HOLLAND. Although we are in the habit of giving this name to a kingdom, it is in strictness the name of one of the provinces of the Netherlands. Under this restricted mean ing, Holland may be described as being flat, and in many parts below the level of the sea, against which it is protected by the sandy downs on the west coast, and by stupendous dykes built along the shores of the Zuider zee, the Haarlem-meer, and the banks of the principal rivers. The country is traversed by canals in all directions. A railroad passing from Rotterdam through the Hague, Leyden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and thence to Rotterdam, incloses a very important part of the province. Gardens and orchards are care fully cultivated; some barley, oats, peas, beans, mustard, and other seeds are the chief crops in the northern part of the province; in the southern part more corn is produced. But pasturage prevails much more than arable cultivation: the produce of the dairy farms, butter and cheese, constituting the chief wealth of the landholder. The drained dis tricts called polders have been before noticed [FLANDERS]; as well as the great drainage of Haarlem Lake. [DRAINING ; HAARLEM.] Flowers are cultivated in the tract between Alkmaar and the Hague, but especially about Haarlem. Hemp, flax, and madder are grown. Wood, both for construction and for fuel, is scarce. The manufactures, which are chiefly carried on in the towns, are important ; they are linen, paper, woollen cloths (for which Leyden is famous), silk, leather, to bacco, sugar, &c. The gin distilleries of Schiedam are very extensive, and have been long celebrated. Large quantities of fine lime are made from the shells gathered on the coast of the German Ocean. The fisheries on the coasts are important, and most industriously plied.
Besides the two most notable commercial towns [AMSTERDAM; lakar.,Em] there are other busy spots. From _Edam the export trade in sweet milk cheese is important; the chief industrial products are salt and fish oil.
Helder is notable for the great Helder-Dyke, which protects the extremity of north Holland from the fury of the storms to which it is ex posed, and is one of the most astonishing monuments of Dutch industry, perseverance, and skill. It is nearly (3 miles in length, 40 feet broad on the summit, along which there is a good road ; it presents to the sea a slant side of 200 feet, inclined at an angle of 40°, the whole constructed of granito blocks brought from Norway. Naarden forms the key of all the water communication of Holland, and is important for the defence of Amster dam, with which it is connected by a fine canal. Zaanden has a most singular appear ance; it seems to consist of a line of wind. mills, some of which are of gigantic size, and have houses attached to them, extending along the Zaan, and forming a street nearly 5 miles in length. The number of these mills is va riously stated, but it seems to amount to about 700; they are applied to the various purposes of grinding corn, draining the land, sawing timber, making paper, grinding to bacco into snuff, crushing rapeseed to express the oil, grinding colours for painters, grinding stones into sand for the floors of the Dutch housewife, and grinding the volcanic substance called tress into dust in order to form a ce ment, which hardens under water and is much used in Holland. Gonda has tobacco pipe factories that give employment to 6000 men, brickworks (the clay for the supply of which is taken from the bed of the Yssel), rope walks, gin distilleries, and breweries. Gonda numbers also among its industrial products woollen cloth and sailcloth ; it is famous as a cheese market. Schiedam has glass works, rope walks, white lead works, above 200 dis tilleries for the manufacture of gin, for which it is universally celebrated. It has a large trade in pigs, 30,000 of which are said to be annually fattened on the grains from the dis tilleries.
Alm of the towns of Holland will be repre sented at the Great Exhibition.