VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND , OCT. 20, 1804.
NO. 42.
How   They   Farm ln Holland  and  Bel-
g-ulm—Interesting Letter Prom
"Pawnee Bill."
Editobs Indiana Fahmrk:
Farming In the low countries of Holland
and Belgium is an interesting study. To
one whose home is on the boundless
prairies of the west, it is a problem. To
know that a country no larger than Maryland contains six millions of people who
live chiefly on agriculture is interesting,
but to see the little nooks and odd shaped
corners of land that pass for farms in Belgium is to doubt one's own eyes. The
smallest farms of continental Europe are
those of Belgium. Aslone passes into Holland the farms may be seen to increase in
size until the Dutch province of Friesland
is reached, where cattle raising is the chief
pursuit. There the flat grazing lands
afford plenty of range for the herds of
sleek black and white spotted buttermak
ers, which are famous the world over. In
Belgium the produce of every farm is
varied. A three cornered piece of land
containing about two acres and hemmed
by ditches filled with water is the size and
situation of a typical Belgian farm. As
small as it is, it will contain a patch of
wheat or rye and another of barley; another fair portion of it grows potatoes.
A row of cabbage grows around on the
sloping Bides of the ditches, with a row of
onions just inside, leaving bare walking
room between them and the grain. The
rest of the tillable soil is planted with a
great variety of vegetables, either for substantial food for the farmer's own table, or
a better-priced product for other men's
tables. For shade, ornament and profit a
row of fruit trees, mostly pear trees, surround his house. There are no yards or
stable lots, because they are not needed,
and besides, every inch of ground must
produce. T have wondered how these lit
tie spots of ground could be made to furnish enough to feed and" clothe a farmer and
his family of seven or eight children—
they all seem to have large families. I
asked the farmer in Flandres how he
could manage to support himself with two
acres of ground.
"I had the same orop last year," he said,
"and I had barley and onions and cabbage
to. sell after selling my early vegetables
Then I had a few hogs, some chickens and
some eggs to send to market."
I had not thought of live stock on the
place, but he showed me where he kept
his hogs and chickens and eggs. In a
back room under the same square-tiled
roof with himself were six fine porkers.
It was a clean and comfortable place for
them, too, notwithstanding a score of
ohickens lived in the same room with
them. I knew he did not have a horse.
There was not room enough on the place
for one of my little bronchos, not to speak
of the big Belgian draft horses, which pull
the enormously big trucks in Antwerp
and Brussels. In one corner of this room,
which was his stable, two good sized dogs
were changed to a kennel. They were
common looking enough, but as dear to
him no doubt as my hotses are to me.
They served him as horses do farmers in
America, These then were a couple of
the famous Flemish Trekhonden, the
draught dogs of Belgium and South Holland, where one may see them on the
highways and in the streets of every village and city. They seem to be a mongrel
breed, with all sorts of strains noticeable
among them. They draw those heavy
little two-wheeled wagons loaded with
everything; with milk, with vegetables,
with lumber, and sometimes one may see
two or three of these dogs rattling alone
over the paved country roads, with three
or four persons in the cart behind them.
They are in every way cheaper than
horses, and I believed this Flemish farmer
when he said that with his two good dogs
he does not need a horse.
Such dogs, he said, would bring 60 francs
each in the Sunday morning dog market
in Antwerp. In Zeeland which forms
that portion of Holland, with its low sandy
soil, lying on both sides of the mouth of
the river Schelde, dogs are not the only
draught animals which seem odd to an
American. There I have seen sheep and
small cows driven between the shafts of
carts. Horses however are wed more on
the farms there than in Belgium. The
farms are larger but the soil is not the
best, exoept for potatoes. It seems particularly well adapted for that crop.
Nearly all the potatoes sold in Antwerp
and the larger cities of Belgium and Holland are grown In /..eland. The favorite
variety Is a small round potato with a yellow tint when boiled. They are dry and
firm with an excellent flavor. Many of
these were exported to America last
winter.
What horses are used in Belgium, however are good ones. There are no finer
draught horses; no larger ones and none
that draw heavier loads. They are no
good however on soft ground, but that
does not interfere with their usefulness,
much, for all the roads and streets of Belgium are hard; chiefly paved with brick or
Belgian blocks.
