Half of the land in the Netherlands is used for growing fruit, vegetables and grain, and for cattle farming. Vegetables, fruit, grain, potatoes and other crops are grown in fields and greenhouses. The pastures are full of grazing cattle, and pigs are kept in big sheds. Farmers have become modern businessmen. They use modern, computer-controlled farming machinery and equipment in their work.

The glass city

In the Netherlands some plants grow better in greenhouses. A greenhouse is a building with glass walls and a glass roof. There are so many greenhouses in the Westland, an area between Rotterdam and The Hague, that people call it the glass city. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers are the main crops of the Westland, but flowers and grapes are also grown there.

Flowers and bulbs

The Netherlands is famous all over the world for its flowers. Every year thousands of tourists come to see the beautiful flowers in the bulb fields at Keukenhof. But the bulb-growers are more interested in the bulbs than in the flowers. They sell tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs to countries all over the world.

Almost two-thirds of all the imported flowers in the world come from the Netherlands. Most of these flowers are sold in Aalsmeer, at the world’s largest flower auction.