THE 



FLORICULTURAL CABINET, 



JULY 1st, 1840. 

 PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



ARTICLE I. 



A VISIT TO THE TULIP GARDENS AT HAARLEM, MAY, 1840. 



BY Mil, JOHN SLATER, FLORIST, ALBION PLACE, LOWER BROUCtHTON, NEAR 



MANCHESTER. 



Haarlem is thirty-six miles from Rotterdam, and is the garden of 

 Holland. I travelled from Rotterdam to the Hague, a distance of 

 nearly twenty miles, without seeing a bed of Tulips, or even a dozen 

 blooms together. The cultivation of flower-roots is confined to 

 Haarlem and its neighbourhood. 



The soil on the New Port side is a dark, sandy, heath-coloured 

 soil, such as is used for Ericas, full of silvery, shining particles ; 

 and on the Blooming Dale side it cannot be called anything else but 

 sand, such as would be used in England for building purposes. The 

 gardens in this neighbourhood adjoin the ridge of sand-hills called 

 the Downs, which serve as a barrier to the sea, and were left years 

 ago when the sea receded to some distance. I understand that the 

 sea is nearly two miles from these hills. On the Palace side (I be- 

 lieve it is called Dordt Straat) it is a little better. The gardens are, 

 from the flatness of the country, intersected by dykes, which run from 

 the canals, and serve in some instances to convey manure in small 

 boats to the land. This filters through the porous sandy soil and 

 serves to nourish the bulbs, so that they may be said to grow in soil 

 and water. It is impossible for almost any country to equal them 

 in bulbs. Nature combined with art has done much for ihem. 



The Hyacinth ground is prepared some months previous to plant- 

 ing, and, from what I saw, I should say they put two-thirds cow-dung 



Vol. VIII. No. 89. n 



