destruction caused by the drifting sands practically ceased then. The heaths are everywhere covered with heather; during the past half century cultivation has been started on them, and gradually an area of between four and five thousand square kilometres (i. e. more than half), has been turned into forest, plantations, or even arable land.

NATURAL RESOURCES

The productive portion of the area of the country forms the principal part about 90 per cent. and of this area the agricultural portion is the most important; the latter covers 33,200 square kilometres, and is dealt with in detail later on. Compared with agriculture, the other natural resources of the country are of subordinate importance, although the following must be mentioned:

The forest area is, compared with that of most other countries, small in size, although it is growing by means of the extensions made through heath and dune plantations, which exclusively add coniferous vegetation to the forest areas. In this manner the coniferous forests or plantations have of late become the most extensive in Denmark, and now comprise one half of the whole timbered area, but owing to the young age of these plantations on the whole it is only in middle and West Jutland that they characterise the appearance of the landscape. It is thus still reasonable to call the beech the most common forest tree, although on the average it only covers a third of the timbered area; as heaths and heath-plantations are mostly found in Jutland, the difference between that part of the country and the islands is considerable. In the islands there are, in fact, two or three times as many beech-woods as coniferous woods. The oak, which was the most common forest tree some hundreds of years ago, has declined greatly in number owing to felling and to its inferiority to the beech in the struggle for sunlight. There are, however, large oak plantations now in course of growth.

As a result of the manner in which it came into being, Denmark is unusually deficient in minerals. Neither coal nor metals can be profitably mined anywhere, though coal is actually found on the island of Bornholm, and certain extensive strata of bogiron ore in Jutland are ferruginous. The bog-iron ore is now used in gas works for purifying. Common chalk, which is found almost

everywhere, is on the other hand quarried in great quantities where it lies near the surface, and is of great importance as a technical material, especially in the cement industry. The newer chalk is very suitable for and is utilised to a great extent in lime-burning, whilst the lime stone at Stevns, which also belongs to the newer chalk, is used as a building material. Of the glacier age formations the stratified clay and micaceous clay of the tertiary period, owing to their frequent occurrence, play a great part in the tile-making industry.

The calcareous deposits of clay from the various periods have, particularly in Jutland, been very widely utilised as marl in the work of improving the soil, and especially in the cultivation of the heaths. Finally it may be observed that on the island of Bornholm granite is quarried for building stone and paving stones, as well as kaolin, which is used in the china and paper industry. The seas, belts, fjords, etc. which surround Denmark, and which give the country a very long coast-line in proportion to it's size, have naturally from very early days been used by the population for fishing, partly as a principal means of livelihood and, to some extent, as a secondary occupation. As a means of livelihood, however, fishing as a secondary occupation no longer plays any great role. The most important fisheries of to-day are the modern kind, carried on with sea-going vessels.

SEAS AND COASTS

The extensive waters which surround the country, however, set their mark upon life in Denmark in another manner. Coastwise shipping has become an important link in intercourse between the people, and harbours are easy to establish in most places. This, however, does not apply to the long North Sea coast, which is almost unapproachable from the sea, and where the need of fishing ports has gradually grown great. The only harbour on the West coast is Esbjerg, which is the home of a large fleet of fishing vessels. The most northerly Cattegat harbours, the Scaw and Frederikshavn, have long had to do duty for the lack of West coast ports, but the need of these has now become so great that two such harbours have been projected and commenced, (at Hirtshals and at Helshage). The experience which is being brought to bear in the very difficult realisation of these plans has, to a great extent, been gained from the extensive

work of protecting the coast (breakwaters) which has been necessary on most parts of the West coast. Coast protection has also been necessary in other parts of the country, especially in the form of dikes for the protection of low-lying coast areas; these are especially to be found in the islands and, where they have been in the form of embankments, large areas of land have been reclaimed.

CLIMATE

The climate of Denmark is naturally a markedly coast climate with higher average temperature than many places on the same parallel of latitude. The mean temperature for the whole of the year lies between seven and eight degrees centigrade; it becomes so high mostly as a result of a comparatively mild winter. The character of a coast climate is also visible in the usually slight difference between the day and night temperatures, whereas the frequent changes in the direction of the wind, as a consequence of the proximity of the sea, can on the other hand lead to very considerable differences in temperature from day to day. Although the winds are very variable, West and South-west winds are by far the most prevalent, while calm weather for several days at a stretch is of rare occurence. The average annual rainfall is about 600 m. m.

POPULATION

As far as race is concerned, the population is very homogeneous. Immigration of foreign elements has for ages been so low that only in one or two places has it succeeded in leaving its traces upon the population. The Danish people are of the Gotho-Germanic race which has lived in the country even in prehistoric times, and their language is Danish everywhere, although there are dialects, especially Jutlandic as compared with >>Island« Danish. Denmark must be counted among the fairly well populated countries of Europe. The total number at the present time is about 3,370,000, which gives an average population per square kilometre of about 78. As far as density of population is concerned, Denmark cannot, of course, be compared with the densely populated industrial districts in other parts of Europe, such as England, Belgium, and certain parts of Germany.

There is a great variation in the density of population in the country, partly according to the role played by the town populations in the various districts and partly according to the fertility

of the soil. Thus the islands have 132, but Jutland only 50 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Of the population of the country about 1,807,000 persons, or about 55 per cent., live in towns; this figure, however, not only includes the population of Copenhagen and its neighbours, Frederiksberg and Gentofte, and the municipalities which, in an administrative sense, have municipal government (the number of which is 85), but also the population of suburban districts, and other urban localities in the countryside. The distribution of town and country population is thus:

.......

The Capital (in which is reckoned the three towns built close together: Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Gentofte) is the only really big town in Denmark, and contains a good 21 per cent. of the population of the whole country a state of affairs quite peculiar to Denmark. The next-largest town, Aarhus, only attains to 74,000 inhabitants. The distribution of the provincial towns according to size in 1921 will appear from the figures given below:

These figures show that a great number of the provincial towns are very small. The 44 biggest with more than 5,000 inhabitants each are, with the population in 1921, included in the table given below.

Half a century ago the urban population comprised a quarter of the inhabitants of the whole country, but now, as a consequence of the development of industries and commerce and, in connection therewith, the increasing resort to specialization it amounts to more than half. Farmers, for instance, now buy many commodities which they formerly produced themselves. Obviously, the present extensive use of agricultural machinery has made it possible for agriculture to be carried on with fewer workers.

VITAL STATISTICS

From year to year the population of Denmark increases to no small extent. At the present time this increase amounts to about one per cent., that is to say from thirty to forty thousand annually, as the number of births fluctuates around 75,000, the number of deaths around 38,000, and there is a net emigration of about 4,000 annually. The birth-rate in 1922 was 22.3 per thousand, and the death-rate 11.9 per thousand, as compared with