1921 from Wessem to Nederweert (10-9 m.) is completed the coal
district will obtain better communication via S. Willemsvaart with
the N. Brabant industry; this canal will also provide better con-
nexion with S. Holland and Zeeland. In Brabant, a canal for soo-ton
ships was completed in 1915 connecting Tilburg, Dongen, Ooster-
hout and by a branch Breda with the Amer and hence with the
Hollandsch Diep. The continuation of the canal to the E. of Til-
burg towards the S. Willemsvaart was in course of execution in
1921 : this Wilhelmina canal will have a length of 4.2-5 miles.
The waterways from the large ports of Rotterdam and Amster- dam are continually being improved. The New Waterway, which joins Rotterdam with the North Sea, was given a depth of 10-5 metres at ordinary high-water or 9 metres at low- water; and in 1921 it was being deepened to 11-5 metres and it was intended to increase the depth subsequently to 12-5 metres and widen the navigable channel and reduce the reaches. An improvement of the Noordgeul and the Oude Maas was also in progress whereby the current will be improved and the port of Dordrecht made accessible to ships with a draught of eight metres.
Amsterdam communicates with the sea via Ymuiden. At this port there are three locks for ships of 200 metres length, 24 metres width and 92 metres draught. A fourth, 400 metres long, 50 metres wide and 15 metres deep, was under construction in 1921. This width is one and a half times that of the locks of the Panama Canal, which are also 3-3 metres shallower. The outer harbour at Ymuiden was being enlarged and deepened. A scheme for the improvement of Amsterdam's communication with the Rhine was being prepared. In the E. of the country a canal system over 73 m. in length, decided upon in 1919, is to run from Almelo via Hengelo and Enschede to the Upper Rhine. In this way good water communication will be obtained from these important industrial districts to the great rivers and thus also to Rotterdam.
Railways and Tramways. In railway affairs in the Netherlands there is an increasing tendency towards concentration.
In 1917, after a period of sharp competition, the " Hollandsche Spoorweg Maatschappij " (Holland Railway Co.) and the " Maa- schappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen " (State Railways' Co.) which dominated the entire railway system, came to an under- standing for furthering their common interests.
The movement in favour of nationalization of railways has grown stronger and stronger, and the fresh agreements concluded between the State and the two companies in 1921 accorded a complete preponderance to the State. By these agreements, the capital of the companies was augmented from 3,375,000 to 7,500,000, the State providing the increase and thus becoming the chief share- holder, with a majority of votes in the Board of Directors.
The railway system was extended between 1900 and 1920 by about 379 miles. Its total length in 1919 was 2,381 m., of which 1,228 m. were double-tracked; the combined length of railways with lim- ited speed possibilities and of the tramways was 1,843 m -i lo1 m. being double-tracked.
In 1913 the line Eindhoven-Weert was added to the great rail- way lines. It has a length of only 18 m., but constitutes a great improvement in the communication between the provinces of Hol- land and Utrecht on the one hand, and Limburg on the other; since its opening, the trains run via Boxtel, Eindhoven, Weert and Rjermond to Maastricht and the rapidly developing mine districts. In 1907-8 a local, electrically worked line was laid from Rotterdam to The Hague and Scheveningen (20 \ m.). Of great significance is the local railway which relieved the isolation of the prosperous agri- cultural and market-gardening districts around Haarlemmermeer, joining such places as Hoofddorp, Aalsmeer, Uithoorn, Alphen and Oudshoorn to Leiden, Haarlem, Amsterdam and the main line from Amsterdam to Utrecht (by Nieuwersluis). Its total length is about 74 miles. Among other extensions in progress in 1921 were local railways and tramways in S. Limburg and Dutch Flanders.
In principle it has been decided to electrify some of the main lines. At the same time it is intended to relieve the main lines of the local traffic by the construction of new tramways and the elec- trification of old ones. For example, the steam tramways from The Hague to Leiden and from Leiden to Haarlem were to be electrified. Between Rotterdam and The Hague and between Haarlem and Amsterdam, electric traffic lines were already in existence. Various steam tramways had already been electrified or were being converted.
The State usually subsidizes the construction or improvement of local means of communication, provided both the communes and the provinces concerned manifest sufficient financial interest.
On the Netherland railways there were in use, in 1919, 1,363 loco- motives, 4,823 passenger carriages and 29,734 goods wagons. The number of passengers carried increased from 46,221,001 in 1910 to 76,361,000 in 1916. The shrinkage of traffic possibilities by reason of the coal dearth and the raising of tariffs caused passenger traffics to recede to 64,326,000 in 1917, 60,613,000 in 1918, and 60,248,000 in 1919. The goods traffic reached its maximum, 20,183,000 tons, in 1913; it fell to 13,819,000 tons in 1919.
