ABSTRACT
The most outstanding concentration of linear settlements is to be found in the Veenkolonien which occupy a zone of more than 100 square kilometres on the border between the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe. These Veenkolonien have generated a variety of industries, and they are an important, highly individual element in the manufacturing economy of the North. In the extreme north-east the small but expanding port of Delfzijl has been linked with the main network, while the Veenkolonien have benefited from the up-grading of the Groningen-Emmen road running to their south-west. In the 1970s the locational factors are less dominant, yet three-quarters of the industry's labour force of almost 4000 work in the Veenkolonien, where this form of employment ranks second only to the metal-using industries. Physically the North consists of a broad dyke-protected coastal plain which gives way inland to a low plateau of glacial clays and sands, covered in several districts by extensive peat deposits.
