SOIL AND VEGETATION. The country is poor in vegetable products excepting cultivated plants. The most regions are those with a stiff clay soil on the reclaimed lands of the northern and western provinces and on the fluvial clays along the large rivers. These are the chief agri cultural and grazing lands, though the zone of cereals and some other crops also extends over a large part of the diluvial sands and gravels of the central regions. About one-fifth of the area is unproductive. The country is almost destitute of timber, scarcely one-fifteenth of the surface being occupied by woods. Pasturage covers about one-third of thy country. and the arable lauds. including the areas devoted to kitchen garden ing, occupy rather less than a third of the sur face.
Fisumui:s. Fishing is an important source of wealth. the industry being divioleol into river and coast fishing the deep-sea fishing. The chief product of the coast fisheries are sprats, which are packed for export, and the cyder, tbkis in the 111111d:1i WWI 111'10101f 110W11 by the nod is protected from high by the islands along the coast. The herring fishery is the most important branelo of deep-sea fishing. the annual catch averaging about 250.1)1)0 tons.
Corm OL'i ANC) MINERAL In.:SOURCES. Nearly the ..111.face covered by very reedit Quat0r nary formations, diluviinti occupying 40 per cent. and alluvilini 59 per cent. of the area. The coal measures, chalk, and Tertiary sands and loans occupy only about one per cent. of the surface and are found only in the extreme east and south east. The diluvinm was spread over the coun ts• during the Ice Age from Scandinavia in the north, while in a later glacial period the Meuse and Rhine spread coarse and and grit over the south. The winds, sea, rivers. and vegetation coiiperated in the formation of the alluvial strata. Most of the country being composed of water or ice-bo•ne &lids, the supply of min erals is very small. Building stone is imported from „Norway; the lack of this material has stimulated the production of brick and tile,which are made in abundance, ehiefly from the Rhine clays. and are of superior quality. Some coal is mined near Limburg, but there is no iron, ex cept a small quantity of bog iron arc obtained from the bog regions of the east. Turf or peat is cut in very large quantities.
AmuctLryttE. Over 500,000 of the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture, which has readied very high development in the northern aml ern provinces and along the southern rivers; but scarcely three-tenths of the surface is arable land, and the production fails to meet the home eon sumption. Rye. buckwheat. and potatoes are the chief products of the sandy soils; hops, sugar beets, tobacco, and wheat, of the clay soils. Rye, vegetables. and beet sugar are the chief agricul tural products. The beet farms are in the richer lands of the river valleys. the country ranking sixth in the production of beet sugar. Wheat from the United States supplements the home supply. only a small part of the people eating rye bread, as they prefer a. mixture of rye and wheat. The cereal crops, in order of importance, after rye, are oats, wheat, buckwheat, and barley. Beans are also a large crop, and potatoes are the most important product after rye. Large quanti ties of vegetable,: are sent to England. The culti vation of flowers has reached a very advanced de velopment. Haarlem being the centre of the flower industry, and exporting bulbs to all quar ters of the world. (living to very careful and scientific methods of tillage. the yield of all crops is large. In 1S99 the land in farm crops was 2,139,144 acres; pastures. 2,929.123; gar dens and orchards, 153,449; and forests, 624,421. Large areas of timber land were long ago cleared for cultivaticm, and the country is compelled to import most of its timber supply from various parts of Europe and from .;\ meriea.
Srocx-RAlsixo. .\s the moist, climate pro motes the growth of grass, animal rearing is the most important resource of the country. Cattle raising has attained a development equaled in few other eountries of the world. Cattle thrive best in the coast provinces. Dairy farming is also far advanced near the sea, and hundreds of thousands of the famous Duteh are sent to foreign markets, butter being also a large product. lforses are bred with great success in Friesland, Gelderland, and North Brabant. Sheep are reared more for their flesh than their wool, chiefly in North Holland and in the south. The poultry yards supply large quantities of eggs to England, and many tons of honey are pro (hived, chiefly among the higher lands of the east.