CHAPTER XXXII 



THE HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN 



The native home of Holstein-Friesian cattle is in Holland, or, 

 more correctly, the Netherlands. This is one of the smallest 

 independent states of Europe, containing 12,741 square miles, 

 with a population of about six millions, or about 470 persons to 

 the square mile. There are eleven provinces, but those of Fries- 

 land, Drenthe, North Holland, and South Holland are more 

 especially engaged in the keeping of dairy cattle. Holland lies 

 between latitudes 50 and 5 3. and is bounded on the west and 

 north by the North Sea. Much of Holland has been reclaimed 

 from the sea, and as this land lies below sea level the water is 

 held back by dikes. This is the flattest part of the continent of 

 Europe. Along the sea front, especially in North and South 

 Holland, the land surface in places is twenty feet below sea level, 

 while the average height of the entire country is only about 

 thirty feet above sea level. The following interesting comment is 

 given regarding the topography of Holland J : 



Three features, the dunes, dikes and polders, characterize the north and 

 south belt nearest to the sea. The dunes stretching along the coast were formed 

 by the winds and sea, which heaped up the ocean sands into rows of hills from 

 20 to 60 feet apart and from 35 to 200 feet high. Wherever they front the 

 coast they are adequate protection against the sea. These sand ridges and hills 

 are sparsely wooded, but are saved from disintegration by natural or cultivated 

 growth of plants. Few parts of them are tilled, but the sandy regions behind 

 them are carefully cultivated. The dikes are gigantic artificial embankments of 

 earth faced with stone or protected by stakes. They guard the country against the 

 sea at the places where there are no dunes. The largest is the Helder Dike. There 

 are also smaller dikes, as a precaution against floods, on the banks of the Rhine 

 and other streams. Inside the line of dunes and dikes are great numbers of pol- 

 ders, which are areas of land inclosed by dikes that not only protect them from 

 floods, but also render it possible to pump out the water from within the inclosure. 



Holland is a country of canals, and in some regions these are 

 found at four different elevations, the water being pumped from the 



J " The Netherlands," New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIV (1912), p. 396. 



354 



