plowing, rye is sowed. The rye is usually harvested in July, when turneps are sowed after a single plowing. They have three crops in every two years. The produce of the buckwheat on an average of years, is a last, or 10 quarters to four malts, or two morgens of land, or twenty to twenty-two of our bushels to the acre. The rye is estimated to produce about two more of our bushels to the acre than the buck-wheat; but this year, as is the case in England, rye falls considerably below an average crop. The turneps are the worst, because the most neglected of the three crops. The seed, instead of being of one kind, was red round, white round, tankard, and some other species, with which I was not acquainted, all mingled together. The plants were healthy and quite as thick as was necessary; but though the bulbs were formed, they had not been hoed, nor had even the harrows been drawn through to thin them. It is therefore impossible they should become a tolerable crop. This was the only deficiency I noticed, either on my companion's land, or in the track which we had spent two hours together in passing over. As far as I could judge, the portion of manure administered before the buck-wheat and rye, was small. I could not hit on any measure with which my companion was acquainted, that enabled me to reduce his quantities to cubic yards, or our common cart loads; but I was led to guess that not more than seven or eight of our Surry and Kent cart loads were applied to the acre. My informant, in a language between Dutch and German, but very intelligible to me, remarked, speaking of manure," wenig und ofters ist besser als fiel und selten;" a little frequently is better than much and seldom. I observed the farm yards and the hogsties, were well bedded with a fine sand, but that very little straw was applied to be converted into manure. There can be no doubt but such sand will imbibe and retain the fæces of the animals; but it may be doubted, if so much ammonia is administered to the land by this mode as by the putrefactive fermentation which is pro

duced by the abundance of straw, that is trodden in with the exuviæ in our English farm yards.' (P. 48-50.)

2. Dykes. The road I had hitherto travelled was on the top of the dykes which confine within the canals the whole water of the country, As far as my eye could determine, these dykes are on the side towards the fields, about thirteen or fourteen feet in height, but varying according to the elevation or depression of the land. The slope from the top to the bottom forms an angle about forty-five degrees. I thought them about twenty four feet wide at the top, and if both sides sloped equally, they would be somewhat more than double that width at the bottom. The inner side, however, borders a canal, which is usually from four to six feet in depth. The bottom of the canal must, consequently, be from six to eight feet higher than the level of the surrounding fields. From this situation of the water above the land, it will be readily conceived, that great solicitude must exist to maintain the dykes in good condition; and that the expense of clearing the fields of the floods, by pumping the water to such height must be enormous. The dykes are formed, and kept in repair, by bundles of willows interlaced, so as to form a slanting wall, and the interstices are filled with earth well puddled, and thereby rendered compact. The expense of maintaining the dykes is supported by a tax laid on the surrounding lands, which is levied by commissioners, according to long established usage, in such manner as to create little discontent, and scarcely any suspicion of unfairness. The expenditure in human labour is great, but is much exceeded by the cost of the willows, though they grow near the places where they are wanted, in very extensive plantations.' (P. 15.)

'One of the richest tracts of country in the vicinity of Arnhem has been often exposed to tremenduous inundations. These are frequently felt at the breaking up of a long frost; but in no instance so calamitously as in the winter 1808-9. A violent tempest from the north-west had raised the waters

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of the Zuyder sea, some feet above the highest mark of the spring tides, and the waves beat with unusual violence against the dykes, constructed to break their fury. The thaw on the Upper Rhine had increased the quantity and the force of its waters, which brought down masses of ice fourteen feet in height, and more than half a mile in length; to which the embankments, softened by the thaw, and somewhat injured, presented an insufficient barrier. A breach made in one part soon extended itself, and the torrent quickly covered the country, bearing before it by its force, the villages, the inhabitants, and the cattle. The height of the Zuyder sea prevented the water from finding an outlet; and it consequently remained on the ground for a long period, in spite of the exertions of the surviving inhabitants. By this event, more than seventy houses were totally destroyed, a far greater number irretrievably damaged, and of nine hundred families, more than five hundred were rendered utterly destitute; more than four hundred dead bodies were left on the borders of the current, and at the city of Arnhem, five hundred persons, mostly women and children, with many hundred head of cattle, were rescued from a watery grave, by the hazar dous heroism of the inhabitants, who ventured in boats to their rescue.' (P. 57, 58.)

