. The earth and its inhabitants .. . 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 (
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . 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 abund
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
