Prussia contains a large number of lakes, especially in her northeastern section, but none of them of great importance. There are also large swamps along the lower course of the Oder, Havel, Warthe and Netze rivers, and drainage work has been going on. All the river system of Prussia belongs to the basins of the Baltic and North Sea, the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea, being the only large river of Germany that does not figure in Prussia's national economy. All the other principal rivers of Germany, such as Rhine, Weser and Oder, with most of their tributaries, and the Vistula (Weichsel) and Niemen (Memel), coming from Polish or Rus sian soil, in their most navigable and important portions, form part of the Prussian river system. The Rhine flows through Prussian territory about 200 miles, the Weser and Oder almost completely and the Elbe for about two-thirds of its course. There are also a large number of shorter coast rivers, such as the Pregel, Leba, Wipper,.Re,ga, Peene, Ucker, Trave, all belonging to the Baltic, and the Eider, Ems, Werra, Fulda, Saale, Havel and Aller of the North Sea range. Prussia has also a consider able number of artificial water courses. Of these the -Baltic-North Sea Canal (officially styled the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal), the construc tion of which entailed an expenditure of about $36,000,000, is in most respects of highest im portance. Vistula and Oder are connected by the Bromberg Canal; Oder and Spree by the Miillrose Canal; Havel and Elbe by the Plan Canal; Elbe and Trave by the Stecknitz Canal; Eider and Baltic by the Eider Canal. Of late years these canals have been increased in size and depth, and since the beginning of the great World War just past Prussia has planned, and is now as a matter of fact executing, a great and ambitious plan intending to connect all the principal Prussian rivers with the Danube and with each other, so as to form a great Danube shipping canal that is to make the Danube available for large boats from Regensburg to the Black Sea. It can, there fore, be said that in its hydropathic aspects, as far as variety, diversity of direction and num ber of means are concerned, Prussia is singu larly fortunate and well supplied.
Climate and The climate of Prussia is wholesome and temperate. It is the distance from the Atlantic rather than mere latitude that is the determining factor in its climatic varia tions. Thus the mean temperature of Konigs berg (far to the northeast of Prussia) is 43° F.; that of Berlin but five degrees more, namely, 48° F.; at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), on the western border, 49° F. and at Köln (Cologne) and Trier (Treves) 50° F. As one proceeds to more southerly latitudes, in Prussia, the higher altitudes even up differences. However, the greatest differences are between east and west, due to the prevailing northern and east ern winds from Prussia and the Scandinavian north in the eastern portions of Prussia. Ex tremes of temperature, therefore, are also greater in the eastern parts, wholly in the colder seasons. The average rainfall in Prussia is about 21 inches, being highest in some of the western provinces (31-34 inches) and lowest in the northeast portions (16 inches). The soil of Prussia, though in some of the western mountain regions (Rhon, Eifel, etc.) and in certain districts of the northeast very bleak and sterile and but of mediocre fertility in the northern central portion (Brandenburg), is on the whole fairly productive, and pre-eminently so in the bottom lands of the Rhine, Weser, Oder, Elbe, Unstrut, Warthe, Netze rivers. Even where in its natural state the soil is poor and meagre, much has been done by wise agri culture, assiduously fostered by the government, to improve its yield from year to year.
Geology and Mineral Of the two widely differing geological formations of Prussia, the entire flat part of it, being the larger, is covered with clay and sand of the Quarternary Age, having been spread over the surface since the Ice Age till the present day by alluvial and glacial action. And these deposits rest upon all formations from the Primary down to and through the various phases of the Tertiary. Cropping out here and there the harder rocks often emerge above the Diluvian and Alluvian. This is the case in Riigen with its chalk cliffs, in the limestone plateau near Riidersdorf, etc. The Rhenish and the Thur ingian systems are part of the Triassic system of the upper Rhine. The Silesian ranges Riesengebirge, Sudeten, etc.,— are mainly of gneiss and granite, while Harz and lower Rhine belong to the Devonian and Silurian forma tions. Prussia excels as a mining country, especially in coal, iron, lead, zinc, copper, potassium, leading by far the rest of Germany in mining products. About 89 per cent of Ger many's coal supply comes from Prussia, mainly from the Ruhr Basin, Rhine province, West phalia and Silesia, while soft coal and lignite comes from Saxony; peat also is obtained in big quantities from the northwestern lowlands near the coast. The last available statistics, those of 1912, show that Prussia mined 165,302,784 metric tons of hard coal and of lignite and soft coal 65,803,959 metric tons. Iron comes chiefly from the provinces of Silesia, Westphalia, Hesse-Nassau and Hanover, the yield being in pig iron in 1911 some 10,477,263 metric tons. The eastern portion of Silesia has practically a world monopoly in zinc, the figures for 1913 being 702,893 metric tons. Copper was mined in the same year in Prussia to the amount of 996,235 metric tons in ore, and of lead some 158,857 metric tons. In manganese production, too, Prussia is supreme. Of table salt Prussia is very prolific, and in potassium it is the chief source of production. Petroleum is obtained in limited output in the province of Hanover. The far northern coast of the Baltic yields an abun dance of amber. A large proportion of mines
and salines in Prussia are under government control and ownership. In 1913 there were employed in the mining industry in Prussia some 769,584 persons.
