The greater part of these countries has been laid waste, and their 
commercial, agricultural and horticultural industries, hitherto car- 
ried on with great intensity, destroyed. They had solved, especially 
in Belgium, to an enviable degree, the problem of keeping the people 
on the land. The following details relate specially to Belgium, but 
the devastation is as complete, and consequent need of reconstruction 
as great in the occupied portions of the North of France, of Serbia 
and Poland. 
Space does not permit more than a few figures showing the in- 
tensive cultivation of the horticultural part of Belgium, but these will 
show in a small degree what we owe to that country alone. 
Each district had its own horticultural specialty. The land 
around Ghent was devoted to raising flowering plants, particularly 
begonias. Around Brussels flowers were extensively grown, not only 
in the open air, but also under glass. Particularly were roses and 
lilacs forced during the winter. The value of flowers and flowering 
plants exported in 1913 was over $2,500,000. Now most of the 
beautiful gardens with their valuable glass houses, in some cases 
containing priceless collections of orchids and other rare plants, have 
been totally destroyed, or cultivation has ceased, since the men are 
away fighting and the old men and the women are engaged in pro- 
curing the bare necessities of life. 
Besides these communities of flower-growers, whose peaceful avo- 
cation has been ruthlessly disturbed, there were many small holders 
who specialized in raising fruit and vegetables. Five million pounds 
weight of chicory grown in the southwest of Brussels were exported 
to Paris each winter, besides vast quantities which were sent in cold- 
storage to America. Around Aerschot the villagers specialized in 
asparagus growing. Malines alone took 25,000 bundles a day and the 
smaller local markets each about 5,000 bundles. Around Louvain 
the peasants raised early cauliflowers, and around Malines early pota- 
toes and peas, the former being sent mainly to Germany and the 
latter to North and South America. 
The cultivation of fruit was also extensively carried on. 170,000 
acres — one-thirtieth of the acreage of cultivated land in Belgium, 
were devoted to fruit growing. In 1913 Belgium sent 25,000,000 
pounds weight of apples to Germany, besides large quantities to other 
countries. Vast numbers of glass houses for forcing have been erected 
in recent years. In many of the countrysides there is — or rather 
was — hardly a wall which was not covered with a beautifully trained 
fruit tree, a method of growing in which the French and the Belgians 
have excelled. The enthusiasm for fruit cultivation is innate in the 
