WINTER AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 127 



visit — is the centre of a district in which about 

 1,000 acres of land are devoted to market 

 gardens, divided and sub-divided by the in- 

 evitable canals, and market-gardening and flori- 

 culture are, consequently, the principal subjects 

 of instruction in its Winter School. The local 

 authorities provided both site and buildings for 

 the school, which has five class-rooms, and 

 residential accommodation for its director, to- 

 gether with two acres of gardens, the produce 

 from which is sold to supplement the grants 

 made by the State for the carrying on of the 

 work. Aalsmeer is one of the curiosities of 

 Holland, though it is a place unknown to the 

 ordinary British tourist. Approached by boat, 

 it looks like a series of perfectly square or rect- 

 angular floating islands, pegged into position, as 

 it were, to prevent their floating away. These 

 islands have, in fact, been formed by the thrifty 

 Dutch out of pieces of bog land that have risen 

 from time to time from the bottom of the adjoin- 

 ing lake, and been pushed together until they 

 were sufficiently large to form fair-sized gardens, 

 the original stakes driven through them being 

 supplemented by the planting of trees, the roots 

 of which have penetrated through the bog and 

 the water underneath until they reached the 

 solid earth. On these islands the people brought 



