Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/79

67 EDUCATION.] HOLLAND 07 Church, a provincial committee of supervision for the ecclesiastical administration. For the whole kingdom this supervision is entrusted to a common &quot;collegium &quot; or committee of supervision, which meets at the Hague, and consists of 11 members named by the provincial committee and 3 named by the synod. Some congregations have within recent years withdrawn from provincial supervision, and have thus free control of their own financial affairs. As a Roman Catholic province Holland is divided into 5 dioceses the arch bishopric of Utrecht, and the suffragan bishoprics of Haarlem, Bois le Due, Breda, and Roerrnund, which are severally divided into deaneries (dekanatcn). The various denominations are subsidized by the state. The , total thus expended in 1877 was 65,654. ica- Primary education is being more widely diffused year after year, i. and at the same time receiving increased support from the state. While in 1868 there were 3675 schools, attended by 437, 311 pupils, and conducted by 10,375 teachers, the corresponding figures for 1877 were respectively 3813, 522,861, and 12,292; and while in 1858 the state, the provinces, and the communes expended only 1,278,894 guilders ( = ls. 8d. sterling) on the schools, the expenditure for edu cation in 1877 was 7,271,484 guilders. In 1875, 1876, and 1877 there were 841, 848, and 847 in every thousand boys between six and eight years of age at school, and 786, 796, and 803 out of every thousand girls; and from nine to eleven years of age 881, 890, and 910 out of every thousand boys, and 812, 815, and 827 out of every thousand girls. There is thus a steady decrease of non-attendance. The improvement of primary education is shown by the growing decrease in the proportion of conscripts who could neither read nor write: from 1846 to 1858 this was 22 &quot;82 per cent.; 1859-62, 1979; 1863-67, 1774; 1868-71, 15 46 ; 1872-76, 13 13; and in 1876 only 1T99 per cent. There are no bilingual schools in Holland, and teachers discourage the use of the dialects. 1 For secondary education there were in 1877 39 &quot;burgher schools&quot; (partly day schools, partly night schools), with 372 teachers and 4319 pupils; 43 industrial art and technical schools, with 203 teachers and 4145 pupils; 53 higher class &quot;burgher schools/ having courses of 5 or 6, of 4, and of 3 years, with 620 teachers and 4000 pupils; the polytechnic school, with 12 professors and 13 teachers, and attended by 319 pupils; and the national school of agriculture at Wageningen, with 100 pupils. Schools of navigation were maintained at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Helder, Terse-helling, Vlieland, Harlingen, Schiermonnikoog,- Groningen, Delf/ijl, and Veendam, with a total of 536 pupils and 26 instructors. The secondary school for girls (with courses of 5 and of 4 or 3 years) were 12 in number, and had about 900 pupils and a teaching statf of 140. For secondary education in 1876 the state expended 933,721 guilders, the provinces 24 ; 329, and the communes 906,618, making a total of 1,864,668, or 155,389 sterling. The higher education is provided for in the four universities of Leyden (founded in 1575), Utrecht (1636), Groningen (1614), and Amsterdam (1877), with 45, 34, 31, and 41 professors, and 627, 401, 189, and 389 students respectively. Instruction is also given by about 100 teachers to 1400 pupils in various seminaries and theo logical schools; the number of Latin or grammar schools and gym nasia in 1877-78 was 51, with 240 teachers and 1503 pupils. The total cost of the higher education amounted to 1,057,694 guilders. A national institution at Leyden for the study of the languages, geography, and ethnology of the Dutch Indies has given place to communal institutions of the same nature at Delft and at Leyden, founded in 1864 and 1877. Military and naval instruction are pro vided for by corps schools, by a training battalion at Kampen, an artillery 1 raining company at Schoonhoven, and scientific courses for the several corps, by the royal military academy (founded 1828), the &quot;school of war&quot; for officers, the royal navy institute at Wil- lemsoord (1856), and by training ships at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Helvoetsluys for apprentice boatswains, sailors, cabin-boys, pilots, and engineers. For the education of medical practitioners, civil and military, the more important institutions are the national obstetrical college at Amsterdam, the national veterinary school at Utrecht, the national college for military physicians at Amsterdam, and the establishment at Utrecht for the training of military apothecaries for the East and West Indies. entitle Of the numerous institutions in Holland for the encouragement I art of the sciences and the fine arts, the following are strictly national titu- the royal academy of sciences (1855), the royal Netherlands an, meteorological institute (1854), the national academy of the plastic arts, the royal school of music, the national archives, the royal picture gallery at the Hague, and the national gallery of modern masters in the Pavilion at Haarlem, the national museum of an tiquities, the national museum of ethnography at Leyden, the Toyal collection of curiosities at the Hague, &c. Provincial scien- 1 See Geschiedkundig overzigt van het lager onderwijs in Nederland, Leyden, 1849 ; De viet op het lager onderwys, met aanteekeningen door S. Blaupot ten Cate en A. Moens, Gron., 1879; and Dr J. Stein Parve, Organisation de ^instruction primaire, secondaire, et superieure dans le roy. des Pays-Has, Leyden, 