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BOOK II. CHAPTER VI.

4.

them to mow and gather in successive crops. They have
their water-meadows, of which kind almost all their mead-
ows are, to flood, to mow, and reflood; water-courses to
re-open and to make anew; their early fruits to gather, to
bring to market with their green crops of vegetables; their
cattle, sheep, calves, foals, most of them prisoners, and
poultry to look after; their vines, as they shoot rampantly
in the summer heat, to prune, and thin out the leaves when
they are too thick; and any one may imagine what a scene
of incessant labor it is."

This interesting sketch, to the general truth of which
any observant traveller in that highly cultivated and popu-
lous region can bear witness, accords with the more elabo-
rate delineation by a distinguished inhabitant, Professor
Rau, in his little treatise "On the Agriculture of the Pala-
tinate."* M. Rau bears testimony not only to the industry,
but to the skill and intelligence of the peasantry; their
judicious employment of manures, and excellent rotation
of crops; the progressive improvement of their agricul-
ture for generations past, and the spirit of further improve-
ment which is still active. "The indefatigableness of the
country people, who may be seen in activity all the day
and all the year, and are never idle, because they make a
good distribution of their labors, and find for every interval
of time a suitable occupation, is as well known as their
zeal is praiseworthy' in turning to use every circumstance
which presents itself, in seizing upon every useful novelty
which offers, and even in searching out new and advantage-
ous methods. One easily perceives that the peasant of this
district has reflected much on his occupation: he can give
reasons for his modes of proceeding, even if those reasons
are not always tenable; he is as exact an observer of pro-

* Ueber die Landwirthschaft der Rheinpfalz, und insbesondere in der Heidelberger Gegend. Von D. Karl Heinrich Rau. Heidelberg, 1830.

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portions as it is possible to be from memory, without the
aid of figures; he attends to such general signs of the
times as appear to augur to him either benefit or harm."*

The

$5. But the most decisive example in opposition to
the English prejudice against cultivation by peasant propri-
etors, is the case of Belgium. The soil is originally one of
the worst in Europe. "The provinces," says Mr. McCul-
loch,† "of West and East Flanders, and Hainault, form a
far-stretching plain, of which the luxuriant vegetation indi-
cates the indefatigable care and labor bestowed upon its cul-
tivation; for the natural soil consists almost wholly of bar-
ren sand, and its great fertility is entirely the result of very
skilful management and judicious application of various
manures." There exists a carefully prepared systematic
treatise on Flemish Husbandry, in the Farmer's Series of
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
writer observes, that the Flemish agriculturists "seem to
want nothing but a space to work upon: whatever be the
quality or texture of the soil, in time they will make it
produce something. The sand in the Campine can be
compared to nothing but the sands on the sea-shore, which
they probably were originally. It is highly interesting to
follow step by step the progress of improvement.
you see a cottage and rude cow-shed erected on a spot of
the most unpromising aspect. The loose white sand blown
into irregular mounds is only kept together by the roots of
the heath; a small spot only is leveled and surrounded by
a ditch; part of this is covered with young broom, part is
planted with potatoes, and perhaps a small patch of diminu-
tive clover may show itself;" but manures, both solid and
liquid, are collecting, "and this is the nucleus from which,

* Rau, pp. 15, 16.
‡ Pp. 11-4.

Here

† Geographical Dictionary, art. "Belgium."

1 :

320

BOOK 11. CHAPTER VI. § 5.

