Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/809

BELGIUM. world-wide reputation. The number of stock animals in Belitium is shown as follows:

LITE STOCK Homes ' 294.536 Cattle., Hngs.. Sheep.. 1,203,801 496, 5M 662,508 1880 271,974 1,382.815 646.375 365,400 271,527 1.420.978 1.163.133 235.722 tliir^ips are mostly raised in Xamur and Lux- eniburf.', cattle in East Flanders, slieep in Luxeui- liurs. and hogs in East Flanders. As will be seen from the above table, the number of horses lias remained stationary, and that of cattle neai'ly so, while the number of sheep has greatly declined. On the other hand, there has been a vast increase in the nuinl)er of hogs.

. The concentration of land-ownership, the relative advantages and ihancos of survival of small and largo farms and the possibilities in the way of application of capital in agriculture in coiuieetion with in- tensive cultivation, have nowhere perha])s been studied with greater care than in IJelgium. As Ihe comlitions do not dill'er much from those in the neighboring countries of Western Europe, the agricultural statistics of Belgium are of more than ordinary value. The following table shows what was the land distribution at each iif the censuses duriuL' the Xineteenth Century:

NU.MDEU OF FAB.MS 4^ -g FAKMS S 22 1S46 1866 1880 1895 I.pfis th,4np4 aoivs. 247,.'i.'il
 * H2,2;io

472,471 468.120 —03.2 Friiml'/jtuiii; 711.41:! 1(I.H.(I'.I4 121.905 85.921 —29,7 " LHb to li',2 Ui.),'.l33 219.384 226,058 191.833 —15.4 " 121,2 to 25 " 42,737 51,G50 48,390 49.0CS +01.4 "25 to 50 •• 26,585 30,996 25.983 28.151 +08.3 " 60 to 125 14.988 16,066 12.186 13.151 +07.9 SInrethanl25 " 4,333 5,527 3,403 3.684 +05.3 572.560 744,007 910,396 829,825 —09.7 (+) Increase. (— ) Decrease.

The above table discloses the interesting phe- nomenon that, while the small farms (those with an acreage of less than 12% acres each) had been increasing in number previous to 188(3, and those with a larger acreage decreasing, the tend- iiiey has been reversed in our times, and since 1S80 the small farms have been giving place to the larger ones. (The word 'large' is applied to a farm in Belgium that would be considered very snuill indecil in the United States; but in Belgium the intensive system of cultivation makes it possible to a[)ply a comparatively large amount of capital to a small area.) ithin the group of small famis the smallest, those of less than I'/i acres in extent, mostly gardens or or- chards attached to houses, have decreased only ? per cent, since ISSO, while those from 1% to 2% acres have decreased nearly .30 per cent., and from 2ii to 12V-; acres 15'o per cent. The largest increase took place in the two groups from 25 to 12.5 acres, viz., 8 per cent. At the same time there has been an increase in the num- ber of tenants cultivating land. In 1840 o4.7 per cent, of the total area under farms was cultivated directly by their owners; in 18CG only SO..*! per cent; in IS.SO the proportion increased again to 53 per cent., to fall in 1895 below one- half of the total — viz. 411.4 per cent. The changes in agriculture which accompanied this concentra- ti<m of land and increase of tenantry have been partly, as stated above, a gradual abandonment of grain-growing (caused to a great extent by the competition of the cheaper American grain), and the substitution of the cultivation of indus- trial plants, or of stock-raising, or of activities partaking more of the industrial than agricul- tural eliaraeter.

The forests of Belgium cover less than 15 per cent, of its area, and are mostly to be found in the south, especially in the provinces of LiJ-ge, Namur, and luxemburg. They furnish but a small part of the wood required for the Belgian industries. The fisheries furnish employment to a few thousand persons, and the value of the deep-sea fish caught annually is not far from $1,000,000.

. The coal of Belgium constitutes one of the chief sources of its national prosperity. The coal deposits extend nearly through the entire breadth of the country, from west to east, underlying aliout one-twentieth of its total area, chielly along the valleys of the Meuse and the Sambre. The growth of the coal-raining indus- try during the last half of the Xineteenth Cen- tury is shown in the followiug table:

PnoDrcTiox and Value of Coal in Belgiitm 1850 1870 1890 1899 Metric tons (2204 lbs.) 5.821.000 $9,294,000 47,949 13,697,000 $29,727,000 91,993 20,366,000 $53,701,000 116.779 22,072.068 $54,889,000 125,258 Persons empl'd

Among the minerals found in Belgium are iron, lead, copper, zinc, calamine, alum, peat, marble, limestone, and slate. The value of the metallic products of the mines is not large, hav- ing lieen less than $500,000 in 1899, and'having greatly declined since 1800. The abundance of cheap fuel has led to the establishment of an extensive metallurgical industry, the ores being imported.

. The manufactures of Belgium constitute its chief source of prosperity. They are many and varied, differing not only in the kind of products turned out. but also as to the scale on which they are carried on; for a large number of persons still work with their own tools in home workshops, with little or no help of hired workmen. The two sides of Belgium's industrial developments — the progress in the use of machinery and the survival of the small industry — are "well illustrated by the following figures: In 184G the number of steam-engines employed in all the industries of Belgium was 1514, with a total of 37,007 horse-power; in 1880 there were 7816 steam-engines, of nearly 210,000 horse-power; while in 1890 the horse-power empIoyed exceeded 028,000. On the other hand, out of a total of about 330,000 industrial establishments of all kinds (including mines) in 1896, there were still 87,000 'establishments' conducted in the living-rooms of the workmen without any hired help. In these 87,000 "establishments,' there were engaged at work 118,747 people, or less than two for each establishment. If we add that only 41,08!) of these were men and 77,058 were women, it