on very minute farms must be relatively 
large, because the expenses in many respects must be actually 
the same, or nearly so, as on farms much larger. Then on very 
small farms, where six months' rent is paid in advance, and 
where the incoming tenant buys everything on the land from his 
predecessor, the capital must be very large compared with that 
on a farm of 200 or 300 acres, where rent is not paid in advance, 
and where the straw, the manure, and so on, are the property of 
the landlord, and are made over to the tenant, in trust, as it were, 
for his successors. Bearing in mind these facts, we admit that^ 
on the general run of large farms, the capital employed is pro- 
bably not more than 5/. or 6/. per acre, while on very small 
