AGRICULTURE occupies a rather subordinate place in industrial Belgium, owing partly to un favorable conditions, but mainly to the greater inducements offered to capital and labor by mining and manufactures. Such agriculture as exists, nevertheless, has attained a high state'of pet fection. A Government agricultural board exists in each province, and there are many agri cultural societies, which aid and instruct farm ers in respect to unproved methods of land culti vation, which occupies about one-fifth of the population. As, however, this proportion has been steadily diminishing, the production has long been less tin n the demand, and cereals and other agricultural products have to be imported from abroad in increasing quantities.
The nature of the various provinces deter mines the character of their local agriculture. Thus, vine growing takes place mostly along the INlaas River; cereal cultivation in the provinces of Antwerp, Brabant, East Flanders. Luxemburg, Namur, and Hainault: cattle-raising on the fer tile slopes of the Ardennes and in the rich valleys of the rivers. etc. Over 85 per cent. of the total area of the country is taken up as farms, and of that land 31.05 per cent. is under cereals, 10.10 per cent. under vegetables, 4.00
per cent. under industrial plants. 24.46 per cent. under pasture, 2.00 per cent. under orchards, and 27.07 per cent. muter forests and heaths. The chief cereal in the country is rye, to which is devoted more than a third of the total area under cereals; next in importance are oats, with some 30 per cent. of the area, and wheat, with slightly less than a fourth, the remaining 12 per cent. of the area under cereals being devoted to barley, buckwheat, spelt, etc. While the area under cereals has decreased during the last half century. that under beet-root, tobacco, hops, chicory, flax, hemp, rape, and similar plants has increased 60 per cent. The cultivation of beet root (for sugar) has made phenomenal progress, as is shown by the area devoted to its cultiva tion at various periods: The non-sugar varieties of beet are also raised to a large extent. The chief seat of beet-grow ing is in the provinces of Brabant and Liege. Potatoes are a leading crop. the acreage devoted to them being greater than that under wheat. ]lops and tobacco are extensively grown, and the production of chicory has reached great pro portions.