Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/490

NETHERLANDS 416 NETHERLANDS security altogether on artificial embank- which form an important article of ments. The highest elevation, 656 feet, Dutch commerce. But it is in stock is in the extreme S. E. The general (cattle, horses, sheep, swine, goats), aspect of the country is flat, tame, and and dairy produce in particular, that uninteresting, and about a fifth of the the rural industry of the Netherlands whole surface consists of marsh, sand, shows its strength, heath, or other unproductive land. A new system of compiling trade Rivers and Canals. — The chief rivers statistics was introduced in 1917, and of the Netherlands are the Rhine, Maas the latest complete figures available are (or Meuse), Scheldt, and Ijssel. The for that year. The total imports in the Rhine is above half a mile wide where calendar year 1917 amounted to 7,472,- it enters the Netherlands; it soon 339 metric tons, valued at $435,000,208. divides, the S. and principal arm tak- The exports for the same year amounted ing the name of Waal and uniting with to 3,321,590 metric tons, valued at $336,- the Maas, while the N. arm, com- 673,258. Nearly 25 per cent, of the im- municating with the Ijssel, takes the port trade was with Germany. The name of Leek; a branch from it, named largest trade, however, was with the the Kromme (crooked) Rhine, winds by United Kingdom, amounting in value to Utrecht to the Zuider Zee, while an- over $115,000,000. The largest volume other very diminished stream called the of exports went to Germany, $127,325,- Old Rhine flows from Utrecht by Leyden 000. Exports to the United States to the sea at Katwijk. The Maas, en- amounted to $14,735,600, while the im- tering the Dutch Netherlands from Bel- ports from the United States amounted gium, receives the Roer; of the Scheldt to $79,816,300. The chief imports were only the mouths, the E. and the W., or of gold coin, wheat, cotton yarn, to- Old Scheldt, lie within the Dutch bacco. The principal exports were boundary. The Ijssel, flowing from margarine and artificial butter, cheese, Germany, enters the Zuider Zee. The butter, condensed milk, dried vegetables, navigable canals are collectively more There are about 2,400 miles of railway important than the rivers, on which in- in the country and about 2,000 miles of deed they depend, but they are so canals. Vessels entering ports in 1918 numerous as to defy detailed descrip- numbered 1,779 with a tonnage of tion. The chief are the North Holland 1,663,093. The total national debt in canal, between Amsterdam and the 1919 was 1,650,646,000 guilders. The Helder, length 46 miles; and the more revenue for the same year was 285,667,- important ship canal, 15 miles long, 26 443 guilders, while the expenditures feet deep and 197 wide, from the North amounted to 588,706,724 guilders. Sea to Amsterdam, and connected by People, Institutions, etc. — The stock to locks with the Zuider Zee. Lakes are which the people belong is the Teutonic, also very numerous. the great majority of the inhabitants Climate, Agriculture. — The climate of being descendants of the old Batavians. the Netherlands is humid, changeable. They comprise over 70 per cent, of the and disagreeable. The mean tempera- population, and are chiefly settled in the ture is not lower than in like latitudes provinces of North and South Holland, in the British Islands, and the quantity Zeeland, Utrecht, and Gelderland. The of rain (26 inches) is somewhat less; Flemings of North Brabant and Lim- but the winter is much more severe. As burg, and the Frisians, inhabiting regards rural industries gardening and Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and agriculture have attained a high de- Overijssel, form the other groups. The gree of perfection. Yet the latter holds majority of the people belong to the a subordinate place in rural industry. Dutch Reformed Church (a Presby- Wheat, of excellent quality, is grown terlan body) ; the remainder being only in favored portions of the south Roman Catholics, Old Catholics, Jews, provinces. Rye, oats, and buckwheat, etc. All religious bodies are on a per- with horse-beans, beet, madder, and feet equality. The government is a con- chicory, are more common crops; and stitutional monarchy, the executive be- tobacco is cultivated in the prov- ing vested in the sovereign, and the inces of Gelderland, South Holland, and legislative authority in the states-gen- Utrecht; flax in North Brabant, South eral, sitting in two chambers. The up- and North Holland, Friesland, and Zee- per chamber, 50 in number, is elected by land; and hemp, sugar-beet, oil-seeds, the provincial councils or assemblies of and hops in various parts of the king- the 11 provinces; the lower chamber, dom. Culinary vegetables are cultivated 100 in number, is elected directly, the on a large scale, not merely for the sake electors being all males of 25 years of of supplying the internal demand, but age taxed at a certain figure. The mem- also for the exportation of the seeds, bers of the lower house are paid.