OCTOBER 12, 1S99. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



489 



long as they require them. The slats 

 are put on about three inches apart 

 and painted green. I hope to erect one 

 next year. In our climate it is neces- 

 sary that the slats should be made in 

 sections and taken down every fall to 

 prevent them from being broken by 

 the snow. In this inclosure the plants 

 are placed in beds with walks to allow 

 the men to attend to their wants. The 

 young plants are all grown from cut- 

 tings placed under glasses. The rea- 

 son why they are so expensive is be- 

 cause of the room the stock plants oc- 

 cupy and the time they take to grow. 



The Belgians are a contented people. 

 They are contented with their lot and 

 work from morning until night with 

 a faithfulness which to me was re- 

 freshing. Talk about growing palms 

 and bulbs in the United States. They 

 may grow them, but not to pay. The 

 men are not there to do the work, or 

 to take a deep enough interest in the 

 business. Just you imagine a first- 

 class foreman in an American nursery 

 getting seventy-five cents a day, and 

 the men fifty and sixty cents a day. 

 This is the case over in Belgium, and 

 they are as contented and as happy as 

 the day is long. In conversing with 

 one of the largest growers in Ghent I 

 said: "Why can I not hire some good 

 man here and take him over to Can- 

 ada to work with me?" He told me I 

 could not do it, for no first-class man 

 would leave his employer. "Even his 

 neighbor could not hire any of his 

 men from him, or from any other man. 

 They start as boys and work all 

 through life in the same place. It is 

 only the worthless men that leave and 

 go away." 



One of the greatest difficulties on 

 this continent is the want of intelli- 

 gent help. Most men with us are rest- 

 less and without interest in their 

 work, not understanding that in order 

 to receive the highest possible wages 

 they must work for it intelligently. 

 Every man is worth so much in the 

 dollar, and the one who works for it 

 eventually gets it, over there, over 

 here, or elsewhere. We want better 

 help. We must have it, and in order 

 to get it we must begin where they be- 

 gan on the other side, with the boys of 

 our own land, and train them to take 

 positions open for them, with honor to 

 themselves and with satisfaction to 

 their employers. 



We leave Belgium and take our way 

 for a short time to Holland, the land 

 of the Dutch bulbman that is so often 

 abused and misunderstood when he 

 comes to sell his bulbs. We, were too 

 late to see the hyacinths and tulips jn 

 the ground, but had an opportunity of 

 seeing them in the drying rooms. As 

 Belgium is the home of the azalea and 

 palm, Holland is the home of the hya- 

 cinth, tulip, etc. In certain parts it 

 seemed to me the entire inhabitants 

 make their living growing bulbs, or 

 working on bulb farms. I noticed in 

 Holland as well as in Belgium that the 

 principal business is done by a certain 

 number of the farms. Those houses 

 which send out bulbs in large quanti- 



ties do not grow all their bulbs. They 

 of course grow a large quantity, but 

 nothing like what they sell. For their 

 supply they have to depend upon the 

 small growers, buying up their stock 

 at ridiculously low prices. Of course 

 this is but right, in order to give them 

 a chance to make any profit when they 

 sell them to the hard-hearted dealers 

 on this side or in Britain. I may say 

 that I came away with a better im- 

 pression of the Holland bulb man and 

 a kindlier feeling towards him. 



Haarlem is the central point of the 

 bulb growing district and between this 

 city and Leyden are the greatest num- 

 ber of bulb growers. It is very simple 

 to get along in Holland, so many of 

 them understand and speak English. 



We visited a great many places be- 

 tween Haarlem and Leyden. The whole 

 distance is village after village, bulb 

 farm after bulb farm, so that it would 

 take considerable time to visit them 

 all. All that I visited were very nice 

 people, and are willing and ready to 

 show you all you want to see, and tell 

 you all you want to know. 



The soil along this belt is very pe- 

 culiar, yet suitable for bulb growing. 

