HAARLEM. 183 



He very obligingly offered to walk with us through part 

 of his nursery-grounds ; and as he was not only well in- 

 formed in this branch of Dutch horticulture, but spoke 

 English fluently, we found him, in more respects than one, 

 an interesting acquaintance. He had begun replanting his 

 bulbs about a week before ; and we observed that the polyan- 

 thus-narcissus is the first committed to the ground. We 

 saw several workmen engaged in this operation. The 

 bulbs are brought to the field in large wheel-barrows. 

 They are planted in beds, between four and five feet broad, 

 and of great length. The surface-soil, to the depth of six 

 or seven inches, is taken off the first bed, and removed 

 to the neighbourhood of the last one, in the compartment 

 to be planted. The bulbs being placed in cross rows 

 on the beds, are arranged merely by guess of the eye, 

 and slightly pressed into the soil with the fingers. The 

 surface-earth of the next bed is then thrown as equally as 

 possible over the bulbs ; — and this process is repeated, till 

 all the beds be filled. This mode is evidently much supe- 

 rior to planting with any sort of dibble : it is not only much 

 more expeditious, but all risk of leaving hollows below or 

 around the bulbs is effectually avoided. Twelve persons, 

 men and boys, were engaged in planting ; and although 

 they have begun thus early, Mr Eldering signified, that he 

 would be glad to find that all his roots were safely lodged 

 in the ground, by the middle, or even the end of Novem- 

 ber. He has more than twenty English acres occupied 

 with the culture of flower-bulbs of different kinds, in va- 

 rious stages of progress. But it is to be observed, that all 

 these twenty acres are not, at one and the same time, em- 

 ployed in this sort of cultivation. On the contrary, the 

 places in which the finer flowering hyacinths and tulips are 

 planted, are here changed every year ; crops of various cu- 



