86 
Report on the Agriculture of Belgium. 
stamped. In the case of sale by auction the vendor's expenses 
are necessarily increased.* After a deed has been registered, 
its validity cannot be questioned. 
Agricultural interests receive a large share of the attention of 
the Government. One department of the Ministry of the Inte- 
rior, under the control of a Director-General, has for its function 
the care of agriculture and industries. There is a sub-depart- 
ment for agriculture, presided over by a Director, which has its 
executive officers and Provincial Councils in every province of 
the kingdom, the ruling authority being the Superior Council 
of Agriculture, of which the Director of the Department is the 
Secretary. Thus any matter requiring the attention of the 
Government is brought by the burgomaster of the village before 
the Committee of the District, by whom it is laid before the 
Provincial Council, and similarly sent up to the fountain-head — 
the Superior Council of Agriculture, the Secretary of which has 
the chief executive power on behalf of the Government. Al- 
though there is necessarily some amount of routine involved in 
such proceedings, there can be no doubt that the Government 
by those means holds the detailed parts of the organization in 
more efficient control than it could hy a direct system of commu- 
nication with the various burgomasters. 
We have in the foregoing pages attempted to perform the task 
which the Council of the Society assigned to us — to give a 
fair description of the salient features of the long-famed Belgian 
farming. That our Report will disappoint the admirers of 
la -petite culture we must expect, but we hope they will feel that 
their disappointment is due to the nature of the subject. 
POSTSCKIPT. — Since this Report has been in type, I have read 
M. de Laveleye's paper on "The Land System of Belgium and 
Holland," which has just been published by the Cobden Club in 
a A'olume entitled ' Systems of Land Tenure in various Countries.' 
So far as regards the systems of land-tenure and land-transfer, 
there is no essential difference between the statements in M. de 
Laveleye's essay and those in the foregoing pages. — H. M. J. 
* M. Leclerc makes the following statement : — " The conveyance of property 
encounters no serious obstacles. It is made by an authentic act, done in the 
presence of a notary (a public ofRcer appointed by the King), which is afterwards 
submitted to the formality of registration in a special office instituted by the 
Government. The expenses of sale generally amount to 10 per cent, of the value 
of the property. The registration-fees absorb about 6^ per cent. ; the surplus 
represents the expenses of advertisements, bill-posting, deeds, and payment of 
the notary. These expenses are paid by the vendor. The purchaser pays in 
addition to the notary a sum amounting to 1 per cent, of the value of the property 
for the official receipt of the purchase-money." 