 It seemed to be a mixture of leaf- 

 mold, sand and loam, the sand and 

 leaf-mold predominating. This is dug 

 to the depth of three feet every three 

 years and thoroughly manured. The 

 hyacinths, tulip and such bulbs are 

 planted the second year, and the third 

 year some other plant or bulb. The 

 puzzle to me was how they could dig 

 down three feet without getting into 

 water. All the fields in Holland are 

 drowned with water. In fact this is 

 their dividing fence, for the only 

 fences seen in most of the bulb farms 

 are hawthorne hedges and water ca- 

 nals. Many of the growers carry all 

 their bulbs from the farms to the dry- 

 ing houses in boats and all the bulbs 

 are carried to the seaport in this way. 



When visiting Messrs. Speelman & 

 Sons' place they were preparing hya- 

 cinths for planting to produce young 

 bulbs. There are two ways of doing 

 this work. One is the hollowing out of 

 the bulb, and the other is by cutting 

 across on the bottom of the bulb, the 

 young bulblets growing all along the 

 edge of the part cut in this fashion; 

 after being cut the injured part is 

 dusted with something which looked 

 like land plaster or air-slacked lime. I 

 asked what it was, and was told, but 

 not having taken a note of it, I have 

 forgotten it. This was for the pur- 

 pose of drying the wound made by the 

 knife, otherwise decay might set in 

 and destroy the bulbs. 



The storehouses are worth taking 

 note of, for I believe many of the bulbs 

 received from Holland are injured 

 through being left too long 'in the 

 boxes in which they come. All bulbs, 

 as soon as they are received, should 

 be opened out and spread upon shelves 

 in the same way as they are in Hol- 

 land. This would be of immense bene- 

 fit to the bulbs and a great advantage 

 to the grower, for then they would not 

 require to be potted or boxed all at 



once as it is the custom with some. 

 The drying rooms are regular ware- 

 houses, having shelves made from the 

 floor to the ceiling. These shelves are 

 made of narrow slats or boards, leav- 

 ing space enough between them to ad- 

 mit of free circulation of air passing 

 through the bulbs. Each shelf is about 

 one foot apart and as wide as can be 

 easily reached to center from each side 

 leaving only enough room to pass be- 

 tween each section of shelves. As this 

 is not a costly thing to build, I would 

 advise all who can find the room to 

 build one. 



A few of the growers have special 

 lines of bulbs to which they pay at- 

 tention. Not by any means do all the 

 men who come across here to sell grow 

 all they offer, but they are so united 

 that one supplies the other in making 

 up their orders. 



The finest plant nurseries are, how- 

 ever, situated in Boskoop. They are 

 the finest in the world, not surpassed 

 by any, unless it be in Japan. In these 

 nurseries almost everything in their 

 line is grown and grown in a way that 

 is a credit and an honor to the men 

 engaged in it. 



We will leave Holland and come 

 back to England, after which we will 

 go to the land which gave me birth, 

 "Bonnie Scotland." We visited the 

 principal places in and about Edin- 

 burgh, but nothing of any importance 

 was seen, save a quantity of white 

 heather, which is grown in large quan- 

 tities for the shooting season. Some of 

 the private places, however, were in 

 magnificent keeping. Nothing could 

 surpass the culture of plants both in- 

 side and out. Nowhere could be met, 

 apparently, more intelligent fore- 

 thought and carefulness than in some 

 of the large places visited. 



I come once again to the conclusion 

 that what is wanted is men who will 

 use their best thought and energy and 

 patience to work up and keep up the 

 dignity and honor of the profession, 

 men who are willing to take hold of 

 the lower rounds of the ladder, and 

 with patience and perseverance climb 

 step after step until they become mas- 

 ters of the situation, men who will 

 have a higher, nobler ambition than 

 mere money grubbing, however neces- 

 sary money may be; but while work- 

 ing that money may eventually come, 

 yet working up his life to be in keep- 

 ing with the noble profession which 

 he follows. Then he will be looked up 

 to with respect and honor, then men 

 may call us the nobles of the earth 

 because we, by our intelligence and 

 forethought, have made the earth more 

 beautiful, more gladsome, and then 

 shall a share of that joy enter into our 

 own lives as we get nearer the ideal 

 of perfection in beauty and usefulness. 



HEAT AND COLD. 



We have solved the problem of how 

 to keep our houses warm in winter, 

 but how to keep them cool enough in 

 summer is to the best of our knowl- 

 edge yet unsolved. We hear it ru- 

 mored that a certain grower of high 



