FACTS ABOUT DENMARK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 308, 26 November 1932, Page 4

FACTS ABOUT DENMARK

A writer in a contemporary gives the following interesting facts about Denmark : Denmark consists of one peninsula and about 500 Islands (the Faroes included) of which only 100 are inhabited. The highest point in Denmark is but 510 feet above sea level. Ninety per cent of tbe land area is productive ; eighty per cent of all the soil is under cultivation; ten per cent is woodlands and plantations ; ten per cent is bogs, heaths, and moors, of which—as experience has shown—a large part is suitable for cultivation; extension of productive areas is constantly being made both by private people and by the government. "When proper seed is provided, even the heath is capable of considerable production; and that hardly any soil is so poor that trees cannot, grow in it. In order to make use of even the very poorest soil conifers are extensively planted and the wooded areas thus materially increased. The woods on the richer soil consist largely of the rare beech, Denmar’s national tree, known for its early budding and for its beautiful light green foliage, and—besides furnishing fuel—it is extensively used in the manufacture of butter containers, and in the making of wooden shoes. In some places are found limited quantities of coal, bog iron, and various kinds of chalk, while in greater abundance is the calcareous tertiary marl used in the cultivation of the* heaths, and lastly koalin, invaluable to the paper and porcelain industries. Denmark, Though but 17.110 square miles in area, has 3,550,000 inhabitants, or 204.7 people per square mile, while the United States has 41 per square mile. One-fifth of all the inhabitants lives in Copenhagen, the capital. Only 45 out the 85 provincial towns have more than 5.000 inhabitants. Denmark has 80 seaport towns and a large number of smaller landing] places. One inhabitant in twenty- , seven owns an automobile. Copenlia-! gen is an aerial traffic centre for northern Europe. One in twelVe has a. telephone and one in ten a radio, the State has a yearly income of 2 million kroner from radio licenses, and that all broadcasting in Denmark is done bv the State.

The figures given a.re in accordance with the latest statistics, says the writer.