100 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



chauce at 3-011. All is so civilly and prettily done, that you and 

 3'onr day are captured before you realize it, but in a way very 

 pleasant for you. When in Holland we visited a number of the 

 leading gentlemen engaged in bulb growing and did not meet a 

 finer class of men in Europe. They are as unlike the Dutchman 

 of our picture books as can be. Nearly all were gentlemen of 

 wealth, education, and refinement, who seemed to enjoy life to the 

 full. The}' own large and tine residences and their hospitality 

 is unbounded. 



The bulb gardens of the large growers are all of the same 

 general appearance. Fancy a field from fifteen to twentj'-five 

 acres in extent, perfectly level but cut up by ditches and wider 

 canals into numerous rectangular patches. Ever}* two hundred 

 yards or so we cross a canal large enough to float a boat, the 

 bridge over which we pass being raised to allow boats to pass to 

 and from the fields. These canals are met at right angles by 

 smaller ditches fort}' or fifty yards apart, which are so narrow 

 that one can step across. As there is always w;ater in these 

 the fields never get very dry, but, the soil being exceedingly 

 porous and sandy, surplus water rapidly drains off. Only in 

 seasons when protracted rains occur late in the spring are the 

 bulbs likely to suflJer from too much moisture ; they will then 

 ripen very late and, being soft, keep and ship poorly. 



These canals usually connect with the nearest commercial canal 

 sj'stem, and the plan of their arrangement is such that manure 

 can be carried throughout the fields from the barns, and the bulbs 

 and other crops to the various stores or bulb magazines, in boats. 

 The surface of the fields is about two feet above the surface of 

 the water in the canals and ditches. These are usually perfectlj" 

 green in summer, being covered by the tiny acquatic, Lemna 

 nutans, (Duckweed). As a boat passes, all the water one sees is 

 a little angular opening at the stern, which is again green in a 

 moment, or as soon as the little plants can float into place. 



At each end of the large plats are manure holes, in which 

 barn3^ard or cow manure is left to rot in readiness for digging. 

 It is brought from the yards in boats and pitched direct into the 

 holes. It is distributed over the fields from carts with very 

 broad wheels before digging time. All the manure used in the 

 bulb grounds is old, thoroughly decomposed, and fine. The soil 

 is so ver}- light, and free from stones that a great deal of the work 



