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JANUARY 3, 1913
The Commoner,
The Prosperous Farmer in Holland
By Dirk P. De Young, American vice consul
at Amsterdam: The Holland government has
always maintained the policy of constructing
great dykes to keep the sea out of the low
country, but it has erected no high tariff walls
on its frontiers to keep out foreign competition.
On the contrary, all agricultural products are
on the free-list, and a duty of about 5 per cent
ad valorem, is levied on only a few manu
factures of import. In fact, the Netherlands
can be said to have almost unrestricted free
trade. Up to about 30 or 40 years ago Holland had a
protective tariff on products of tho soil, sinco
when it can be conservatively stated its great
ascendency as an agricultural country began.
Higher duties, and protection for certain indus
tries, havo been industriously advocated from
time to time, usually by special interests with
sinister motives, but tho farmer, the small
tradesmen, and the independent manufacturing
element, have persistently adhered to the prin
ciples of free-trade. To say nothing of tho
flourishing manufacturing industry that this
small nation has built up without a protective
tariff, Its agricultural prosperity equals, if in
deed it does not surpass,.-in quality and intensity,
if Hot in volume, that of any other country in
tho world.
The Dutch farmer does not want a high tariff.
And the farmer of Holland is frequently a manu
facturer, too. Pie has shares in the co-operative
potato-flour, cheese, and straw-board fac
tories of his community. He makes butter to
sell and exports large quantities of beef. Ho
argues that the farmer and tho manufacturer
have a very common interest and would bo aliko
affected by a high tariff, because a higher cost
of living results which is not offset by higher
wages and higher prices, and that the interests
generally of the one are akin to those of the
other. He contends that raising import duties
is merely a process of taking money from Peter
to pay Paul. It may raise wages, but as it raises
the cost of living perforce accordingly tho effects
of the operation are lost. Moreover, tariff legis
lation .can scarcely be enacted without favoritism
to certain classes. Summing it all up, he pre
fers the natural consequences as it is to doubtful
artificial remedies; though formerly a protec
tionist. From a purely hypothetical viewpoint, Holland
is in a perfectly natural economic state. Compe
tition is allowed to run its own free course. Only
such manufacturing exists as can thrive; other
manufactured articles are imported. The theory
prevails, and the practice proves, that there are
enough industries native to tho country, and
able to compete with the world, to employ all
the surplus labor. Why should a great portion
of the population be unduly taxed to bolster up
the manufacture of articles that can be more
cheaply imported? Besides, the importation of
such wares gives employment and means to a
large number of" tradesmen, so that all benefits
of not manufacturing everything at home are
not lost. The country seems to prefer unre
stricted trade, leaving such matters to adjust
themselves. This dispenses with legislative as
sistance and its resultant doubtful operation,
periodical discussion of tariff changes, and other
economic disturbances, which upset business and
reauire constant readjustment of industries.
Disregarding the manufacturing class for the
present, tho farmer of Holland has certainly
prospered in this free-trade state. Sinco farm
products were put on the free-list, the land has
gone up in value, and the cultivated area has
steadily increased, most of tho increased area
being reclaimed swamp lands. The country Is
producing 750,000 more cattle, 20,000 more
horses, and 1,000,000 more pigs annually. In
the last five years the annual output of butter
has been swelled by 7,000 tons and the export
of bulbs has increased three-fold. Besides, it
is an universally accepted fact that food is
cheaper, that more of it is eaten, that wages aro
higher, labor more plentiful, and that working
people are better housed in Holland than in any
other European country.
To encourage agriculture, Holland kept a
protective duty on agricultural products until
about 1870. It thought to do so by shutting
out foreign competition, particularly American.
