GELDER, or Guelders, a province of the Netherlands, composed out of the ancient province of the same name, with the addition of the districts of Sevenaer, Huissen, and Melsburg, ceded by Prussia. It extends over 2094 square miles, and contains 249,177 inhabitants. On the sea shore the land is flat; and, by being well drained and embanked, it is fertile in pasture. In the island formed by the Leck, the Rhine, and the Waal, it is sandy and rather hilly; and on the south of the Maas it is boggy and marshy. It is considered as the most healthy of the provinces of the Netherlands. The chief products of the soil are butter, cheese, wheat, buckwheat, flax, rape-seed, and oil, tobacco, hops, wouts, and fruit. There is considerable manufacturing industry exercised in making diaper and damask tablecloths and other linen, in tanneries, in paper-making, in pottery, and in other iron goods. The division is into four circles, viz. that of Arnhem, of Zutphen, of Nieuwegein, and of Thiel.