200 



AMERICAN HOMES AND 



GARDENS 



May, 1907 



The Dutch Growers Are Famous for Such Amaryllis as These 



doubt that many of these speculators lost very 

 heavily on their rash ventures. 



Although hyacinths, tulips, and narcissi are 

 the principal bulbs to which the Dutch 

 growers turn their attention, all kinds are 

 very largely cultivated. The smaller bulbs, 

 such as snowdrops, crocuses, and scillas, are 

 produced in huge quantities, while later 

 on in the year the landscape in the bulb 

 country is brilliant with ranunculi, irises, and 

 gladioli. On some of the larger establish- 

 ments a great variety of greenhouse roots and 

 bulbs are raised under glass. Dutch growers 

 are noted all the world over for the excel- 

 lence of their stocks of begonias, gloxinias, 

 and amaryllids. So that there is always some- 

 thing of interest for the visitor to see on a 

 Netherlands bulb farm. 



The growing of the tulip is a splendid 

 example of an industry not devoid of esthetic 

 charm. Not without reason may it be urged, 

 however, that the cultivation of any flower 



kinds of bulbs enhanced prices can be ex- 

 pected for good new varieties, but at the 

 present time it is only in the case of the nar- 

 cissi that really startling sums are being ob- 

 tained for novelties. Fifty, a hundred, and 

 even two hundred and fifty dollars per bulb 

 have been paid for new varieties, and what 

 is very remarkable Is the fact that many of 

 the varieties have commanded these high 

 prices for several years and still show small 

 signs of a reduction in value. 



Such sums as mentioned above, however, 

 are small in comparison with prices which 

 were paid for tulip bulbs during the historic 

 "tulipomania" which swept over the Dutch 

 people in the early part of the seventeenth 

 century. A single bulb of a variety known as 

 Semper Augustus realized the Immense sum of 

 two thousand five hundred dollars, while on 

 another occasion a bulb was handed over 

 in exchange for a piece of land several acres 

 in extent. Such instances seem to be almost 

 incredible, nevertheless they are recorded as 

 sober fact by trustworthy historians. Such a state of affairs 

 could not of course last very long, and after about three 

 years a great "slump" In tulip bulbs set In, and there Is little 



A Greenhouse with Fifty Thousand Begonia Seedlings 



Is a vocation of interest. In the case of the tulip, there 

 added intellectual quality of a history that forms a 

 striking chapter in the chronicle of modern finance. 



is the 

 most 



