THE CITIZEN ARMY OE HOLLAND 



009 



varieties of cultivated plums. Its range is from 

 the Atlantic coast west to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and south to the Gulf of Mexico. It 

 blossoms in April and May and bears fruit 

 from August to October, preferring to grow in 

 narrow, open woods and along the borders of 

 streams. 



The plums are distinguished from the peaches 

 through their smooth coats and their unwrin- 

 kled seeds. It is a curious fact that the varie- 

 ties derived from the wild yellow or red plum 

 and its related American species, and also the 

 Japanese plum, are practically sterile to their 

 own pollen, and do not produce profusely 

 enough for profitable cultivation unless within 

 reach of other varieties for cross-fertilization. 

 The plum has its own peculiar enemies, both 

 fungus kind and insect kind. One sort of fun- 

 gus which attacks it begins its work soon after 

 the plum sheds its bloom, and as the fruit be- 

 gins to grow it develops a "plum-pocket" an 

 inch or two long, which presents a hollow, 

 bladder-like appearance. The attacked fruit 

 develops with thickened walls, but with no pit. 

 The fungus also attacks the leaves and stems, 



causing them to assume a bloated, distorted 

 appearance. 



The insect which is the' especial enemy of 

 the plum is the curculio, a small, rough, gray- 

 ish black beetle about one- fifth of an inch 

 long and with two peculiar bumps on its back. 

 The female selects a plum in which to deposit 

 an egg. With her little snout she makes a 

 short slit about one-sixteenth of an inch deep 

 and places her egg therein. Then she cuts an- 

 other slit, crescent-shaped, in front of the 

 other one, in such a way as to cause that side 

 of the plum to wither and to prevent the fruit 

 from healing up around the egg. 



When the larva hatches out, it feeds on the 

 fruit around the stone until the plum, now 

 thoroughly diseased, falls to the ground, carry- 

 ing it along. It then climbs out of the fruit, 

 digs down about a third of a foot into the 

 ground, and there makes a little cell in which 

 it transforms itself into a pupa in from three 

 to six weeks. As an adult it emerges, selects a 

 place for hibernation, and sleeps until next 

 year's trees begin to bud, feeding on twigs and 

 buds until the fruit begins to form. 



THE CITIZEN ARMY OF HOLLAND 



By Henrik Willem Van Loon 



Author of "The; Fall, of the; Dutch Republic," "The; Rise; of thf Dutch 



Kingdom," Etc. 



THE Holland with which we are all 

 familiar is a picturesque combina- 

 tion of dikes and windmills, smil- 

 ing girls with pretty lace caps, and very 

 small boys with very big cigars. There 

 is another side to this picture to which 

 we have paid less attention; that is the 

 Holland of the modern merchant and the 

 modern scientist — a small bit of land 

 teeming with industry and busy with a 

 thousand different affairs — a country ad- 

 ministering a vast colonial empire with- 

 out the use of a large military establish- 

 ment and capturing Nobel prizes at a 

 most enviable rate. 



This modern Kingdom, with its har- 

 bors and its vast foreign trade, forms a 

 small but concise national unit in the 

 midst of very powerful neighbors, who 

 for over two years have been engaged in 

 the most gigantic of all wars. Yet Hol- 

 land has managed to keep out of the 

 struggle with lasting success. It was able 

 to do this because in a military sense it 

 was fully prepared for all eventualities. 



A COMPARISON OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 



The Kingdom of Belgium was not pre- 

 pared for war and it was invaded and 

 overrun by a hostile army. The Nether- 

 lands, although smaller in number of in- 

 habitants, had the entire arm - bearing 

 force of its male population at the fron- 

 tier 48 hours before any of the other na- 

 tions of Europe mobilized. As a result. 

 the neutrality of the country has been 

 rigorously respected. 



Strategic reasons, however, for an in- 

 vasion of the country have been present 

 ever since the month of October of the 

 year 1914, when the Germans captured 

 Antwerp. A cursory glance at the map 

 will shoW that the Germans thereby ac- 

 quired the most important naval base in 

 their warfare upon England. Yet they 

 could not use it as long as Holland closed 

 the mouth of the Scheldt with mines and 

 gunboats and land fortifications. 



Upon several occasions there was an 

 uneasy and panicky feeling that the Ger- 



