106 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



also differing from the true English barn, where the 

 primitive fashion of lighting by the open door still 

 maintains, and is all that is necessary. In Holland 

 it is necessary to have at least some barns with 

 windows, and windows that open, for they have to 

 be left open when the tulips are first brought in, so 

 that the bulbs may dry and get ready to be cleaned. 

 The cleaning of all bulbs, which consists in remov- 

 ing the old outer husk and presenting the bulb dry 

 and shining as we see it, is usually done by women 

 in a big barn not far from the grower's office. The 

 work is not hard, though the hours are long, and the 

 wages, seeing that it is unskilled labour, rather low. 

 The principal objection to it is the skin irritation 

 that it causes, though one hopes that those daily 

 employed get hardened to that. One sees quite 

 old women at the work, grandmothers sitting on 

 benches or upturned baskets, their brown wrinkled 

 faces bending over the bulbs, their long gold ear- 

 rings, possibly the only treasure left of some 

 inherited store, dangling, And beside them young 

 girls, with round rosy cheeks and demure eyes, 

 which do not — at least openly — seek those of the 

 men who pass to and fro carrying the deep baskets 

 full of bulbs. One seldom or never sees any of the 

 typical peasant head-dresses among the women who 



