880 
COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. 
“In the greater part of the flat country of 
Belgium, the soil is light and sandy, and easily 
worked ; but its productive powers are certainly 
inferior to the general soil of Ireland, and the 
climate does not appear to be superior. To the 
soil and the climate, therefore, the Belgian does not 
owe his superiority in comfort and position over 
the Irish cultivator. The difference is rather to 
be sought for in the system of cultivation pur- 
sued by the small farmers of Belgium, and in the 
habits of economy and forethought of the people. 
The cultivation of the small farms in Belgium 
differs from the Jrish,—first, in the quantity of 
stall-fed stock which is kept, and by which a sup- 
ply of manure is regularly secured,—second, in 
the strict attention paid to the collection of man- 
ure, which is skilfully managed,—third, by the 
adoption of a system of rotation of five, six, or 
seven successive crops, even on the smallest farms, 
which is in striking contrast with the plan of 
| eropping and fallowing the land prevalent in Ire- 
land. 
“In the farms of six acres, we found no plough, 
horse, or cart; the only agricultural implement, 
besides the spade and wheel-barrow, which we 
observed, was a light wooden harrow, which might 
be dragged by hand. The farmer had no assist- 
ance besides that of his wife and children, ex- 
cepting sometimes for a short period in the har- 
vest, when we found he occasionally hired a 
labourer at a franc (tenpence) per day. The whole 
of the land is dug with a spade, and trenched 
very deep; but if the soil is light, the labour of 
digging is not great. The stock on the small 
farm which we examined consisted of a couple of 
cows, a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a 
goat or two, and some poultry. The cows are 
altogether stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, 
vetches, carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup 
made by boiling of potatoes, beans, pease, bran, 
cut hay, &c., into one mass, and which, being 
given to the cattle warm, is said to be very whole- 
some, and to promote the secretion of milk. In 
some districts, the grains of the breweries and dis- 
tilleries are used for the cattle; and the failure 
of the Belgian distilleries has been: reckoned a 
calamity to the agriculture of the country, on 
account of the loss of the supply of manure which 
was produced by the cattle fed in the stalls of 
these establishments. | 
“The success of the Belgian farmer depends 
mainly upon the number of cattle which he can 
maintain by the produce of his land, the general 
lightness of the soil rendering the constant appli- 
cation of manure absolutely necessary to the pro- 
duction of acrop. The attention of the cultivator 
is always, therefore, especially directed to obtain 
a supply of manure. Some small farmers, with 
this view, agree with a sheep-dealer to find stall- 
room and straw for his sheep, to attend to them, 
and to furnish fodder at the market price, on con- 
dition of retaining the dung. The small farmer 
collects in his stable, in a fosse lined with brick, 
COTTON. 
the dung and urine of his cattle. He buys suffi- 
cient lime to mingle with the scourings of his 
ditches, and with the decayed leaves, potato-tops, 
&c., which he is careful to collect in order to en- 
rich his compost, which is dug over two or three 
times during the course of the winter. No portion 
of the farm is allowed to lie fallow; but it is divided 
into six or seven small plots, on each of which a 
system of rotation is adopted ; and thus, with the 
aid of a sufficient quantity of manure, the powers 
of the soil are maintained unexhausted, in a state 
of constant activity. The order of succession in 
the crops is various; but we observed on the six- 
acre farms which we visited, plots of potatoes, 
flax, rye, carrots, turnips or parsnips, vetches and 
rye, for immediate use as green food for the cattle. 
The flax grown is heckled and spun by the farmer’s 
wife, chiefly during the winter; and we are told 
that three weeks’ labour at the loom, towards the 
spring, enables them to weave into cloth all the 
thread thus prepared. The weavers are generally 
a distinct class from the small farmers; though 
the labourers chiefly supported by the loom, com- | 
monly occupy about an acre of land, sometimes 
more, their labour upon the land alternating with 
their work at the loom. In some districts, we 
are informed, every gradation in the extent of 
occupancy, from a quarter or half an acre to the 
six-acre farm, is to be found; and, in such cases, 
more work is done in the loom by the smaller 
occupiers. 
“The labour of the field, the management of 
the cattle, the preparation of manure, the regu- 
lating the rotation of crops, and the necessity of 
carrying a certain portion of the produce to 
market, call for the constant exercise of industry, 
skill, and foresight among the Belgian peasant 
farmers; and to these qualities they add a rigid 
economy, habitual sobriety, and a contented 
spirit, which finds its chief gratification beneath 
the domestic roof, from which the father of the 
family rarely wanders in search of excitement 
abroad. It was most gratifying to observe the 
comfort displayed in the whole economy of the 
households of these small cultivators, and the re- 
spectability in which they lived. As far as I 
could learn, there was no tendency to the sub- 
division of the small holding; I heard of none 
under five acres, held by the class of peasant 
farmers; and six, seven, or eight acres, is the 
more common size. The provident habits of the 
small farmers enable them to maintain a high 
standard of comfort. Their marriages are not 
contracted so soon as in Ireland; and the conse- 
quent struggle for subsistence among their off- 
spring does not exist.” 
COTTON. A soft, vegetable down, which is 
contained in the seed-vessels, and envelopes the 
seeds, of the cotton plant, Gossypium herbaceum, 
which is cultivated in the East and West Indies, 
North and South America, and Egypt; in fact, in 
most parts of the world which possess a suffi- 
ciently warm climate. It is an annual plant. It 
