Prussia

Viticulture.

The principal wine-growing districts of Prussia are the Rheingau and the Rhine province, though wine is also produced in Silesia, Westphalia and a few other districts. The valleys of the Nahe, Saar, Moselle and Ahr all produce excellent wine. German vine-growers have suffered in common with vine growers in other countries of Europe, from the Oidium tuckers and the Phylloxera, and the Government has spent large sums of money in endeavouring to arrest the ravages caused.

Fisheries.

The fisheries on the Baltic sea and its bays, and on the North sea, are important. In the former the take consists mainly of herrings, flatfish, salmon, mackerel and eels, while the chief objects of the latter are cod and oysters. Inland fishery has been encouraged by the foundation of numerous piscicultural establishments and by the enactment of close-time laws. Carp, perch, pike and salmon, the last-named especially in the Rhine, are the principal varieties; sturgeon are taken in the Elbe and Oder, and the lakes of East Prussia swarm with bream and lampreys. Game of various kinds abounds in different parts of Prussia, and the lakes are frequented by large flocks of waterfowl.

Mining and Metal Industries.

Prussia is the largest pro ducer of coal, zinc, salt, lead and copper amongst the States of the German republic. Of the aggregate German output of coal Prussia supplies the high total of 128,552,469 tons (1925), valued at 1,827,537,717 reichsmarks, and of this the Rhenish-Westphalian district produces the largest quantity. An extremely important role is played in the coal industry of Prussia by the Rhenish Westphalian Coal syndicate, has succeeded in regulating the production and price of the coalfields generally. Out of a total output of lignite for the entire German republic of 139,724,614 tons in 1925, Prussia yielded no less than 115,122,092 tons, valued at 298,735,754 reichsmarks. Almost all the zinc produced in Ger many comes out of the Silesian mines, but two-thirds of them are now in Poland. The chief iron-producing regions are the Rhine province, Westphalia, Hessen-Nassau and Silesia. Lead and man ganese are also produced. Salt is mined principally in the province of Saxony (Stassfurt, Aschersleben, Erfurt, Halle, Merse burg, Sangerhausen), the kali salts near Magdeburg and Glauber salts in the Rhine province and Hessen-Nassau. Iron is worked

principally in the districts of Arnsberg, Dusseldorf, Oppeln in Silesia, Treves and Coblenz, and zinc for the most part near Oppeln in Silesia; lead and silver near Aachen, Oppeln and Wies baden, and sulphuric acid in all the mining districts, as well as near Potsdam, Breslau, Magdeburg and Merseburg. Petroleum is extracted to a limited extent at a couple of places in the province of Hanover, which also contains considerable potash deposits. Amber has been mined in East Prussia. A little is also collected on the coast near Pillau.

Industries.

It was during the last quarter of the 19th cen tury that Prussia became a great manufacturing country, industry being interwoven with agriculture, and both being dependent on the highest organization of technical skill. The educational system has been remarkably adapted to this end, and skill in the use of foreign languages is a special feature. The chief industrial dis tricts are, of course, those which yield coal with, in addition, the great cities—Berlin, Magdeburg, Hanover, Breslau, Gorlitz, Stet tin, Essen, Dortmund, Elberfeld-Barmen, DUsseldorf, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Crefeld, Halle, Frankfurt-am-Main, Solingen, Remscheid, Konigsberg, and many others. The iron and metal industries, especially the making of machinery, electrical plant, tramway plant, and the production of articles in wrought copper and brass, rank in the forefront. In these branches Berlin and more lately its suburbs, as well as Magdeburg and Cologne, have played an active role, but the old centres of the metallurgical and iron and steel industries in the Rhine province and Westphalia remain outstandingly important, though their control has changed into French hands. The chemical industries, essentially a Ger man specialty, take front rank, e.g., those which produce aniline dyes, artificial indigo, illuminants (acetylene gas, Welsbach man tles, etc.), explosives, various chemical salts, pharmaceutical preparations, cellulose, glycerine, artificial (chemical) manures and perfumes. German shipbuilding is highly developed.