in a few years, a little farm will spread around.... If
there is no manure at hand, the only thing that can be
sown on pure sand, at first, is broom: this grows in the
most barren soils; in three years is fit to cut, and produces
some return in faggots for the bakers and brickmakers.
The leaves which have fallen have somewhet enriched the
soil, and the fibres of the roots have given a certain degree
of compactness. It may now be ploughed and sown with
buckwheat, or even with rye without manure. By the
time this is reaped, some manure may have been collected,
and a regular course of cropping may begin. As soon as
clover and potatoes enable the farmer to keep cows and
make manure, the improvement goes on rapidly; in a few
years the soil undergoes a complete change: it becomes
mellow and retentive of moisture, and enriched by the
vegetable matter afforded by the decomposition of the roots
of clover and other plants.
After the land has been
gradually brought into a good state, and is cultivated in a
regular manner, there appears much less difference between
the soils which have been originally good, and those which
have been made so by labor and industry. At least, the
crops in both appear more nearly alike at harvest, than is
the case in soils of different qualities in other countries.
This is a great proof of the excellency of the Flemish sys-
tem; for it shows that the land is in a constant state of
improvement, and that the deficiency of the soil is compen-
sated by greater attention to tillage and manuring, espe-
cially the latter."

The people who labor thus intensely, because laboring for themselves, have practiced for centuries those principles of rotation of crops and economy of manures, which in England are counted among modern discoveries; and even now the superiority of their agriculture, as a whole, to that of England, is admitted by competent judges. "The cultivation of a poor light soil, or a moderate soil," says the writer last quoted,* "is generally superior in Flanders to that of the most improved farms of the same kind in Britain. We surpass the Flemish farmer greatly in capital, in varied implements of tillage, in the choice and breeding of cattle and sheep," (though, according to the same authority, they are much "before us in the feeding of their cows,") "and the British farmer is in general a man of superior education to the Flemish peasant. But in the minute attention to the qualities of the soil, in the management and application of manures of different kinds, in the judicious succession of crops, and especially in the economy of land, so that every part of it shall be in a constant state of production, we have still something to learn from the Flemings," and not from an instructed and enterprising Fleming here and there, but from the general practice.

Much of the most highly cultivated part of the country consists of peasant properties, managed by the proprietors, always either wholly or partly by spade husbandry.‡ "When the land is cultivated entirely by the spade, and no horses are kept, a cow is kept for every three acres of land, and entirely fed on artificial grasses and roots. This mode of cultivation is principally adopted in the Waes district. where properties are very small. All the labor is done b the different members of the family;" children soon beg ning "to assist in various minute operations, accordin their age and strength, such as weeding, hoeing, feeding cows. If they can raise rye and wheat enough to r their bread, and potatoes, turnips, carrots, and clover. 1..cows, they do well; and the produce of the sale rape-seed, their flax, their hemp, and their but deducting the expense of manure purchased. always considerable, gives them a very good pr posing the whole extent of the land to be six a

* Flemish Husbandry, p. 3.

† Ibid., p. 13.

..

is not an uncommon occupation, and which one man can manage;" then, (after describing the cultivation,) " if a man with his wife and three young children are considered as equal to three and a half grown-up men, the family will require thirty-nine bushels of grain, forty-nine bushels of potatoes, a fat hog, and the butter and milk of one cow: an acre and a half of land will produce the grain and potatoes, and allow some corn to finish the fattening of the hog, which has the extra buttermilk; another acre in clover, carrots, and potatoes, together with the stubble turnips, will more than feed the cow; consequently two and a half acres of land are sufficient to feed this family, and the produce of the other three and a half may be sold to pay the rent or the interest of purchase-money, wear and tear of implements, extra manure, and clothes for the family. But these acres are the most profitable on the farm, for the hemp, flax, and colza are included; and by having another acre in clover and roots, a second cow can be kept, and its produce sold. We have, therefore, a solution of the problem how a family can live and thrive on six acres of moderate land." After showing by calculation that this extent of land can be cultivated in the most perfect manner by the family without any aid from hired labor, the writer continues, "In a farm of ten acres entirely cultivated by the spade, the addition of a man and a woman to the members of the family will render all the operations more easy; and with a horse and cart to carry out the manure, and bring home the produce, and occasionally draw the harrows, fifteen acres may be very well cultivated. Thus it will be seen," (this is the result of some pages of details and calculations,*) "that by spade husbandry, an industrious man with a small capital, occupying only fifteen acres of good light land, may not only live and bring up a family, paying a good

* Flemish Husbandry, p. 81.

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