1894.] ESSAYS. 39 



bauliuo-, as for iustauce at feediug time, when the Iiorse passes ou to 

 the boat and eujoys his hay aud a sail at the same time. 



Wherever we look the landscape has the same level appearance, and 

 the soil is loose, sandy, and fine. We pass windmill after windmill, 

 each with four huge sails, often measuring oO feet from end to end. 

 These mills are used for a variety of purposes, such as grinding grain, 

 sawing timber, etc., but chiefly for pumping water from the small 

 ditches which drain the fields into the large canals. When completely 

 equipped with machinery they are quite costly. Standing on the road 

 we counted 25 in sight at one time. Farming is the chief occupation 

 of the country people, and grass the principal crop raised. The 

 implements and tools in use are very clumsy and heavy, and as we see 

 the farmers at work, moving leisurely about in their great wooden clogs 

 or shoes, we wonder how they can keep their farms in such excellent 

 condition as is almost uniformly seen. 



The district in which bulb growing is carried on is of comparately 

 small area. The ancient town of Haarlem is its centre. It is a very 

 quiet old place, with many buildings of curious architecture. Many 

 of the bulb merchants have business oflSces in Haarlem, but the grounds 

 where most of the bulbs are grown are several miles out of the town. 

 One class of merchants own extensive and valuable gardens aud grow 

 the bulbs they sell, or make contracts with raisers for them. We find 

 also in Haarlem another class of dealers who issue catalogues, but 

 who grow few or no bulbs and own no gardens. These pick up their 

 bulbs where they can get them cheapest ; sometimes at public sales ; 

 at other times of country farmers who make a business of raising. 

 Large quantities of their bulbs annually reach this country, as the 

 price lists are well gotten up and circulated widely among dealers. 

 Bulbs can be purchased of this class of dealers at a low price, aud 

 often give as good satisfaction as those from growers, but they are 

 not to be relied upon. Even by a visit to Haarlem one is not always 

 sure of getting the bulbs shown unless he knows the grower to be 

 reliable. We know one gentleman who, visiting Holland at the sea- 

 sou of flowering, was invited by a Haarlem dealer to ride out aud see 

 his tulips. He went aud was delighted. The flowers were all that 

 could be desired. A day or two afterwards he was with another dealer 

 who invited him to visit his bulb gardens a short distance out of town. 

 Fancy his astonishment when he was driven to see the same tulip 

 grounds which he had been shown by the first dealer ! The fact was 

 that neither of the two owned them. They were the property of an 

 old Dutch gardener who sold his crop to the local dealer who would 



