THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Quaint Peasant Costumes in North Holland 
blocks with short rows close together and cultivated exclu¬ 
sively by hand! Man labor seems to be cheaper than horse. 
Forage is scarce and expensive. It is astonishing to find how 
much of the transportation work is done by hand push carts 
aided by dog power. The dogs a stocky type of the great 
Dane breed—are strong and docile. They keep up a steady 
“dog trot” which develops a rapid walking gait in the man 
who guides the two-wheeled vehicle. It is an interesting 
sight to see the delivery of milk in such cities as Ghent and 
Antwerp by this means of transportation. In many cases 
women are the distributers. The cans of polished brass are 
packed in straw or hay to lessen the jar; the roads being 
paved with stone and the springs of the carts rather stiff, the 
jar is considerable. 
33 1 
The climate of this part of Holland is especial¬ 
ly favorable for the rapid growth of such shade 
trees as maples in variety, Linden (bassvyood), 
horse chestnut and cut-leaf birch. Moisture 
is abundant and frequent transplantings to en¬ 
courage root growth may be practiced with ease 
and success. I find that, contrary to the general 
notion, these nurserymen work hard. They 
have a comparatively easy time during the 
growing season, but when the digging, billing and 
packing season is on there is a bustle about the 
place quite worthy of the live American grower. 
Some of them work a night as well as a day gang 
and if the manager takes personal supervision, 
he is “on deck” most of the time himself. In 
the matter of languages, most of the pro¬ 
prietors speak French and German and oc¬ 
casionally English, in addition to their native 
tongue. A knowledge of French or German 
will, always, greatly aid the American traveller 
among nurserymen on the Continent. 
In Belgium one finds a string of nurseries all 
along the railway line connecting Antwerp, Brussels and 
Ghent. The last city is famous for its establishments grow¬ 
ing palms, azaleas and tuberous begonias. It is not that 
. the areas are so extensive but the ground is so completely 
covered that an extraordinary number of plants are taken 
from a small plat of ground. Ghent ships of these plants 
annually, to the amount of six or seven hundred thousand 
dollars. The soil is of the sandy alluvial type rather 
heavier than that of Holland but very easily worked. 
One of the eminently satisfactory things about travel in 
Holland and Belgium is that the distances are short, and 
the train service good. There are fast trains and slow 
trains and one may take his choice between plush and 
boards in the four classes offered. 
Distributing milk. Note the silver belt buck'es on the young man. The handsome young woman displays her 
jewelry in her bonnet and about her neck. 