One day last spring I had a load of lumber brought into my show lot in Antwerp,
ft, was drawn by two big Belgian horses.
When they got on to the soft ground of
the lot, which happened to be a little
boggy 3u8t then on account of rain, they
stopped. They could not be made to move
the wagon. After the driver had given up
trying, I had a span of American draught
horses from my stables hitched to the
wagon and they walked off with It without
any trouble. The reason of this was, I
suppose, that the Belgian horses are accustomed to hard footle g while my American
horses were used to every kind of roads,
mostly bad ones.
As horses are used on but few Belgian
farms, so are plows scarce articles there.
What plows are used are primitive things,
made of wood, with an iron share for
turning the soil. The American cultivator ii of oourse unknown either in Bel
glum or Holland. As to other Improved
farming Implements, there Is no place for
them. The spade, the hoe and the reaping
hook are their Implements. They cut the
grain in the same manner that the reapers
did In the fields of Boaz and the women
still follow the example of Ruth. They
glean the fields after the reapers. They
first do their share of the reaping though,
just the same as the men do, and there is
no work on the farms whioh Is considered
too hard for the women to do. When the
crops are harvested th*y are stored in the
loft of the dwelling house. In Holland I
have seen a number of barns. These are
more plentiful In the northern provinces,
particularly In the cattle oountry of Fries
land. Just now the foot and mouth dis
ease is bad In Friesland and the other
countries of Europe have quarnatlned
sgainst it. The price of Friesland milch
oows has fallen from f 125 to |75 In consequence. As Friesland cows are probably
the best for milk, that province of Holland was long a great butter produoing
country.
Twenty years ago the city of Leeuwarden was one of the biggest butter markets
of North Europe. Friday is the day for
the big butter market at Leeuwarden.
The time was when over one fourth million pounds was the average market day
sales for export alone. Now the amount
of butter exported doea not reach one
fourth of that quantity. Danish butter
on the one side and Normandy butter on
the other have almost orowded the
Friesche butter out of the foreign market,
because tbey are better.
The Frieslanders have taken since then
to making more oheese. The light-colored
cheese, with cloves and seeds lu it, Is the
peculiar product of Friesland, with the
Dutch name of Nagelkaas. It Is not so
good as the more famous Edammerkaas.
The little red cheeses which are painted
red for the export trade, and so well
known in the United States as Edam
cheese, are made by the farmers of the
province of North Holland. They sell
here fer 10 cents a pound, or twice as
much as the Friesland cheese with its
block spices. A better oheese than either
is also made In North Holland. It is more
Uke New York Cheddar, and Is known as
Hollandlschekaas. It is shaped like a
grind stone, about 14 inohes in diameter
and 4 Inches thick. In both Holland and
Belgium cheese takes the place c*f meat at
breakfast. The rule of these countries,
Uke others of Europe, Is that nothing is
made warm for breakfast but coffee, and
this rule has caused no end of trouble with
the cow boys with my wild west show.
In Antwerp I had an American cook to
keep them ln good humor, but since I
have been touring Holland I have had to
dispense with the American boarding
house for them and send them to hotels.
In the first three or four cities my contracting agents tried to find hotels that
would prepare an American style breakfast, but he soon found that that was im
possible, an absolute impossibility. They
have about gotten used to eating cheese
for breakfast, but I fear they will not
quit kicking about it until I get back to
America with them, It is not the rule of
the oountry to serve a warm evening meal
either, and It is with great difficulty that
I can find hotels that will furnish a warm
supper for my company. Cow boys are
human, however, and the way they are
lionized by the Dutch makes up for a
great many of the peculiarities of the
country that they do not like.
Notwithstanding the appreciative and
profitable audiences I find here, from what
I have seen of the low countries, travelling
from one end to the other, I have concluded that I prefer having my ranch in
Kansas. It is true they never suffer from
drouth here, for the seas, rivers and canals
are higher than the farm lands, and with
ditches everywhere Irrigation Is no trouble
at all. There are no fences here to be kept
in repair either, as the fields are divided
by ditches filled with water. The only
fences are the dykes to keep the waters
back. These dykes whioh are from one
foot to 15 feet high, made of dirt and about
as broad as a single track railroad dump,
stand between the farmer and the destruo
tion of his fields; In some places, of his life
To cut one would be to flood the country in
some places with 12 feet of water. Canals
run everywhere and the farm products
are taken to market on the boats. At this
season barges loaded with hay and cabbage
may be seen In every direction in Holland.
