HYACINTH CULTURE AT HAARLEM 163 



are clean contrary to the principles of the art of cultiva- 

 tion. Still, stripping the blossoms does little harm in com- 

 parison with the harm done by cutting the leaves, which have 

 a most important function to perform, for they now take on 

 themselves the work of the dried-up roots and feed the bulb, 

 and they breathe in through their leaves the particles of air 

 most suited for the plant's nourishment. The leaves are 

 then entirely maintaining the plant and keeping the sap in 

 circulation. When the fans or long leaves begin to fade 

 and dry, the bulb is then pulled up out of the earth — with 

 the hand, as much as possible, for fear the spade or fork 

 should injure the young offshoots. The leaves are then cut 

 off altogether, and the bulb is replaced in the earth on its 

 side, being covered up again with an inch or two of very 

 light soil, such as we described — the bulbs are left about a 

 month or two in this state. When the time comes for them 

 to be finally taken up, a fine dry day is chosen. • The bulbs 

 are then left out in the open air for a few hours. (If the sun 

 is too hot, it will make them " boil," as the gardeners say, and 

 the sun can kill them as surely as the frost.) They are then 

 placed on sieves, where they are lightly shaken to separate from 

 them the earth which sticks to them, the roots are carefully 

 removed — carefully, for the sake of the young bulbs (or 

 offshoots) — and put away on the bulb-house shelves. 



All growers proceed very much in the same way, but 

 those who do not follow merely mechanically the trade 

 methods, know that every bulb likes a separate treatment, and 

 they do not take up all the bulbs in one bed on the same 

 day — they leave the lazy ones, which are slow to ripen, 

 longer in the ground, and they don't cut the leaves of the 

 quickly growing ones quite so soon. When taking up their 

 bulbs, they judge the quantity of sand to be left to cover 

 them (in the drying process), according to the need of each 

 one. Experience having taught that a slow bulb which 



