The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-07
German'ys FoothOId in
 France.

cent. of French territory held by the Germans is strikingly set forth in statement given to the press by the National Geographic Society. It shows that while it is comparatively small in area it is very large indeed in industrial and agricultural import ance 1t says:
 Holding only about 10000 square i miles of French territory, or less than one-twentieth of continental France the Germans. have behind their ad- vanced lines nearly one-half of in- dustrial France and the homes of one-tenth of her population Pas
 de-Ca1ais Nord, Aisne, Ardennes, Mouse and Meurthe- -et-Moselle, of of which the Germans hold all or
 the larger and most important parts, are the banner departments of France Here are the mines, the foundriesg and factories, and the dairies,i and farms,
 which are the pride, the wealth, and the strength of modern France In
 this narrow strip. under German oc- cupation there is produced TO per cent of all coal mined in France, 90 per cent. of all of the native-mined | iron, and nearly half of the repub- hc's output of manufactured articles
 s@The iron and steel industry of the great republic lies almost entirely back of the German trenches. France
 stood fourth among the nations of
 the world as a producer of iron and
 
 l 3,6o0,O0O tons of pig iron and of B. 100, 900 tons of steel. This industry I was centered and contained in
 Northern France, for here were the
 raw materials. The Flemish coal I basin, extending into the Nord and
 Pas -de-Calais where 100000 miners | were employed produced 60 per cent of the coal mined in France,
 and practically. the country's entire. 1 supply of fossil coal. The iron mines NG-- 84 per cent of the total French out put of iron. and this region was reckoned as one of the principal iron
 producing regions of the world. I ssWith the French and Belgian iron I and coal fields in their possessi onz the I Germans would have a1nnost a mono poly of the iron and steel industries
 of Europe Germany Is now second
 only to the United States in the pro I duction of iron and steel. Before war l conditions set in, the United States produced annually. "A, 100000 tons of
 steel, Germany 12,3O0.OOO, Great
 Britain 6,O4O,OOO, France 3,1O2,0OO and Belgium ], ,5O0sOO0. Germany is , third among the great industrial na- tions of the world in the production
 of coal, and with the French and Bel
 gian mines behind her lines might easily equal the output of Grea1 Britain. second upon the list. Thus . unusual interest attaches to the srnal
 strips of foreign lands back of thu
 German lines.
 .The Nord department, all but 2 few square miles of whose coast land.
 is in the possession of the enefny il s in agricultural and industrial impor i, tance the first department of France i In this department and the depart :, ments of the Pas-de-Calais, Mouse , and Mearthe-et-M Mose1le are the grea , metal working plants of the French a the huge Pittsburg and Cleveland . mills, foundries and machine works O
 that county. In these departments 5 textile industry. the cotton, Woole1
 and linen weaving, the working o 2 lace and embroidery, the weaving Q carpets and dyeing. Flour mills \ brick kiIns, distfl1erfes, glass works
 1 pottery works, shoe and hat factories
 tobacco factories. and large plant n for the production of hardware | enameled iron hollow ware and edg b tools are strewn through this thickI
 populated section in profusion. I, : the shops situated within these de e partments most of the French cabine s work is done, and, here, near the bee 1T fields, much of the French sugar i is refined.
 e Moreover. here. where is tn l. greatest industrial development, IT also the most intensive agriculture 1T Neighboring Belgians have nc
 brought their farms up to a highe IS standard of production than has bee d reached by the fields of these north n ern French departments Everywher ,t throughout this region, where ther Il are no mines and factories, snilin l. gardens and fertile, we1I-cultivate s. farms take their place. All of tn cereals. sugar beets. fruit. hops, tc d bacco, flax and large. droves of cal > tie are grown upon them. Some ( l. the best known dairieS of France al r. in this territory.
 sr tArhe stretch of bare 10, ,oo l. square miles, with it's population le 100000, its bounteous agricuItur D. it's rich coal and iron mines, and i Is teeming manufacture, is one of th d most important districts in a re Europe. Some idea of it's richnei rs can be had from the fact that whi
 the average per acre value for a d France is about $150, that of thes le northern departments is $235.'s