GERMANY 



2470 



GERMANY 



or importance. The rivers which flow into the 

 Baltic empty into curious land-locked bays, 

 called hafls, very shallow and ringed with sand 

 dunes. The largest of these, the Kurisches 

 Haff, into which the Memel empties, has an 

 area of 626 square miles. 



Climate and Life Forms. Though Germany 

 extends through almost nine degrees of latitude 

 there is comparatively little variation in tem- 

 perature between the north and the south, 

 because the high altitude makes the south 

 cooler than it might otherwise be, while the 

 sea breezes have just the opposite effect on the 

 northern portion. Thus in the south the aver- 

 age annual temperature is about 52, while in 

 the north it is about 48. The variation ea'st 

 and west is more marked, the inland region to 

 the east having a distinctly continental climate, 

 with extremes of heat and cold, while in the 

 west the summers are not so hot nor the win- 

 ters so cold. The rivers flowing into the Baltic 

 are obstructed by ice for considerable periods 

 each winter, but those flowing to the North Sea 

 are seldom frozen over, except the Elbe, the 

 easternmost of the North Sea rivers. 



As to rainfall, there is almost everywhere 

 enough for agriculture, but the distribution is 

 very uneven. It is heaviest in the Harz 



Mountains, which average over forty inches 

 each year and in some parts have no less than 

 sixty inches; but most of the mountain and 

 western coast regions have from twenty-five to 

 thirty inches. 



In the very olden days Germany was a 

 heavily forested country, and many of the old 

 myths and superstitions are connected with 

 trees. Germany has not been as wasteful of 

 its forests as some other countries, for to-day 

 about one-fourth of the entire surface is 

 wooded, and forestry is well advanced. That 

 this is true even the children may know, from 

 the frequent allusions to foresters in their fairy 

 tales. So thickly overgrown are some of the 

 mountain ranges that they are called not 

 mountains but woods, as Schwarzwald, or 

 Teutoburg Forest. About two-thirds of the 

 trees are cone-bearers pines and firs; and the 

 rest are chiefly oaks, beeches and birches. 



The animal life is in some ways very inter- 

 esting, -for in the Southern Alps and in the 

 Harz Mountains are to be found foxes and 

 wildcats, while wild boars and deer still roam 

 many of the dense forests. Birds are numerous, 

 but most of them are but transients, for two 

 of the great migration routes cross the Empire 

 see BIRD, subtitle Migration of Birds) . 



Resources and Industries 



Mineral Wealth. Germany is one of the 

 richest in minerals of all the European coun- 

 tries, and its chief products are those two basic 

 minerals, coal and iron. Only the United 

 States and Great Britain among the countries 

 of the world produce more coal and only the 

 United States more iron. Westphalia, Silesia 

 and the Rhine Province yield most of the coal, 

 about ninety per cent of the annual output of 

 190,000,000 tons, in normal times. This is exclu- 

 sive of lignite, of which more than one-third 

 of the above amount is produced. 'The coal of 

 the Saar Basin has been awarded to France for 

 fifteen years, to offset Germany's use and de- 

 struction of French mines during its four years 

 of occupation. 



The production of iron increased rapidly dur- . 

 ing the late nineteenth and the early twentieth 

 century, the output of pig iron amounting in 

 recent years to almost 20,000,000 tons annually. 

 In its yield of silver, too, Germany ranks first 

 among the ' European countries, and copper, 

 zinc, lead and nickel are mined in considerable 

 quantities. There are vast deposits of salt and 

 of various potash compounds, and to these lat- 



ter is due in large measure the growth in the 

 chemical industries. All along the Baltic coast 

 amber of excellent quality has been obtained 

 for fully two thousand years. 



"Made in Germany." Without its mineral 

 wealth Germany could not have had in recent 

 years its marvelous industrial development a 

 development greater than that of any other 

 country within the same period. In the value 

 of its manufactures it passed France, long its 

 rival, and in 1913 was surpassed only by Great 

 Britain and the United States. The "Made in 

 Germany" legend stamped on goods of various 

 sorts became very familiar in all parts of the 

 world, and before the war its trade grew amaz- 

 ingly fast. The oldest and most important of 

 the industries are the textile manufactures, 

 whether cotton, linen, woolen or silk. Much of 

 the raw cotton and wool is imported, but the 

 high valleys of Silesia, Saxony, Westphalia, the 

 Harz and other districts are in the season blue 

 with the spreading fields of flax. Dress goods, 

 clothing, damasks, carpets, thread laces and 

 shawls are largely produced, and most of the 

 manufactures are rather sharply localized. 



