NEW DUTCH FARMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 210, 18 June 1935, Page 8

NEW DUTCH FARMS.

NEARLY A MILLION ACRES. Holland's great scheme for draining the whole of the Zuyder Zee and converting the land into a new province nearly 1,000,000 acres in area has highly promising prospects from the agricultural point of view. Small areas which have been cleared experimentally yielded such satisfactory crops as 3500 tons of wheat, 2500 tons of barley, 100 tons of rye, and 5000 acres of grass and clover, on which 2000 cattle were fed. More land is gradually being reclaimed. The great task of clearing the whole area, which is expected to add 10 per cent to Holland's arable land, has already been planned, but it is awaiting a reorganisation of the administration with a view to economical working. The last of the anchovy fisheries has been closed, as the fishermen find that there is no longer a good yield of sea fish to be pbtained. Next year, when work is to be begun at its full capacity, the process of reclamation will probably move quickly. In September, 1933, the Zuyder Zee was cut off from the North Sea and converted into the 'Yssel Lake" by the completion of an embankment stretching across its opening. The embankment, begun in 1925, stretches from the mainland on the west to the island of Wieringen, and continues thence to the Friesian coast, being in all 26 miles in length.

The soil, like the water of the Yssel Lake, is being gradually cleared of salt The water varies in its salt content, partly because of the varied outflow to the sea and inflow from the rivers, and partly because some sections clear of their salt irregularly.