The farmers of Belgium and Holland work
harder than they do in America because
of the lack of labor-saving implements.
They practice pinching economy all the
year round and from the little two acre
farmers of Belgium and the cattle growers
of Friesland, all lay by a few cents If not
more to steadily Increase the family saving**.    (G. W. Lillie,) "Pawneb Bill."
Amsterdam, Holland.
Written for the Indiana Farmer.
IRRIGATION IN INDIANA.
Formation and Contents of Riser voire
of Water.
BY WM, R. NORBIS.
The frequency of drouths, occurring of
late years, in the months of July and August, right in the nick of time to cut the
corn crop short, as well as all kinds of
garden vegetables, Is an evil of such great
magnitude as to lead us to tbe enquiry of
what are the proximate causes thereof.
Has not the matter of ditching something
to do with it? Our best counties are already Intersected by a multitudinous network of ditches, both open and tiled.
Many portions of the country are bo thoroughly ditched, that after a hard rain,
there Is absolutely no standing water left.
It Is all drained away In a few hours, and
on Its way to the great Gulf of Mexico, as
fast as the natural fall of the rivers can
take it.
Now why this haste to get the water out
of the country, and send It down stream to
the Gulf of Mexico? That great basin of
tepid sea water does not need it, and the
people of the south land do not require it;
in fact, they would rather do without it,
as they generally have a surplus of water,
derived from the Gulf, and assured by reason of their sub-tropical climate. Why
not retain the water at home by means of
dams and reservoirs, to be used in the irrigation of our crops, when the torrid heats
of July and August prevail later on, during the summer season?
Of course, in case of a wet season or protracted spell of rainy weather, the little
brooks, rills, rivulets, creeks and rivers, as
well as the numerous ditches, are all
needed to carry off the surplus water, and
they often prove inadequate to convey it
it away fast enough, to prevent inundations. But on the other hand, when a dry
extreme comes, it seems that the matter of
ditching might be overdone, and we long
for a small portion of that moisture which
prevailed when the floods overspread the
lowlands. Now If we could happily devise some practicable means of counteracting the dry extreme that is likely to supervene nearly every summer, a glorious
desideratum would have been obtained,
for the betterment of our great agricultural interests. This is something for
whioh we should all strive.
Hence, the conviction forces itself upon
our minds that some practical form ot irrigation must be resorted to, or perhaps a
combination of modes of irrigation might
be brought into requisition, and whatever
is found best adapted to the soil, its slope,
and location, could be used. For Instance,
the method of Irrigation by percolation, so
successfully practiced in Utah and the Pacific States, might be used In the sandy
region of the Haw Patch In Bartholomew
oounty, or In the melon lands of Shelby
and Johnson, which extend along the valley of Big Blue river from Mariette to
Edinburg, and lower down, even to Columbus.
A reservoir for holding water on the
farm, constructed so as to include one acre
In extent, and three feet deep would contain 130,ii80 cubic feet of water, equivalent
to 310,01 barrels, which would be enough
to sprinkle 36 acres of ground one inch
deep, or 72 acres of ground one-half inch
deep in water, which is equal to the
amount of water ofien received by the
land during a protracted rain or hard
shower. Now would lt not bs wise to devote a small portion of each farm, to the
formation of reservoirs of water to
be saved up during a wet spell
of weather; or even filled up by
receiving the waste water from the
farmer's pump, or pumps, as many of
them have more than one pump on their
premises, to be utilized in irrigation in
case of drouth, which is almost sure to
prevail in July and August.
It takes 4 21 cubic feet of water to fill a
U). gallon barrel. Hence a water-bod or
wagon tank that will contain 25 barrels
wiU have to make 34 hauls or loads to
carry away one inch in depth of water
from a one acre reservoir, which would
give 18 minutes to each haul or load; this
on the basis of 10 hours actual work per
day, and the water reservoir fora para tive-
ly close to the sprinkling ground.