The natural division into dunes, geest grounds, and clay and low fen holds for South as well as for North Holland.
Geest is found particularly in the north-eastern part of the state; it covers less than i% of the area of the state.
There are three natural divisions - foreshore and sand-dunes, inner dunes and the geest grounds, and low fens and clay lands.
In the depressions of the dunes and on' the geest grounds at their foot, small woods have been planted in places, and in this sheltered strip market-gardening and horticulture are practised.
It must be further remarked that both the " dunepans," or depressions, which are naturally marshy through their defective drainage, and the geest grounds - that is, the grounds along the foot of the downs - have been in various places either planted with wood or turned into arable and pasture land; while the numerous springs at the base of the dunes are of the utmost value to the great cities situated on the marshy soil inland, the example set by Amsterdam in 1853 in supplying itself with this water having been readily followed by Leiden, the Hague, Flushing, &c.