Farming in Holland.

Southland Times, Issue 9503, 27 April 1887, Page 4

Farming in Holland.

Tbe Dutch farmer ia continually fertilising his farm of thirty or forty acres and this p o cess repeated for some centuries with no crop to drain the substance of the soil except grass, makes it rival if notsurpags in fertility tbe famed banks of tbe Nil*. He coi sequsntly mows four or five crops of bay a ?( ar, and gets as many tons of g< od hay fum e*ch acre mowed. I hip he cnre.'uliy pack* aw*\ in the barn, where it can never get wet. Our people would natur.llv irqaic: Where does his living come from ? It d c.« k)ok strange to the cotton planter, or c m planter, or wheat raiser, but h- hn> folvtl the question, just as Tennet see will doiah.:n j ar future. He makes it from bis entile. I'hirty cowb in milk the wbole year ronnd, for he has a breed that refuses fcf> 'go dry,' and one that has surprised the wtrld with her immense yield of milk. After an experience of several hundred years he has learned to make the beat cheese that in made in any quarter of tie globe ; it is known the civilised world over. For thia cheese he has a fixed, certain and remunerative market, and sells it each week »Dd pockets the cash , His cattle have become almost as well-known a* his cheese ; cousequently the increase of the herd^are sold at the moat fancy prices. He makes butter as well as cheese:" he makes cheese from milk after the cream is taken off, though its quality is not ranked a* the best. These cattle support the thickest population in gthe world, and kave made of these Hollanders the riche»t farmers on the globe. Erery farmer keeps bin carriage, iris win*s, and bis Schiedam echnappi, and lives in a moet elegant and tasteful brick residence. His land is worth not less than £139 pet acre, and, thougk he w«ars wooden shoea, he has never learned that others are more comfortable, and if he does make hia wife work hard she declares she mr* fere it, andexpresies contempt for anyone <wfao does not know how to keep clean stables and make good butter and cheese.