FLEMISH HUSBANDRY.
Weeding and hoeing.—The Flemish farmer never considers his work half done until his fields are completely freed from weeds. This is effected, in a great measure, by repeated digging, by which the upper stratum that contains the seeds and roots of noxious plants, is buried sufficiently deep into the ground to prevent their vegetating. When weeds do appear, they are immediately extirpated either by the harrow before the grain is sown, or afterwards by careful and repeated hand hoeings. This they find the more necessary, to rid the earth of parasite plants, the seeds of which are mixed with the seeds of culinary vegetables, and produce plants that feed on the juices of the dung, to the great injury of the legitimate stock. A Flemish farm, in consequence of these attentions, resembles more a highly cultivated garden, than many places which bear that name. When I first beheld these fields, I supposed them actually to be gardens, and was only undeceived when further observation and inquiry convinced me, that the whole country was cultivated in a similar manner, and presented the same delightful scene.
Choice of Seeds.—It is an invariable practice in Flanders, never to use for seed the grain grown on the land to be sown; nor is the expense regarded when the object is to obtain heavy and healthy seed. Farmers in distant districts exchange seeds with each other, and journies of hundreds of miles are frequently taken to accomplish this desirable purpose. Vanderstractan mentions two farmers, whose grounds were alike, and who cultivated them with equal skill and industry. They had both been long in the practice of procuring excellent seed potatoes from Brabant, which yielded in that province two hundred cwt. per English acre. When transplanted, the produce was regularly, year after year, five hundred and forty cwt. per acre.[11] One of these men having, one year, to save the expense of carriage, used potatoes of his own growth, the original produce of Brabant, soon repented the step, and returned to his former practice. Flanders usually receives its supply of flax-seed from the north of Europe; but having, during the latter years of the reign of Napoleon, been deprived of that supply, through his restrictive decrees; the produce of that valuable plant was not more than half the usual quantity, which besides was greatly inferior to preceding crops.
Although the Flemish are the most particular people in the world as to the choice of their seeds, they are sometimes deceived. An instance of this happened a few years ago, which was followed by very injurious consequences. A person brought some flax-seed from Riga, which he sold for sound seed. It was, however, superanuated, but he had contrived to give it a fresh and healthy appearance, and thus imposed on the best judges. The farmers, deceived by the false mark, bought and sowed the seed, none of which ever appeared above the ground. "The desolation of the country was universal; the loss was estimated at several millions of florins; and the offender escaped the punishment he merited, only through the intercessions of several powerful friends, who found means to stifle the affair, notwithstanding the cries of its numerous victims." I recollect a case somewhat similar to this, which happened a few years ago in Edinburgh. A respectable seed merchant there purchased a quantity of flax-seed from a foreigner, which he sold again in small parcels to the farmers, who, on sowing it, found that it was unsound, as no part of it was productive. The seed merchant was sued, and although he distinctly proved, that he made the purchase himself under the impression that the seed was fresh, and paid a fair price for it, he was found liable in damages to the amount of the loss sustained by the farmer who sued, upon the ground that he was bound to guarantee every article which he sold at the regular market price, whether he was imposed upon himself or not. These lessons were not thrown away. In Flanders, as well as in Scotland, no foreign seed is purchased, until the purchasers be fully satisfied as to the quality of the article, and the character of the seller.
The Flemish practice, with regard to a change of seeds, has long prevailed in Scotland, not only as to potatoes, but as to wheat, barley, oats, and all other grain. The Scotch potatoes have always appeared to me superior to those raised in England, where the same attention is not shown to the choice of seed. It is a fact, also, well known in these countries, that the barley raised in Scotland, though greatly inferior in appearance to English barley, and raised in a colder climate, contains more saccharine matter, or nourishment. This has been tested by experiments at the distilleries, under the immediate inspection of officers appointed by the government, who reported a greater quantity of spirit obtained from barley, the growth of Scotland, than from that produced in England. The beef sold in the London markets, which had been reared in the Scotch distilleries upon the refuse grains, uniformly sells at from three to four cents a pound more than that fed at any of the English distilleries.
This superiority unquestionably arises from the greatly improved system of agriculture, generally introduced into Scotland, but it is owing in nothing so much as to the very scrupulous attention there paid to the choice of seed. Of late years, this branch of husbandry seems to have considerably attracted the notice of the English farmers; some of whom, as appears from the English newspapers, have found it greatly to their interest to cultivate wheat, in particular, obtained from foreign places, which, when grown, they convey to distant parts of the country, and sell exclusively for seed wheat. It was mentioned in the Cumberland Packet (an English journal) of 14th October, 1816, "that a farmer had obtained l.40, ($170,) per load, of 30 bushels, for seed wheat, on account of its great product. He had also, obtained the same price for seven years past for this wheat, which had been originally imported from abroad."
Rotation of Crops—The intelligent agriculturalists of England are well aware, that the more the rotation of crops are varied, the more abundant is their produce; but this opinion is confined to a few in that country. It is only in Flanders that the idea of exhausting the soil, by repeated cropping, is exploded, and the rotation system brought to the greatest possible state of perfection. The ground being prepared in the manner before stated, the Flemish farmer adopts either one or the other of the following courses: