CHAPTER V. 



STATISTICS OF THE NETHERLANDS. 



HE Netherlands are densely peopled, considering tliat a large portion 

 of the country consists of bogs and barren tracts. The population 

 is most closely packed in the provinces of Holland and Utrecht, 

 which contain nearly one-half of it, although embracing less than a 

 fourth of the total area. Within this district lie the three largest 

 towns of the country, and population increases more rapidly than elsewhere. The 

 annual increase averages about 1 per cent., and is almost solely due to an excess of 

 births. The duration of life (thirty-eight years, one month) is less than in other 

 parts of Europe, and would be less still if it were not for the scrupulous cleanliness 

 of the people, which counteracts the deleterious effects of a damp soil, and the 

 generous diet which the wealth of the country places within reach of nearly all. 

 The death rate is highest in Holland and Zealand, and there are towns where 

 nearly a third of the children die within a year of their birth. 



Agkiculture. — Marvellous is the labour expended upon the drainage of 

 swamps and meres, but large areas have not yet been brought under cultivation. 

 The bogs, however, are gradually being reclaimed, and some of them have been 

 planted with rushes, which yield a crop quite as profitable as corn. Still it is 

 curious that the Dutch, at vast expense, should dyke oflf portions of the sea, instead 

 of planting their extensive waste lands with trees. The existing forests are far 

 from sufficient to meet the demand for timber and brushwood. If sandy tracts 

 have been brought under cultivation, this is due to poor zandboeren, and not to 

 wealthy landowners. 



Rye and wheat are the leading bread-stufis grown. The cultivation of potatoes, 

 oats, barley, pulse, and beet-root is carried on extensively, whilst amongst so-called 

 industrial crops rape occupies the first place, tobacco, flax, hemp, and chicory being 

 also of some importance. The orchards yield an abundance of apples, prunes, and 

 cherries, whilst the gardens around Haarlem and other towns are noted for their 

 fine flowers and ornamental shrubs. But it is the meadows and grass lands which 

 produce the real agricultural wealth of Holland, so famous for its dairy farms. It 

 is to Dutch cows that our own shorthorns trace their pedigree. Butter and cheese 



