FARMING IN BELGIUM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 455, 10 April 1912, Page 6

FARMING IN BELGIUM.

Writing atfer a recent visit to Belgium, Mr E. Brown, F.L.S. (England), points to the wonderful work done by the farmers of the Low Countries, who, with a total territory of under 12,000 square miles (for Belgium) and a population of 636 people to the square mile, have, by systematic farming, turned the desert places into wheat fields and gardens, and made of the whole country an egg and poultry producer unequalled on earth Mr Brown says every yard of ground which can be utilised productively is cutlivated, not a drop or particle of manure of any kind is permitted to be wasted, and the droppings of the millions of hens is one of the principal fertilisers. It is estimated there that a 21 year old hen will have produced manure equal in value to its own market price. It is claimed by the authority quoted that, in the course of a single generation, market gardens and grain and root crops have taken the place of fir trees growing on a sandy plain, formerly incapable of cultivation, andthe writer named does not hesitate to assert that the improved fertility of the soil is entirely due to the keeping of fowls on it. The farmers of this former waste feed their country with its popultaion greater than that of all Australia, from the produce of an area less than half that of Tasmania and little more than one-ninetieth of the size of Victoria from south to north.