THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
2 97 
grow these is very considerable. Where every tree in a 
block of five thousand is trained to stakes or trellis to give it 
special form the labor item is rapidly multiplied. Another 
feature one cannot help admiring in the planning of these 
grounds is the area devoted to demonstration and experi¬ 
ment. One nursery possessed a fine arboritum, another a 
splendid collection of fruit trees, another illustrations of the 
different modes of training trees on walls, arbors and trel¬ 
lises. These features are expensive but highly educational. 
Holland. 
Our stay in Holland, the land of dykes, canals and wind¬ 
mills was comparatively short, but then it is a small coun¬ 
try. The ordinary way of seeing Holland is run over to 
Amsterdam, rush around the city for a day, take a Cook 
excursion to the 
Island of Mata- 
kan,then on to 
Belgium, or back 
to England. 
The beaten track 
of the tourist is 
a good one to 
avoid if you 
w o u 1 d s e e a 
country under 
natural con¬ 
ditions. One 
should take a 
canal trip or 
make a bicycle 
tour along 
interesting wat¬ 
er ways or well 
kept road to 
appreciate the 
country as it is, the quaint wind mills used for all manner 
of purposes, the rich pasture lands with great herds of black 
and white cattle, the comfortable cottages perilously near 
water level and above all the pleasant highways lined with 
beautiful shade trees. 
When the nurseryman thinks of Holland, his mind 
turns to bulbs, Azaleas and conifers. You can get them too! 
The show season is in spring of course, but we found the 
July harvest season also full of interest. The bulbs in the 
great fields in the Haarlem and Leyden regions were being 
harvested, cleaned in the storehouses and packed in paper 
sacks preparatory to the shipping season. The Holland 
bulb grower is busy in July and August whereas the shrub 
grower is at his ease. The past season has not been very 
favorable for bulbs and the growers are not as happy as they 
otherwise might be. 
If one wishes to see a really unique nursery section 
devoted largely to Azaleas and Rhododendrons, Boskoop 
should be visited. The soil is alluvial, covered with a peaty 
vegetable deposit, rich, forcible and therefore easily worked. 
The region produced fruit trees a couple of centuries ago but 
in the natural evolution of things these gave way to orna¬ 
mentals of the Azalea tribe. More lately conifers have been 
added with many other trees and shrubs of the more expen¬ 
sive types. The number of nurserymen in and about 
Boskoop is said to amount to 800, of which 200 are engaged 
in the wholesale trade. 
As far as hedges or roadways divide areas elsewhere, so 
canals are the separating factors here. The land is usually 
divided into rectangles of uniform size. The labor is 
mostly performed by hand. The Holland as well as Ger¬ 
man nurserymen are hearty and hospitable. The properly, 
introduced visitor always receives a welcome and goes away 
with the feeling that it was time well spent. J. C. 
England. 
ENGLISH PARKS AND PARK TREES. 
However one may hear and read about English parks his 
conception of them is sure to fall far short of their dignity 
and simple 
beauty. A con¬ 
stant source of 
surprise are the 
great areas 
devoted to 
“ breathing 
places” not 
only in crowded 
cities but in 
suburban places 
and even in the 
country side we 
find the “com¬ 
mon” the title 
of which is vest¬ 
ed in the parish 
and whose 
privileges and 
benefits belong 
to rich and poor 
alike. Driving in Surrey, not 20 miles from the heart 
of London and almost in its suburbs, a few days ago, 
I was astonished to find great stretches of moor-land 
sometimes several miles in extent covered with purple 
heather, gorse and scrub pine. These areas belong to this 
or that parish and may not be sold except by authority of 
parliament. Of course this may not be an unmitigated 
blessing in every case as the money might be more useful 
than the land but the tracts as a rule are of little use for 
agricultural or gardening purposes and are better in the 
hands of all the people than being held by a speculator for 
exclusive personal gain. 
But I was going to say something about the trees and 
parks. Certainly these constitute the chief glory of 
country life in England. We Americans have a justly fine 
opinion of our fine native trees. Our maples, elms, oaks, 
chestnuts and hickories are worthy of a great country, we 
rejoice in them as a national heritage but we must be pie- 
pared to award to little England the palm for possessing 
specimen trees of unsurpassed stature and beauty. \\ e 
find these in the English beech, elm and cedar. A \ isit to 
Hampton Court, Richmond, Bushy Park or W indsor all 
quite near London will show 7 the visitor as fine specimens 
A field of Hyacinths in the vicinity of Lyden, Holland. 