As a result, the farmer became inactive and de
pended on this advantage rather than on his
own efforts and Initiative. Farming remained
backward, food-products were high, and tho
country suffered from this lack of inertia in tho
rural sections. Scientific cultivation of tho soil
.was ridiculed by the farmer. He preferred tho
aSn whini i pro(UC"K 'ow bushels from nn
COmn nv n MrUlghtr b,g IrlC l th nl0rU
? t nie,tll0id of Producing larger yields for
inLf ,sl,10.r; the "ericulturists bccamo in
dolent and trifling under tho protective system,
ll! frich foil of the fertile lowlands was
scarcely tapped.
in TTJflrsi 8tep towarl helping out the farmer
nnmIof,nd wa therefore taken by letting in
competition. lie did not do well under pro
tection; certainly ho could not do much worse
under free-trade. At any rate, it was thought
that it was time to make him show his metal,
whether he survived or perished. The experi
ment proved successful, however, i:nd the way
he gouged the soil after decades of gouging the
public with a high protection is one of the
marvels of the age. The country Is now a
largo model farm.
After the bars of protection were lot down
in Holland, the farmer took his farm into the
laboratory and put it under a microscope. Ho
began to analyze tho different properties of tho
soil; he began to select seeds, to breed a finer
breed of stocks, and in general to work his
brains as well as his heels. Tho result of this
modern effort is an object lesson to tho world.
It reproves the old philosophy that rivalry and
competition are the great sustaining forces of
nature in any path of human endeavor. What
has Holland not done in this short period of
free-trade along agricultural linos?
When the government refused longer to allow
the farmer this lower hold on competition in tho
form of protection, ho began to catch as catch
can in the tussle for existence. Instead of giv
ing him an unfair advantage, the policy of teach
ing him to fight his own battles was adopted.
Government aid was also forthcoming in the
nature of appropriations for schools and com
missions to help got at tho real cause of rural
backwardness. When once left to his own for
tunes, the farmer soon became initiative and
began to perceive certain natural advantages
whloh Ma foreign competitor had not, that ho
had. His was a good geographical situation in
Europe; and he had a system of cheap water
carriage; and the soil of the lowlands was the
most productive in tho world. Behold, these
were advantages that had not occurred to him
before. Perhaps he could even produco pro
ducts and sell them In a foreign market, and
thus by selling more even at a lower price make
more money. He began putting his ears to tho
ground, and before a decade had passed he him
self was selling in the principal markets of the
old world. He wanted no tariff then; it would
havo created foreign antagonism. He wanted
free-trade with all countries. Today, the agri
culture of Holland has become so flourishing
that the farmer has ceased grumbling, and as a
writer says, casting his eyes down In a shame
faced chuckle, admits that he is doing very well.
Free-trade did two great things for the Dutch
farmer. It forced him to intensified agriculture
and it insured him a friendly foreign market.
When he got out his glass and began to look
for microbes In the soil tho dawn of the present
era of agricultural prosperity began. Nowhere
outside of China have greater miracles of soil
transformation been wrought than in Holland.
The wonder of bulb-growing, for example, is not
the kaleidoscopic miles of garish bloom about
which tourists and guide-books prattle, but tho
patient and foresighted way in which the sand
dunes have been excavated In order that bulb
fields might be made on the peat below. All
else of Holland's present prosperous state is
tho result of skillful and patient plodding, as
wpII
Aismeer, Holland,, where there aro 5,000
nurserymen, consists like that other Dutch
rtfH" Boskop, of extraordinary looking little
squareB and oblongs of gardens, divided by little
canals of water, Those gardens have been made
either by draining off water or by laying canal
boat load after canal-boat load of earth on top
of the bog. The front door of almost every
grower's house and office at Aismeer, tho same
as at Boskop, is reached by a draw-bridge.
The essence of successful culture of plants
for transplanting is that they shall have well
balled roots, and In order that these may be
produced, there is mixed with tho soil at Boskop
peat brought from the north of Holland. As
trees are sold out of the gardens the precious
soil is naturally reduced by the amount of cling
ing to the roots of tho plants that are dug up.
That must be replaced by bringing grass sods to
tho garden from some other section of the coun
try Large companies in Holland have fleets of
barges that do nothing but transport soli from
one part of the country to another. Likewise,
groat barges of fertilizer arc shipped down to
the bulb-fields nonr Haarlem from tho cattlo
raising districts In Frlcaland. This sort of ferti
lizer often soils as hljgh as 25 conts per wheH
barrow load.
