HYACINTH CULTURE AT HAARLEM 157 



remained a few weeks to settle, it is carried to the beds, 

 where it is laid to the depth of something like three feet. 



George Voorhelm, in his book upon hyacinth culture, says 

 that this manure should be composed of three-sixths of cow- 

 manure, two-thirds of sand, and one-sixth of leaf-mould or 

 of tan, and he for his part preferred fresh manure to that 

 which had been kept a year (to ferment ? ). He especially 

 warns amateurs against using horse, mule, pig, or sheep 

 manures ; also he cautions them against using mud or cold 

 earth drawn from wells, or basins where the standing water 

 and mud have to be occasionally cleaned out ; also against 

 any powdered stuff or manures picked up with dust from the 

 street. He quotes persons who compose their soil of tan 

 (which has already been in use and nearly lost its heat) with 

 cow-manure and leaf-mould, using no sand at all. 



When the soil is brought to the flower-beds they put the 

 said quantity beneath the bulbs, making the earth quite 

 flat and even, without pressure, and placing the bulbs upon 

 the earth, not embedding them. Then they are looked over 

 to see that the bulbs are arranged in the proper order or 

 according to diagrams marked out for them. When their 

 places have been fixed, more soil is brought to put over 

 them, great care being taken to let the earth fall lightly on 

 the bulbs, not to disturb their position. The last addition 

 of earth is generally not more than three to four inches 

 deep. In cases where the bulb has to be brought forward 

 in its growth, or else kept back — and is therefore put at a 

 greater or lesser depth in the earth — the gardener, in the 

 latter case, places more soil under the bulb to raise it higher, 

 and this is a much better method of putting in bulbs than 

 making a hole with a dibble, or, as some do, thrusting the 

 bulb itself into the earth with no tool and raking some 

 earth over it, for this plan, besides hardening the earth all 

 round the bulb (the hole forming a sort of gutter which 



