HOLIvAXD - CO-OPKRATION AND ASSOCIATION 



near Copenhagen, which thereafter became the vegetable garden of the 

 latter town. Hume tells in his history of England that Queen Katherine 

 of Aragon caused a special messenger to bring Dutch salad to England for 

 the royal table. In the sixteenth century Dutch emigrants introduced horti- 

 culture to Norwich and the island of Guernsey. 



Materials for a detailed history of horticulture in Holland are lacking, 

 but a little book by Mr. Philipp Andreas Nemnich, "Original Beitrage zur 

 eigentlichen Kentniss von Hollau'l ", informs us that as early as 1809 the 

 country specialized in this industry' to an advanced degree and exported 

 dried vegetables in considerable quantities. But until 1830 progress was 

 insignificant because Holland suffered from a general depression. It was 

 only after the separation from Belgium that the period began of con- 

 tinuously increasing prosperity by which growers of vegetables, fruit-trees 

 and ornamental plants profited. The deductions to be made from statistics 

 are clear: whereas in 1833 the whole area of market-gardens was 45,884 

 hectares (i).; private gardens, land otherwise grown with vegetables, flow- 

 ers and bulbs, and orchards and nurseries extended in 1912 over 89,941 

 hectares (2). • . 



Although from these figures it may be deduced that 2.4 per cent, of 

 the cultivated land was given up in 1912 to commercial production they 

 do not give an idea of the intensity of cultivation. This can be estimated if 

 it be noted that in 1912 the total extent of frames in which vegetables were 

 grown was nearly 477 hectares, that of cucumber and tomato houses more 

 than 430 hectares, that of houses containing frames about 64 hectares, that 

 of vineries 67 hectares, and that of peach-houses 15 hectares. Flowers 

 were grown in frames extending over 20 hectares and houses extending over 

 34 hectares, while nursery frames and houses covered respectively 4 and 

 1.7 hectares. 



As regards yield this can be deduced from the facts as to the division 

 of property. Three fourths of the horticulturists, almost all of whom have 

 been able to biiild themselves pretty country houses, have less than three 

 hectares of land each : 13.9 per cent, have from 0.05 to 0.50 hectare ; 16.6 

 per cent, have from 0.50 to i hectare ; 30.6 per cent, have from i to 2 hec- 

 tares ; 16.7 per cent, from 2 to 3 hectares ; 13.5 per cent, from 3 to 5 hec- 

 tares ; 6.6 per cent, from 5 to 10 hectares ; and 2.1 per cent, more than 10 

 hectares. The census of occupations taken in 1909 showed that there were 

 15,488 horticulturist emplo^^ers of labour and 29,760 workpeople. 



Figures as to the total yield and its value would be interesting, but 

 statistics on this point are unfortimately lacking. The economic importance 

 of vegetable and flower-growing can however be estimated from the fol- 

 lowing figures as to Dutch exportation in 191 2. 



(i) I hectare = 2.5 acres. 



(2) The last statistics (1915) give the extent of commercial vegetable gardtns as 18,652 

 hectares , that of private gardens as 32,467, that of orchards as 23,677, that of nurseries as 2,673 

 that of flower gardens as 538 and that of bulb gardens as 5,319 hectates, giving a total of 83,326 

 hectares. The decrease in area is doubtless due to the war. 