1878. Agric ture. Live stocls. tific societies exist at Middelburg, Utrecht, Bois le Due, and Leeuwarden, and there are private and municipal associations, institutions, and collections in a large number of the .smaller towns. Among others of general utility are the society tor the service of the community (Maatsehappij tot nut van t algemeen, 1784), and the geographical society at Amsterdam (1873), Teyler s Stichting or foundation, and the society of industry at Haarlem, the loyal institute of languages, geography, and ethnology of the Dutch Indies (1851) and the Indian society at the Hague, the royal institute of engineers at Delft (1848), the association for the encouragement of music at Amsterdam, &c, The agricultural methods vary according as the soils are sandy or clay. I n the first the &quot; three-crop &quot; system (two crops of rye and one of buckwheat) differs widely from the careful Flemish method of cul tivation, in which even the pastures are manured. On the clay there is still greater variety both in the modes of treatment and in the amount of care bestowed on weeding and draining. The produce of the land is thus very different in the various provinces for the same soil. The general value of the crops is gradually rising, as may be seen from the following statistics, in which the higher figures cannot be altogether ascribed to the greater extent of land brought under cultivation : improved education and the influence of local associations for the advancement of the interests of agriculture have contributed to the result. In 1851-60 there was under cultivation in grain and other marketable crops 1,637,512 acres, in 1861-70 1,770,890 acres, and in 1871-75 1,860,850 acres. The total value of the crops was 8,311, 666 in 1851, 13,445,672 in 1862, 15,870,586 in 1871, and 19,001,598 in 1875. Of the total acreage just men tioned about 25 9 per cent, was devoted to rye, 17 3 to potatoes, 13 5 to oats, 8 6 to buckwheat, 7 to beans and pease, 7 1 to barley, 5 to rape seed, 3 to flax and lump, 8 to madder, 6 to garden seeds, 2 to tobacco ; while the rest is set apart for the special cul tivation of chicory, hops, beetroot, mangold wurzel, market-garden produce, flowers, pharmaceutical plants, grapes, &c. The woods or rather the plantations, covering 6 per cent, consist of (1) the so-called forest timber (opgaandhout; French, arbres de haute futaie), including the beech, oak, elm, poplar, birch, ash, willow, and coniferous trees ; and (2) the copse wood (akkermaal or hak- hout), embracing the alder, willow, beech, oak, &c. This forms no unimportant branch of the national wealth. Stock-breeding varies in the different provinces. For cattle, Friesland and North and South Holland take the lead as regards both quality and numbers ; sheep are best in Texel and North Holland, and most numerous in Divnthe, where their preponderance is due to the number of commons which still remain unbroken up. Pigs, for which the low lands are peculiarly favourable, an; reared in all the provinces. Goats, mainly kept for their milk, are most numerous in Guelderland and North Brabant. Guelderland, Fries- land, Zealand, and Groningen possess the greatest number of horses. Poultry, especially fowls, are generally kept. Bee culture is mainly carried on in buckwheat and heath districts (Gnelderland, Overyssel, Drenthe, the Gooiland, and Utrecht). A bee market is held at Veenendaal in Utrecht. Stock breeding is mainly carried on along with dairy-farming and hay-making on the alluvial soils ; and there the cereal crops give way to fodder plants. The permanent pasture in recent years extends to some 2 millions of acres, and clover, artificial meadows, &c., occupy about 400,000. The production of milk, butter, and cheese amounts to the value of 90 millions of guilders (Is. 8d. each); butcher meat produces 35 millions, and wool, hides, fowls, and game 10 millions; while horse-breeding also yields a total of 10 millions. In 1870 the number of horses was 252,200; cattle, 1,410,800; sheep, 900,200; goats, 156,900; and pigs, 329,100; whereas in 1876 the horses numbered 268,000; cattle, 1,439,257; sheep, 891,090; goats, 150,000; and pig*, 352,000. The value of this live stock in 1870 was 22,087,375, and in 1876 29,799,905. In the densely peopled Netherlands, with no extensive forests, Gi.ma.. hunting forms rather an amusement than a means of subsistence, the only exception being the pursuit of wild-fowl (ducks, geese, and snipes). Hares, partridges, wood-snipes, finches, and thrushes are the only form of game ; a few roebucks and deer are found in Overyssel and Guelderland ; rabbits are numerous in the dunes, and sea-gulls eggs are gathered in the north of Texel, which conse quently bears the name of Eijerland (i.e., Eggland). Much more important as a means of subsistence are the fisheries, Fisheri: which, however, are not at present in a flourishing state. They are divided into the &quot;deep-sea fishery&quot; (buitengaatsch) in the Ger man Ocean, and the &quot;inner&quot; fisher es (binnengaatsch) in the Zuyder Zee, the rivers of Zealand, and the inland waters. The deep-sea fishery may be further divided into the great (the so-called &quot;salt- herring&quot;) fishery, mainly carried on from Vlaanlingen and Maassluis, and the &quot;fresh-herring&quot; fishery, chiefly pursued a.t Scheveningen, Katwijk, and Noordwijk. The deep-sea fisheries also yield cod and flat fish. In the Zuyder Zee flat fish, herrings, anchovies, and shrimps are caught off the islands of Urk and Marken and the coast towns of Vollenhove, Kampen, Harderwijk, Huizen, and Vollendam; and there are oyster banks near Texel. In the Zealand rivers oysters