1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Plock (government)

PLOCK, or Plotsk, a government of Russian Poland, on the right bank of the Vistula, having the Prussian provinces of West and East Prussia on the N. and the Polish governments of Lomza on the E. and Warsaw on the S. Its area is 4160 sq. m. Its flat surface, 350 to 500 ft. above the sea-level, rises gently towards the north, where it merges into the Baltic coast-ridge of the Prussian lake district. Only a few hills reach 600 ft. above the sea, while the broad valley of the Vistula has an elevation of only 130 to 150 ft. In the west (district of Lipno) broad terraces, covered with forests, small lakes and ponds, and very poor in vegetation, descend from the Baltic lake-district towards the plains of Plock; and in the central district of Mlawa extensive marshes fill the upper basin of the Wkra. The Vistula borders the government on the south, almost all the way from Warsaw to Thorn, receiving the Skrwa and Wkra. The Drwęca, or Drewenz, flows along the north-west boundary, while several small tributaries of the Narew drain the north-eastern district of Ciechanow. Peat-bogs, used for fuel, and marshes containing bog-iron, fill many depressions in the north, while the more elevated parts of the plains are covered with fertile clays, or a kind of "black earth." Lacustrine post-Glacial deposits fill all the depressions of the thick sheet of boulder clay, with Scandinavian erratic boulders, which extends everywhere over the Tertiary sands and marls—these last containing masses of silicated wood and lignite. Layers of gypsum are found in the hills beside the Vistula.

The estimated population in 1906 was 619,000. About one-third are Jews and 36,000 Germans. The government is divided into seven districts, of which the chief towns are Plock, Ciechanow, Lipno, Mlawa, Prasnysz, Rypin and Sierpc. Agriculture is the chief industry. The principal crops are rye, oats, barley, wheat and potatoes; beetroot is cultivated for sugar, especially on the large estates of the west, where modern machinery is used. Gardening and bee-keeping are extensively practised. In the north the property is much divided, and the landholders, very numerous in Ciechanow, are far from prosperous. The forests have been lavishly cut, but Plock is still one of the best wooded governments (20%) in Poland. Other occupations are provided by shipping on the Vistula, mining and various domestic industries, such as the fabrication of wooden cars, sledges and wheels, and textile industry. The manufactures include flour-mills, saw-mills, sugar factories, distilleries, tanneries, breweries, agricultural implement works, match factories and ironworks. There is some export trade, especially in the Lipno district; but its development is hampered by lack of communications, the best being those offered by the Vistula. The railway from Warsaw to Danzig, via Ciechanow and Mlawa, serves the eastern part of the government.

After the second dismemberment of Poland in 1793, what is now the government of Plock became part of Prussia. It fell under Russian dominion after the treaty of Vienna (1815), and, in the division of that time into five provinces, extended over the western part of the present government of Lomza, which was created in 1864 from the Ostrolenka and Pultusk districts of Plock, together with parts of the province of Augustowo.