On Dec. 31, 1918 the tramways owned 567 locomotives, 3,028 passenger cars and 3,479 goods trucks. Traffic had been continually rising; it totalled in 1918 296,140,000 persons. The goods traffic likewise continued to increase, the amount carried in 1918 being 2,298,775,000 tons.
In 1908 Amsterdam mean time (20 minutes fast on Greenwich mean time) was adopted on the railways and in the post-offices.
Post, Telegraphs and Telephone. The post-offices in 1919 num- bered 1,702, (1910, 1,494). The number of letters and post cards delivered per head of the pop. was 60-4 (1910,46). In 1920 there were 1,421 telegraph offices (1911, 1,048).
The telegraph lines covered 5,137 m. (1911, 4,677), the total length of the wires being 29,417 m. (1911, 22,302).
The telephone system had been gradually brought under State control. Good progress had been made with the replacement of overhead wires by underground cables between the chief commer- cial centres, the Pupin system being used.
The radio installations at Scheveningen and at the State naviga- tion stations handled 10,500 telegrams in 1910 and 20,900 in 1919.
During the war, the need for direct wireless communication with the Dutch East Indies was keenly felt. This communication was nearly complete in 1921. Near Bandoeng (Java) a temporary sta- tion had been erected, while in Holland the receiving station at Sam- beek was also ready; the sending station at Kootwyk, some 31 m. distant, has six steel towers 700 ft. high.
A few small stations for wireless telegraphy and telephony were placed at the service of aerial traffic and the meteorological office.
Moreover, radiography is employed to relieve the long telegraph wires and cables on land. The chief telegraph office at Rotterdam has wireless communication with Germany. It was expected that a similar service between Amsterdam and England would be opened.
Aerial Communications. In 1921 a daily aerial service for passen- gers, post and goods was instituted between Amsterdam-Rotter- dam-London, Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Brussels-Parisand Rotterdam, Amsterdam-Bremen-Hamburg.
Agriculture and Market Gardening. In the years immediately pre- ceding the World War, Dutch agriculture and market gardening had devoted increasing attention to the export trade. Situated between such characteristically industrial countries as England, Belgium and Germany, where the general prosperity of the people enabled them to purchase products whose value is not chiefly deter- mined by the area of soil necessary for their cultivation but rather by the labour required, Holland was in a position to carry on inten- sive agriculture and market gardening with the certainty of finding ample market for the lucrative sale of her output.
Corn-growing gradually dwindled, and remained of some impor- tance only in the province of Groningen (where the strawboard industry made straw a valuable by-product) and in the sandy dis- tricts of Drenthe, Overyssel, Gelderland, N. Brabant and Limburg, where the rye grown was used in combination with enormous quan- tities of foreign fodder for the maintenance of live stock which, in comparison with the size of the farms, was exceptionally numerous and provided meat, dairy products and eggs for the export trade.
The reduction of corn-growing was coupled with an expansion of potato and beet cultivation; while a comparatively important place was occupied by various products such as rape seed, mustard seed, flax, canary seed and caraway seed. In the fen districts of Groningen, Drenthe and Overyssel potatoes were grown for the potato flour factories. Although the area of grass-land did not greatly increase, the quantity of live stock was continually added to. Large imports of foreign fodder made it possible to increase the num- ber of cattle, this fodder being used even in the pasture districts of Utrecht, Friesland, N. Holland and S. Holland. Foreign grain and oil-cake were converted into meat and dairy produce to be exported, in their turn, to the industrial countries already mentioned.
Much care was bestowed upon the breeding of good cattle, where- by Holland came to possess magnificent stocks. As a consequence Dutch cattle were much sought after for breeding purposes both in Europe and in oversea countries.
Owing to its favourable geographical position, Holland was able to place its vegetables on the markets of neighbouring countries in a fresh condition, and the climate and soil being specially suitable for the cultivation of vegetables, it is natural that market gardening assumed extensive proportions. The country became more and more the vegetable garden of the industrial districts. Certain market gardening centres devoted themselves to the cultivation of bulbs, fruit trees, ornamental shrubs and table flowers, all of which were exported to countries near and distant.
This orientation of agriculture and market gardening placed Holland in a very difficult position during the war. For the feeding of its people and its cattle it was dependent upon foreign supplies which, especially after 1916, were largely cut off. Numerous Gov- ernment regulations of a very irksome character for the agriculturist and market gardener became necessary in order to direct the produc- tion of food-stuffs requisite for the support of the Dutch population as well as of the many interned and the charitably entertained Bel- gian refugees. These measures included the obligation to convert grass-land into arable soil and to limit various crops not primarily essential as human food. Notwithstanding these measures, distress became acute, and the World War ended only just in time to pre- vent a general famine.
After the close of the war jt became possible gradually to restore to agriculture the free exercise of its functions. Every effort was made to raise the diminished cattle stocks to their old level and to give them in other respects their pre-war position.
