HYACINTH CULTURE AT HAARLEM 161 



and the effect is more brilliant. Single hyacinths grow 

 more thickly, there are sometimes fifty blossoms on one 

 stalk, and very often several stalks on each plant. The red- 

 single are a more brilliant red than are the red-double, and 

 single blues have much the most delicate shade of colour. 



About the 20th of April the hyacinths begin to be at 

 their best, the 25th and 26th are ordinarily the days when 

 they are in perfection and in their full glory. By the 4th 

 or 5th of May they are going over, and the later sorts 

 are beginning. 



In Haarlem they are too carefully attended to to 

 suffer much from the weather, their cultivators being very 

 industrious, and watch over them, arranging for the pro- 

 tection even of the most ordinary kinds, for none are 

 neglected. 



When a new piece of land is taken for cultivation, they 

 begin by trenching it six feet deep, and if they come across a 

 bed or layer of derry, they do not fail to take it away. In 

 gardens which have been a long time under cultivation peat 

 or derry is not found, for it is injurious to vegetation. Pure 

 sand is usually found to some depth, but they try to dig 

 down below the sand to the earth and dig up about a foot of 

 it to mix with the soil. The sand corrects the effect of the 

 cow-manure which is put in, a layer of seven or eight inches 

 deep (without straw), over the entire surface of the ground, 

 which is then worked in with a spade. They mix up the 

 manure as much as possible, so that when well worked in it 

 is to be found to a depth of one foot below the surface. 



It is not a good thing to plant hyacinths the first year 

 in the newly manured soil ; they usually leave an interval 

 of one year before they put in hyacinths again, and 

 in the intermediate years they cultivate tulips, jonquils, 

 narcissi, lilies, crocuses, fritillaries, crown imperials, martagon 

 or mountain lilies, irises, and other tuberous plants or bulbs 



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