BOOK II. CHAPTER VI. 4. them to mow and gather in successive crops. They have This interesting sketch, to the general truth of which * Ueber die Landwirthschaft der Rheinpfalz, und insbesondere in der Heidelberger Gegend. Von D. Karl Heinrich Rau. Heidelberg, 1830. ! portions as it is possible to be from memory, without the The $5. But the most decisive example in opposition to * Rau, pp. 15, 16. Here † Geographical Dictionary, art. "Belgium." 1 : 320 BOOK 11. CHAPTER VI. § 5. in a few years, a little farm will spread around.... If 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. |