ABSTRACT
The population of the Netherlands is very nearly a quarter of that of France, but she has less than a sixteenth of the area. Population doubled, rising from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 during the first half of this century, and the high rate of increase, about fourteen per 1,000 per annum, is due not only to a fairly high birth-rate, but also to a very low mortality rate. The Low Countries are therefore obliged to conquer new land for agriculture and to exploit it to the highest degree. The peasants were themselves responsible for starting a large number of the industries based on agricultural products. The basic essentials of the farming system are the fodder-rearing-milk association and the seed potato crop. With the present-day economic system, the chief factor which prevents this vast agricultural potential from being developed to the full is the difficulty of finding markets.
