1817. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
187 
AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE. 
LETTERS FROM PROF. HORTON. 
Utrecht,. Netherlands, April 5, 1847. 
Editors Cultivator —As the opening spring is 
rousing the agriculturist to action, and the various crops, 
objects of his care and hopes, are being committed to 
the earth, or are already showing themselves above its 
surface, I occasionally emerge from the laboratory, and 
walk out of the city lor a mile or two; the circle of my 
observations is not very extended, and the season of ac¬ 
tivity has but just commenced; I nevertheless see many 
things which are new, and somewhat peculiar. I there¬ 
fore propose to give you in this and succeeding letters, 
a series of sketches of what I may see and hear in this 
immediate vicinity. 
There is a great variety of land about Utrecht, from 
a light sand, through' rich black loam to stiff brick clays. 
I hope to be able to compare the farming of these seve¬ 
ral kinds of land, the different systems pursued in their 
management, and the quantities of crops grown. All 
views here are limited in extent, the country being so 
flat that but little can be seen at any one time, except 
by ascending some lofty tower. 
The main roads, paved with brick, and very smooth, 
are not numerous, but numbers of small ones branch off 
at short intervals, and wind about among the fields like 
foot paths. A ditch runs along on each side, generally 
the only separation from the field; there are no fences 
and few hedges. One of these'ditches, about four feet 
deep, I lately saw crossed by a truly original bridge. 
Several loads of manure had been'thrown in, filling the 
ditch to the brim, and then consolidated by trampling 
until sufficiently hard to permit the passage of wagons. 
The fields are generally of good size, frequently of 
35 or 40 acres; but the advantages of size appear to 
be lost by the custom of growing half a dozen different 
crops in one enclosure. Each field seems to represent 
an entire farm. 
I to-day saw for the first time, one of their plows in 
the field; it was quite long and wide, with but one han¬ 
dle, and double wheeled, resembling much the Norfolk 
plow of England, but far larged The furrow was not 
more than four inches in depth, and about eight inches 
wide. A two horse harrow in the same field might al¬ 
most have been drawn by two men; the teeth were all 
curved forward. So far as I have seen, all the work is 
well and handsomely finished, the surface is left very 
mellow and smooth; on such land as most of it is, this 
however, is not strange. I have lately seen some new 
plows, and other improved implements exhibited here, 
but it is very difficult to bring them into use. Even if 
the farmer himself is brought (no easy task,) to the 
trying of something new, his men are generally very 
obstinate as to accomplishing anything with it. I heard 
of an enterprising man in the province of Groningen, 
who determined to adopt some of the best English im¬ 
plements. He imported them, and compelled his men 
to their use; they, however, broke them whenever they 
could do so without being discovered, and he was 
obliged to give it up, and return to the old awkward 
tools. 
The autumn sown wheat is now looking very well, 
and is said to promise unusually through the whole 
country. The spring sown grains are seemingly for 
the greater part, deposited in the soil. 
Potato growing goes on still, notwithstanding the 
experience of former years. I saw a new way of plant¬ 
ing to-day. A line was stretched across the ridge of 
about twenty feet wide, and following it, the potatoes 
were dibbled in, at distances of from eight to ten inches 
in the rows, and from two to two and one-half feet be¬ 
tween them. The potato was dropped into the hole 
made by the wooden dibbling instrument, and covered 
by a blow of the same. The tubers used for seed were 
of the smallest kind so far as I saw them,- not much lar¬ 
ger than walnuts. The whole process was extremely 
slow. The manure was spread and plowed in before 
planting. 
A very large extent of ground is occupied in the cul¬ 
tivation of rape, or cole, called in Dutch, “koolzaad.” 
Some of it appeared to have been sown this season, in¬ 
deed, by far the greater part, but from its size and 
general appearance in other fields, it must have been 
sown in the autumn. This plant grows to about 18 
inches or two feet in height, and,has a seed of the same 
shape as mustard seed, but five or six times larger. 
The oil obtained from this seed is well known; the 
quantity yielded is very great, being stated by Prof. 
Johnston as from 40 to 70 per cent. 
The hard cake obtained after the oil is expressed, is 
ground, and under the name of rape dust is extensively 
used as a manure, especially in England. It seems to 
be remarkably efficacious when applied as a top-dress¬ 
ing to wheat. In dry seasons it produces little or no 
beneficial effect, and in some cases has been known to 
actually diminish the crop. This rape cake would be an 
excellent fattening food for cattle if they could be per¬ 
suaded to like it; but it has a sharp pungent taste that 
is highly disagreeable. I believe that by far the greater 
part of the cake made here goes to England. I have 
seen while travelling in Norfolk and Suffolk, that it is 
there one of their principal and most highly prized 
resources. Prof. Johnston, in his lectures, gives some 
interesting experiments, comparing r^pe-dust and'guano, 
under like circumstances. John P. Norton. 
NOTES OF A TRAVELLER IN ENGLAND—No. 4. 
Roads, Cottages, Flowers, &c. —The perfection 
of the roads in England, has been the theme of every 
traveller through that richly cultivated country. The 
travelling by coach on the great thoroughfares through 
the kingdom, has been greatly diminished since rail¬ 
roads have been constructed. In many parts of the 
kingdom, however, the coach is still in use, and some 
idea may be formed of the ease and comfort of that 
mode of travelling which was formerly the pride and 
boast of every Englishman. Over their level and smooth 
roads, it is certainly one of the most delightful methods 
of travelling in fine weather. A seat upon the box with 
the coachman, who is usually intelligent and free to 
converse with a traveller, and well acquainted with the 
history of persons and places of interest on his route, 
renders this a very pleasant method of seeing the coun¬ 
try. and learning the incidents which interest a stranger. 
The coachman has nothing to do with the horses until 
the time arrives for starting. He examines the team, 
sees that all is right, mounts his box, and is off' at the 
rate often miles an hour, which I found the usual speed 
on all their roads. When he arrives at the place for 
changing horses, his lines are thrown down, and he en¬ 
ters the public house, where he is the great man among 
the hangers on, and as he receives notice that all is 
ready, mounts his box again, and is off. 
