110 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



Leyden. They own but one field, or perhaps two, 

 and combine with bulb-raising vegetable growing 

 or cow-keeping. They, with their families, do all 

 the cultivation themselves, planting and lifting the 

 bulbs, the old folk or the children cleaning them, 

 working in the patriarchal co-operative way. 

 These men may be seen in Haarlem on Mondays 

 in the bulb season (August to October) ; they 

 come to offer their bulbs to the exporters, who 

 cannot for themselves grow enough of some of the 

 sorts in most demand, or who do not find it worth 

 their while to give up their land to producing the 

 cheaper varieties. Later on the bulbs themselves 

 will come to Haarlem, by canal boat — if the canal 

 is handy, or perhaps on the back of the man who 

 raised them, or perhaps brought by the good-wife, 

 who may come barefoot along the sandy road, only 

 donning her shoes on the outskirts of the town. 

 The authorities of Haarlem will have no bare feet 

 in their streets, their sense of delicacy forbids ; 

 even the fishwives of Zandvoort, who walk better 

 than almost any other western women, have to put 

 on the wooden shoes they carry, in addition to 

 their burden of fish, when they have crossed the 

 sand dunes and near the city. 



But, of course, not all the less-important growers 