Scientific fertilization of tho Boll alone has
dono more for Dutch agriculture than protec
tion ever did. It made earth yield forth laruer
crops, which In the aggregate brought greater
returns, and gave abundant labor for overy man,
women, and child. Tho tldo of emigration from
Holland ceased somo 10 years ago; all farm
hands aro needed now. Indeed, tho Dutch far
mer knows his soil Uko a lawyer should know
his Hlackstone. Sometimes 30 hundred-wolght
of supor-phosphate, 30 hundred-wolght of Knlnlt
and (5 hundrod-welght of nltralo aro used on ono
acre of ground In a year. Such ground would
natural! v produce enormous yields then per
haps 1,000 buahols of potatoes or 150 bushels of
oats per acre. Land in tho best sections of Hol
land soils at moro than $1,000 and rents at $35
per acre, and higher. Twenty dollars per aero
annually for fertilizers Is not out of tho ordi
nary. Intense agriculture in Holland has brought
into use many labor-saving dovlces. One would
have a very erroneous picture of tho Nether
lands today, if ho imagined that the whole coun
try is worked with a spado and that the culti
vation Is more horticultural than agricultural.
A characteristic mode of fast travel In tho rural
districts of the Netherlands Is on blcyclo. Tho
country has tho largest numhor of bicycles per
capita of any country In the w rld. In a town
of 5,000 Inhabitants, there will bo probably
1,500 to 2,000 bicycles. In many of tho vlllagos,
tho spectacle of so largo a proportion of tho
population on wheels is really comlcnl. This la
characteristic of what they do In other lines.
As a further Illustration of the nlmblcncss
of mind and adaptability of Holland farmers, in
the period from 1880-90 they grow 225,000
acres of whoat, while by 1007 It was reduced to
125,000, because they realized that this crop
was being grown In competition with moro ad
vantageously situated areas oversea, and other
products would bring them greater financial re
turns on tho samo ground. So they choso to
buy wheat and produce something else In its
stead. The production of buckwheat was ovon
more restricted. On tho othor hand, in re
sponse to now .opportunities, sugar-beets, car
rots, and a great variety of other staples, in
creased In production.
The prosperity of tho Dutch faTmor can
scarcely be told except In figures, or slmllca.
When you get Into certain sections of Holland
you actually see lakes of milk and mountains of
yellow cheeses. Really, noar Alkmcor, tho great
cheese market of North Holland, you seo such
stacks of cheese as In tho early days of Ne
braska1 you saw huge yellow corn-piles on tho
pralrlo In the autumn months. What was once
swamps Is now dralnod land, pasturing fine
hords of milch-cows, which produco great vats
of milk. If all tho milk produced In Holland
were put Into ono stream It would make a great
river like the Mississippi. If you go to the
different farm-houses and dairies of the coun
try you will hear such', estimates as "a ton of
butter made hero dally;" "2,000 cheeses made
here every day;" "3, COO cheeses manufactured
in this factory weekly;" "ton million gallons of
milk used In this factory yearly;" ot cetera ad
infinitum.
The production of butter rose from 60,000
tons In 1906 to 64,000 In 1910. Hero aro some
figures of tho working of a dairy in 1908, ia
which 77 farmers had shares, with an aggregate
of 1,676 cows, making both butter and cheese
from milk: Milk received, 1,424,723 gallons;
value about $140,000; percentage of fat in the
milk 3.14; average supply per cow, 850 gal
lons (though much higher records are common.)
Bach cow paid about $85. The total quantity of
cheeBe made In Holland in 1910 was 84,000
tons. It was exported largely to England, Ger
many, and Belgium, the United States also tak
ing considerable. The establishment of model
dairy schools all over the country did much to
help this cause along.
Another flourishing branch of agriculture In
Holland is truck gardening, especially cabbage
raising. Cabbage growing land rents as high,
as $40 per acre annually. Tho farmers who
began this had 60 to 70 aero farms, but thojr
soon found that 10 acres was the profitable area
because so much depends on personal attention.
One can not help being impressed in ono of
these cabbage patcheB with the intelligence and
prosperity of tho people. Tho large, green,
bushy cabbage-heads projecting from the rich
i'3
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