Volume 2

An account of the systems of husbandry adopted in the more improved districts of Scotland ... / [Sir John Sinclair].

  • Sinclair, John, Sir, 1754-1835.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the systems of husbandry adopted in the more improved districts of Scotland ... / [Sir John Sinclair]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    499/532 (page 191)
    country, engage me to request you, to fix your attention on the situation of agriculture in the Low Countries, where you will find — many methods, new and economical, that may be beneficially em- ployed in England. “ If I followed my own inclination, I would accompany this letter, with an abridged detail of the system employed in Brabant and Flanders; but as I have not the honour of being known to you, [ will not PRPS to trespass longer on your OMe without your permission. * ‘* It is an error into which many are fallen, for want of obser- vation, and a knowledge of the interior part of the country, to be- lieve, that the soil of the’ Low Countries was originally good. It is the almost incredible industry of the peasantry in Flanders, and a part of Brabant, which has rendered the soil so productive: The Pays de Waese, a prodigy of art, was forty years ago a bruyere, (a heath or waste). It is now perhaps the richest province in the world. The soilin most parts is sandy, and requires manure every year, to produce plentiful crops. ‘‘ Those who are curious in breeding cattle, may procure from this country, an excellent race of cart horses, superior to any I have noticed in the rest of Europe, and they would be a precious acquisition for England.” * Mr Gillet was applied to for the detail he mentions, but owing to some unfortunate circumstance, it never came to England.