May, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



197 



Round a Dutch Bulb Farm 



By S. Leonard Bastin 



ROM very early times the industrious people 

 of Holland have been famed for their horti- 

 cultural achievements. Indeed it will be no 

 exaggeration to say that over a long period 

 they practically kept the art of gardening 

 alive in Europe. To-day the Dutch people 

 are well up in line with the wealthy and larger 

 nations of the earth in this direction. But there is one point 

 upon which the Netherlands may be said to stand alone — 

 its unquestioned supremacy as the bulb-producing country of 

 the world. The reason for this may probably be found in 

 two circumstances. Firstly, the age of the industry which 

 has given to the growers such a grasp of the whole subject 

 as is bound to give them a great start over more recent com- 

 petitors, and in the second place the out and out suitability 

 of the soil in Holland for the culture of all kinds of bulbous 

 plants. 



As is well known, the larger part of the Netherlands con- 

 sists of a flat sandy plain which has been wrested from the 

 bed of the ocean. Nearly all Holland is below the level of 

 the sea, and would quickly be flooded with water were it not 

 for the embankments which keep the waves in check on the 

 ocean side, and the busily pumping windmills which draw 

 up the accumulated inland moisture into elevated canals in 

 the interior. The whole country therefore never knows the 

 meaning of the word drought, while on account of the ex- 

 cessively light nature of the soil the drainage is perfect. 

 Here we have the ideal conditions for practically all the 

 hardy bulbs — sandy soil, dry and warm on the surface, but 

 plentifully supplied with moisture a little way down. In 

 addition to this, the Dutch growers have perfected a system 

 for obtaining regular supplies of manure from the extensive 

 dairy farms in South Holland and elsewhere, the splendid 

 waterways enabling the material to be brought by barge at 

 a low rate, and finally in smaller boats, using the lesser canals, 

 conveyed to the fields for which it is intended without any 

 need for carting at all. The soil in Holland which in its 

 natural condition is almost pure sand, and may thus be spoken 

 of as almost a nega- 

 tive quantity, can 

 be brought up to 

 the exact degree of 

 richness required for 

 any particular bulb 

 by the addition of 

 more or less ma- 

 nure. 



Undoubtedly the 

 time of all others to 

 pay a visit to a 

 Dutch bulb farm is 

 in the spring of the 

 year — about April. 

 Then the whole dis- 

 trict, of which the 

 city of Haarlem 

 may be taken as a 

 center, is simply 

 aglow with loveli- 

 ness. In such a flat 

 land, extensive 

 views are not easy 



A Fine Tulip Field 



to obtain, and perhaps the best idea of the bulb fields is, after 

 all, from a train, which cautiously pursues Its way along the 

 top of embankments. The whole countryside reminds one 

 of nothing so much as a huge patchwork quilt, composed In- 

 deed of far more glowing colors than were ever wrought 

 into the homely bedspread. Red, blue, yellow, and every 

 conceivable intermediate shade flash up in blazing response 

 to the gay sunshine, till the eye is well nigh satiated with the 

 orgy of color. But even Dutch trains (which will never 

 come to grief through excessive speed) arrive at their desti- 

 nation sooner or later, and one alights with a fine curiosity 

 to see and learn a little more about these wonderful bulb 

 fields. Let us, therefore, accept the invitation of this hearty 

 Dutchman — who, by the way, speaks English perfectly — to 

 go over the bulb farm of which he is the owner. 



A closer examination of the patches of color which were 

 seen just now from a distance, reveals the fact that each is 

 composed of thousands of separate blossoms. These flower- 

 ing bulbs are planted with a wonderful regularity, being 

 drawn up in rigid lines like so many soldiers. All those 

 bulbs of a like age are placed in sections together, and this 

 method of planting produces rather a singular effect. Start- 

 ing at one end of this long row of hyacinths are the one- 

 year-old bulbs; these have produced nothing but tufts of 

 green leaves. After a few yards one comes to the bulbs In 

 their second year; most of these have distinguished them- 

 selves with a small bloom. In the case of the three-year-old 

 plants the blossoms are much finer, and so the flowers go on 

 gradually Increasing in fineness, as we walk from section to 

 section, until at the end of the row one finds the bulbs which 

 are In their sixth or seventh year. Thus it takes seven long 

 years or thereabouts to grow a marketable hyacinth bulb. 

 The same manner of planting as described above Is followed 

 In the case of both tulips and narcissi, although in these In- 

 stances the length of time to produce a mature bulb Is not so 

 great. But one's curiosity Is excited as to how the original 

 bulbs are obtained, and this question opens up one of the 

 most Interesting chapters In the history of bulb farming. 



With tulips and 

 narcissi the avail- 

 able methods of in- 

 crease are decidedly 

 slow. Apart from 

 the raising of bulbs 

 from seed — a most 

 laborious process — 

 the grower Is en- 

 tirely dependent for 

 fresh stock upon 

 the offshoots which 

 the parent bulbs an- 

 nually produce. In 

 the case of hya- 

 cinths a kindly pro- 

 vision of Nature 

 has made the propa- 

 gation of bulbs in 

 large numbers an 

 extremely simple 

 matter. Each sea- 

 son the grower se- 

 lects a number of 