In the Seven Provinces, which are usually distinguished by the name of Holland, from the most important of the number, there is still kept alive a chivalrous spirit of independence; there exist recollections and associations, which recall the patriotic minds to the periods when their ancestors, resisted the power of Spain in its zenith, contended with England for the dominion of the seas, and, with proudly remembered triumphs, checked the ambitious hopes of the Grand Monarque. The numerous monuments in their churches to the memory of their heroes, and the trophies that their public buildings display, have kept alive this spirit; the late conduct of their fleet before Algiers, and the praises conferred

on it by our Exmouth, have blown into a flame a spark, which French oppression had never totally extinguished.

In Belgium, on the other hand, the name of independence has for three centuries been unheard; submission to masters over whom they had no check, by whom a forced obedience was required, and who administered none of those consoling flatteries which the most rigid despots find it necessary to use towards their subjects, was their sole duty, and in that duty they were fully instructed. Instead of investigating they submitted, instead of inquiring they yielded, and thus sunk in mental acquirements, to a state in which they were fitted to be either the instruments or the subjects of oppression, as best suited the purposes of those governors who happened to obtain authority over them. Of every religion we should speak with respect; but whilst that of Holland was reasonable, sincere, and tolerant, that of Belgium was even below the general level of the corrupt church, of which they form'ed the most irrational part, in every thing that was childish, superstitious, and persecuting.' (P. 71, 72.)

'The high reputation of Amtman Meyer, who resides about eight miles from Hanover, induced me to visit his establishment, where I was not so fortunate as to meet the proprietor, who had been described to me as the most scientific agriculturist in the vicinity. His amt was still more extensive than that of Calenburg, and included within the area, besides his dwelling, and those of the superintendents of his farm and the barns, stables, sheep-house and cattle-stalls, a very neat church. The land round this establishment shows more abundant marks of good cultivation, and more proofs of the liberal application of manure, than I had before witnessed in Hanover.

"The kohl-ruben had attained a good size, and were flourishing, whilst a considerable breadth of the mangel-wurzel was growing: but both of these crops appeared to me not sufficiently hoed to give the roots space to extend to the dimen

sions which they would attain by a different mode of culture. I observed here the first stack of clover-hay that had met my sight since I entered Germany. Around the borders of: some fields were small patches of tobacco, such as had in) deed before noticed in the course of my rides. I was told the quality of it was bad, and too weak for any but boys to smoke it. They seem to learn this abominable practice at a very early age. I was surprised one day, by being asked by a shepherd boy, of whom I had made some inquiry, and who appeared not more than twelve years of age, if I could give him any fire, or the materials for supplying him with it, as he had lost either his flint or his steel, and could not light his pipe.

Contrary to the usual course in such establishments, the cows here are farmed to a Dutch dairy-man, who professes to make butter and cheese of the same kind as is produced in Holland. The cows, from ninety to one hundred, are let to him for one thousand rix dollars annually. In the summer? months they are depastured on the meadow lands, by the side of the river. In the winter, they are allowed ten pounds of hay, and fourteen pounds of straw, daily. I heard sad lamentations on the dryness of the present summer, of the want of food on the meadows, and the consequent scarcity and poverty of the milk. The contrivances of the Dutchmen to save labour, were very admirable. The milk and cream were in a cool cellar, the butter was churned by a very simple machine worked by a wheel, in the apartment at the top of the house; this was turned by a boy, and by it one hundred pounds of butter were at some seasons made daily, in about two hours. The presses for the cheese were worked by the same machine which churned the butter.

The attempt to make various kinds of cheese from the same land is necessarily futile. Cheese denominated Swiss, Dutch, Cheshire, and G.oucester, is made by this man. I' tasted each, but could perceive no similarity to those of ei

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