IS-i- HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



linary vegetables being taken for two or three years in suc- 

 cession after the bulbs, and manure (almost always from 

 the cow-house) added, as judged necessary, along with 

 these grosser feeding plants. We noticed rows of very 

 luxuriant pease and beans, now nearly past. It thus hap- 

 pens, that, for every acre of choice bulbs, not fewer than 

 five or six acres of ground must be continually in a state 

 of preparation ; and in this way, a very fine, rich, and yet 

 light soil is gradually prepared for receiving the hyacinth 

 and tulip bulbs. The Crocuses, flowering very early, and 

 soon perfecting their new bulbs, a good crop of potatoes is 

 often raised, the same season, on the ground from which 

 they arc removed. For the beds destined for the finest 

 hyacinth bulbs, a compost is here prepared, much in the 

 same way as at Mr Kreps's. The natural vegetable earth 

 of the country receives an additional proportion of fine white 

 sand, sometimes collected from ruts on the by-roads, or from 

 the margins of ditches; and rotten tree-leaves, particularly 

 oak-leaves, and well decomposed cow-dung, which has lain 

 in store not less than two years, are added in equal quan- 

 tities. Sometimes, but not very often, a small proportion of 

 old tanncrs'-bark, such as comes from an exhausted hot-bed, 

 is likewise introduced. 



Shelter from high winds is indispensable, not only to the 

 bet development of the flower of bulbous plants, but 

 lo the vigour of the bulbs themselves. All the compart- 

 ments of this nursery are therefore carefully inclosed, with 

 hedges and screens of different kinds. If the leaves be 

 twisted or broken by the winds, especially in the early pe- 

 riod of their growth, the plants experience a severe and 

 lasting check. A very line and strong flower may, by ha- 

 in- its leaves torn or destroyed, become, in a single sea* 

 ') greatly weakened and deteriorated, as scarcely to 



