THE BULB GARDENS OF HOLLAND. 95 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



The Bulb Gardens of Holland. 



By Robert Farquhar, Boston. 



I propose giving you some particulars of a recent visit to Hol- 

 land and the famous bulb gardens in and around Haarlem, and I 

 shall also endeavor to describe the methods of cultivation practised 

 by the leading Dutch bulb growers. I shall not occupy your 

 valuable time with any remarks upon our vo^^age across the ocean 

 and the strange mixture of discomfort and pleasure experienced 

 by every passenger on an Atlantic steamer. Suffice it to say that 

 in the gray of a July morning, we sighted the Dutch coast. The 

 land lay before us, flat and low, like a great green sea on which 

 the huge sails of numerous windmills seemed to take the place of 

 the sailing craft on the blue expanse behind us. To reach Rot- 

 terdam, we sailed up the river Maas several miles. At its mouth, 

 within three hundred yards of where we passed, a large iron 

 steamer lay half buried in the sand, where it had lain for months, 

 and it is doubtless there today in company with the wrecks of two 

 sailing vessels also, within half a mile. Some months previously, 

 these had been blown on the shallows, to sink deeper and deeper 

 in the yielding sands, beyond the aid of the most daring wrecker. 

 During heavy storms, blowing landward, vessels frequently miss 

 the channel, and are driven on the beach, which is so low and flat, 

 and the sand is so yielding, that vessels are rarely or never taken 

 off safely. 



All along the sides of the river, heavy stakes or trunks of trees are 

 driven about a foot apart, to protect the banks. In many places, 

 strong willows are also worked in, basket fashion, as a farther pro- 

 tection, the protruding tops of the stakes being the framework. 

 On the banks grows the dyke grass, the roots of which band them- 

 selves together in intricate and almost inseparable union, holding 

 the loose, sandy soil in place. This grass is planted on nearh' all 

 sea, river, and canal banks in the Netherlands. Proceeding up 

 the broad river, numerous evidences of the patient industry of the 

 people are presented. On either side, the low, level fields stretch 

 for miles, intersected by ditches and canals. Everywhere the cul- 

 tivation seems almost perfect and the crops are exceedingly luxu- 