Prussia is the chief agricul tural state of Germany. Of the total area of Prussia 52.3 per cent consists of cultivated fields, orchards, vineyards and vegetable gar dens; 17.5 of meadows and pastures; 22.7 of forests and woods, and 7.5 only of untitled or unproductive land. The number of agricultural holdings in 1911 was 3,256,044, the farm lands totaling 20,781,147 hectares (one hectare 2.471 acres). Of these by far the larger pro portion was in small farms of less than 20 hectares, owned by 3,103,151 parties and making up 412 per cent of the whole cultivated soil. Of large estates of 100 hectares and over the percentage is more considerable in Prussia than in the remainder of the empire, because of Elbiana political and economic conditions. In fact, in those provinces of Prussia where the landed gentry still keeps its traditional grip on the country and where thousands of them own estates each over 1,000 hectares agriculture is most backward and the soil yields, in propor tion, the least per hectare. This is due to the system of tillage in vogue, the land being an nually worked by so-called (wanderhande (or season laborers) who come from the neighbor ing districts of Poland or Galicia, and who re turn thither after the crops are in. In a general way, however, although it cannot be denied that urban industry in Prussia, as elsewhere in Germany, has made large strides, somewhat at the expense of the former rural population, it must be conceded that the peasants, farmers and estate-holders, large and small, are in a fairly prosperous condition, attributable chiefly to in tensive cultivation of the soil and to the foster ing legislation of the government, as well as to the extensive use of agricultural machinery, much of it made available by the co-operative plan, to most progressive methods of tillage and to increasing diligence. The co-operative sys tem in vogue, notably among the smaller farm ers, enables them not alone to buy on shares or lure even the most improved types of farming machinery run by electricity, alcohol, petro leum, etc., for all the processes of farming, such as ploughing, drilling, harvesting, binding, threshing, grinding, etc., but also to dispose of their produce to best advantage, much of it without any middlemen, by directly dealing between producer and final consumer. Alco hol, used as a source of mechanical energy, is more extensively employed in Prussia than any where else in the world, and distilleries for the wholesale manufacture of methyl alcohol are very common, a cheap grade of potatoes being mostly used in the process. The soil of Prussia varies greatly in quality. Of the cultivable land there some 29 per cent is loam and clay, 32 per cent middling, namely, loam and sand mixed, 31 per cent is predominantly sandy and 6 per cent bogs and marshes. Besides the basin of the Rhine and its tributaries, that of the middle Elbe, Saale, Unstrut, etc., the extensive plain around Magdeburg, the so-called Bohrde, and some other large areas are most fertile. The chief cereal produced in Prussia is rye, which is consumed for bread and other food by the people in general in preference to wheat. About 75 per cent of the entire rye crop of Germany is raised in Prussia; 72 per cent of the potatoes, the crop next in importance; much of the latter is used in manufacturing alcohol ; of the wheat Prussia yields 63 per cent, and of the oats 67 per cent. The vineyards of Prus sia in 1913 aggregated 17,216 hectares and yielded 218,264 hectolitres of wine. The or chards and private gardens produced all the fruits of the temperate zone in abundance and excellent quality, notably cherries, plums, pears, apples, quinces, apricots and berries. In the whole of Prussia in 1913 there was grown of rye, on 4,935,425 hectares, some 9,345,155 metric tons; of potatoes, on 2,329,404 hectares, some 39,215,298 metric tons; of wheat, on 1,166,054 hectares, some 2,942,647 metric tons; and of oats, on 2,943,255 hectares, some 6,559,911 metric tons. Prussia excels also in livestock. The breeding of strong and generally serviceable horses has been made a special feature by the Prussian government. A score of royal studs in Teakehnrn, East Prussia, and elsewhere endeavor to keep up the grade suitable for army use, agricultural and general purposes, and the export of horses has been a regular feature. In 1913 the number of horses in Prussia was 3,387,301; of cattle, 12,344,507; of swine, 16,574, 202; of sheep, 4,081,724. The total area of Prussia under forest is 22.7 per cent, and of this the fiscus owns about one-half, coniferous trees being in a vast preponderance. The gov ernment derives some $22,000,000 of its revenues from the profits on the sale of wood, etc., of its Crown forests. As to viticulture, practically all the palatable and economically valuable wine grown in Prussia comes from the Rhine and its chief tributaries, the Moselle, Nahe, etc. A number of the vineyards are owned by the state. All the wine-growers have suffered great losses for the past 30 years from the rav ages of the phylloxera, but have got the trouble now under control. The better vintages of both Rhine and Moselle wines fetch high prices and are esteemed for their rare flavor. While fis ing, both on inland waters (carp, pike, pick erel, trout, salmon, etc.) and the sea, is likewise an important source of income for Prussia, the fisheries on the Baltic and its thaffso (her rings, sardines, anchovies, a species of cod, etc.) being of special value in pisciculture and deep-sea fishing Prussia is undoubtedly still far behind when compared with a number of other countries.