Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-05-19
BELGIUM AND ITs People.

Brussels and WaterlOO-Aix-la-Ch Chap
eils-AnyeHtOry Of AAOly keites.
left Paris for Brussels, distance
of 2l2 miles, at seven and one-half
o'clock in the morning, and got to
Brussels at three in the afternoon,
after riding through beautiful ag-
ricultural country, cultivated all over
as carefully as a garden. The coun-
trv between Paris and Brussells is
for the most part fiat, and the land
is good, and the crop is largely of
wheat, which is being harvested
last of August. 1t is cut with a
broad hook, with one hand, close to
the ground, and pulled into sheaves
by the cutter, aud bound mostly by
women. 1t is a slow process, and
will remind some of the old men of
the way they cut wheat with hook
and sickle when they were boys. No
machinery of any kind is employed
here for harvesting; in fact theland
owned by one man, as general rule,
amounts to but a few acres, and
reaper would throw out of employ
ment large population which de-
pend upon this labor for a living.
They have no barns; they stack their
grain, and thresh it out in the fall
mostly with fails; sometimes it is
tramped ont by horses; now and then
they have threshiDg machines, but
they are very crude concerns COM
pared to our.
There is very little difference be-
4 tween the farming of the crops rais-
ed in the Northern part of France
and Belgium, only that the land I'M
proves as you go North. The line
which separates France and Belgium
is all imaginary one for political pur-
poses. The people of both nations
speak French, and are closely allied
in manners and customs, in religion,
| and in the products raised. In both
North France and Belgium the crop
of white beets raised is enormous,
from which large quantities of sugar
are made. All the sugar used in this
part of the world is made from beets.
IL is very white, but it is not nearly
so strong and sweet as that made
from sugar cane.
The population of Belgium is very
dense. It is the most densely popu-
lated of any country in Europe, there
being over four hundred persons to
the square mile. There is very little
waste land in Belgium; it is cnltivat-
ed with oxen, and it is like one great
garden, with not a fence to be seen,
and cut up into narrow strips OF
about half acre, in one of which
you will see wheat, in another beets,
in another oats, and in another grass
&c. The mode of farming is so rad
ically different from anything | ever
saw in America that / cannot helI
noticing it. The people do not live
on the land, as we do. You look il
vain over broad expanse for house
or barn, and it is only now and ther
you see trees. The people live il
: towns and villages, aud 60 out t.
! their little farms in the morning Il
work, taking with them their fruga
: meal, or 1t is sent out to them. Th,
men and women work in the field.
together, and so far as | COULD see
the women seemed to be doing tn,
Il most work. How would our Amer
ican girls like to marry Belgian O
!. French farmers?
i, BRUSSELS.
I Brussels is largely indebted to Ma
Z poleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wei
Z lington, Blucher, and to Lord Ryrol
: for the interest which it has TO strau
v gers. 1t was within ten miles of i
E that the battle of Waterloo wa
I fought, and, although now almo'
!. every mark of that great struggle
q effaced, still it is visited annually b
Of thousands of English, who come heI
as the Mohammedans go to Mecci
= did not go out to the battle grounC
3 as | was told by DR.. Wilson, til
Re American Consul here, to whom
a had letter, that since the old e.