20 1 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GA-RDEN GUIDE. 



On luy arrival at Haarlem, I am bound to confess I felt some 

 little disappointment ; and I believe all who visit the district during 

 the spring of the year feel more or less disappointed. "We all know 

 that hyacinths are grown in immense numbers, I should be afraid 

 to say how many, and that tulips, crocuses, and other bulbs are grown 

 in proportion ; and those who take an especial interest in flowers 

 expect to see the fields on all sides sheeted with the rich colours of 

 the hyacinths and the brilliant hues of their more showy congeners 

 the tulips. Tliere was certainly plenty of all the leading spring- 

 floweriog bulbs in bloom, but they bore no proportion to my 

 expectations and the expectations of others, and certainly failed to 

 make the powerful impression on my mind tha': I, before setting 

 out, thought would be the case. 



In inspecting one of the largest farms in the neighbourhood of 

 Haarlem, and with the proprietor as guide, I said, " I am very much 

 disappointed in the bulb farms, for I expected to see the fields now 

 gay with the hyacinths and such tulips as bloom at the same time, 

 whereas those in bloom are but a vei-y small proportion of the 

 whole." "Ah," says our guide, "you are just like all who visit us 

 for the first t m3 ; you suppose that we allow all the bulbs to pro- 

 duce their blooms every year. We do nothing cf the kind, for we 

 have to produce strong bulbs that will bloom satisfactorily when 

 they are placed in the hands of the purchaser." And with a hearty 

 desire to give me all the information that he could, he proceeded to 

 say that from the time the offsets are removed from the parent bulb, 

 and it is by these that the stocks are mostly increased, a period of 

 four or five years is required before the bulbs are of sufiicient size 

 and strength to produce spikes of first-class quality. Some of the 

 varieties produce so few offsets that the old unsightly bulbs are put 

 by, and previous to their being again planted have a slice taken off 

 the under side, or they are partly split through at the base, and this 

 manipulation encourages the production of offsets in a remarkable 

 manner. The offsets are removed from the bulbs when they are 

 lifted in the summer after attaining maturity. The following 

 autumn they are planted rather thickly in lines. They are lifted 

 when the foliage dies down, and in the autumn they are again 

 planted, and more space is allowed them; and this process is 

 repeated until the fourth year, when the strongest bulbs are selected 

 for sale, and the others are grown another year, and, in some cases, 

 two years ; but as a rule they are disposed of after the fifth year, 

 and those which have not attained their full size or proper degree 

 of solidity are put on one side for the cheap mixtures sold for bed- 

 ding purposes. 



The flower-spikes are annually removed as they make their 

 appearance ; for if they were allowed to bloom, they would be of 

 little use, excejating for propagating purposes, as they do not in 

 Holland, any more than they do in England, bloom satisfactorily 

 twice. It will thus be seen that the bulbs require much attention 

 and labour to be bestowed upon them before they are in proper con- 

 dition for sale ; and when we think of this, we ought not to be- 

 grudge the sixpence or the ninepence we have to pay for a first- 



