=Belgium.=--Probably in no other country of Europe has nature done so little and man so much to make a great state as in Belgium. The lowland region has been made so fertile by artificial means that it yields more wheat per acre than any other country except Denmark. The Ardennes highland in the southeast is naturally unproductive, but it has become one of the great manufacturing centres of Europe. Less than one-twelfth of the area of the state is unproductive. The coast, more than twoscore miles in extent, has not a single harbor for large vessels, and the two navigable rivers, the Scheldt and Meuse, flow into another state before reaching the sea. [Illustration: HOLLAND AND BELGIUM] The low sand-barrens next the coast have been reclaimed by means of a grass that holds in place the sand that formerly shifted with each movement of the wind. This region is now cultivated pasture-land that produces the finest of horses, cattle, and dairy products. The dairy products go mainly to London. The Flemish horses, like those of the sand-barrens of Germany and France, are purchased in the large cities, where heavy draught-horses are required. Many of them are sold to the express companies of the United States. Bordering the sand-barrens is a belt of land that produces grain and the sugar-beet. Flax is an important product, and its cultivation has had much to do with both the history and the political organization of the state. Before the advent of the cotton industry, woollen and linen were practically the only fibres used in cloth-making. Belgium was then the chief flax-growing and cloth-making country, and all western Europe depended upon the Flemish looms for cloth. This industry, therefore, gave the country not only commercial prominence, but was largely responsible for its political independence as well. Flax is still an important product, and the linen textiles made in the state are without a superior. Much of the flax is grown in the valley of the River Lys. One of the most productive coal-fields of Europe stretches across Belgium, and a few miles south of it are the iron-ore deposits that extend also into Luxemburg and Germany. In addition to these, the zinc-mines about Moresnet are among the richest in the world. Belgium is, therefore, one of the great metal-working centres of Europe. A small portion of the coal is exported to France, but most of it is required in the manufactures. _Liege_, _Seraing_, and _Verviers_ are the great centres of the metal industry. They were built at the eastern extremity of the coal-field, within easy reach of the iron ores. Firearms, railroad steel, and tool-making machinery are the chief products of the region, and because of the favorable situation, these products easily compete with the manufactures of Germany and France.