# Things Seen in Holland/Chapter VI

CHAPTER VI
ON MANY SUBJECTS
IN a general way, the trade between the Netherlands and England consists in an exchange of agricultural and dairy products from the former, for machinery and manufactured goods from the latter. Most steamships, and practically all railway locomotives in use on the Dutch lines, are of English make. In recent years the total value of goods consigned from the United Kingdom to Holland has amounted to about £14,000,000. Of these, the ​exports of cotton goods were of about the value of £3,000,000, woollen goods about £500,000, and iron nearly £2,000,000.
THE HARBOUR OF MARKEN.
Girls, wearing a many-coloured costume, are waiting for the tourist. The town is one of the “show-places” of Holland.
​eggs which come into the English market are of high quality.
Of Dutch butter, more than 12,000 tons come to this country every year; while Germany buys even more, in spite of the heavy import duty. The position of Dutch butter on the English market is strongly assured, and is steadily gaining strength. Belgium, too, takes more than 5,000 tons. The principal reason why Germany and Belgium are such strong competitors for Dutch butter is that those countries have been quick to recognize the great importance of the Dutch control system. Some years ago Dutch exporters had great trouble in combating the adulteration of the article, but since the control system has been established the exportation of doubtful butter has been stopped altogether. Under this system of control every parcel of butter bears on the ​merchandise itself a Government label, as a guarantee of its purity. Friesland is a great manufacturer of butter, Leeuwarden and Bolswaard being its principal market-towns. Ever since the butter industry in Holland was developed upon the lines adopted by Denmark, the Dutch butter has become more and more independent of the English markets, as, owing to the favourable geographical position occupied by Holland, it can supply Germany and Belgium on very favourable terms. The creameries of the Netherlands are computed to have an output of more than 40,000 tons of butter, of which 30,000 tons are exported.
THE YOUNG KNITTER.
A modern picture daily seen in Dutch villages.
​cheese centres. The original and well-known Edam cheese—i.e., that made in North Holland—still maintains its high reputation, as does also the old style of farmers' Gouda, made in South Holland. Alkmaar, Hoorn, Purmerend, Medemblik, and Enkhuizen, all possess cheese-markets.
Edam may naturally be selected as the cheese-market par excellence; hence a description of what is really a gay and picturesque scene is not out of place here. An odd sight it is to witness men garbed in white, and presenting the appearance of sailors from H.M.S. Pinafore, shuffle along carrying a hundredweight of cheese on trays suspended from their shoulders by leather yokes into the weigh-house, and, trotting back at the shuffle, deposit in the warehouse the shining, golden-coloured “cannon-balls” which have made Edam famous. Later, these cheeses will be ​painted with a deep claret-tinted pigment, to enable them to stand the sea-voyage without detriment to their quality. Edam was in days gone by a seaport, and along the Edam-Volendam Canal are tufts of “paddy,” or wild rice—a link with the cargoes formerly discharged there by ships from Holland's Eastern possessions. A compliment the Hollander is fond of paying to his wife is, “There is no better kaasboerin (cheese-farmer).
Among the other industries which add to Holland's revenue are cattle-raising, diamond-cutting, and the cultivation and exportation of bulbs. The Dutch cattle are all of one colour—black and white. Should the black stripes form on the coat of the animal three vertical belts equal in width, the beasts are greatly prized and admired.
Diamond-cutting has Amsterdam for its ​centre. It was introduced there by Portuguese Jews after the sack of Antwerp in 1576, but its great development dates from about the middle of the nineteenth century. There are now some seventy factories, employing about 12,000 operatives. Visitors are allowed to visit some of these works on payment of a small fee, and, in some cases, if properly vouched for by some well-known resident.
The cultivation of bulbs is carried on on an extensive scale, and in days gone by the tulip had about it a halo of romance, and gave rise to as frantic speculations as were witnessed in the days of the South Sea Bubble. Then followed the inevitable crash, and to-day the Dutchman cultivates the beautiful flower as others do the potato, and without any vision of producing a “black tulip.” This “philosopher's stone” in the realm of tulipdom remains to be ​discovered. In his much-read novel, “The Black Tulip,” Dumas tells of the feud between Cornelius van Baerle and Boxtel in the days of the brothers De Witt, whose murder he graphically describes. In the seventeenth century a single bulb fetched thousands of florins, the Semper Augustus bulb attaining the price of 13,000 florins; but the Government put down speculation, and the value of the bulb fell to fifty florins. Some fifty species of the tulip have been described; the one from which most of the celebrated varieties have been derived is the Tulipa Gesneriana, which Conrad Gesner, a German, brought in 1559 from Constantinople to Augsburg, whence it found its way to Holland. Since then innumerable varieties have been originated, and Dutch growers now boast of nearly 2,000 varieties.
KATWIJK-AAN-ZEE.
Deep-sea fishing smack on the strand.
​classified by florists, according to their colour, into “selfs,” flowers of one solid colour; “bizarres,” flowers with a clear yellow base or centre with orange, red, crimson, and other markings; “roses,” flowers variegated with shades of rose, deep red, or scarlet; and “bybloemen,” flowers of dark colours such as lilac, purple, brown, and “black.” Several other species have given rise to cultivated varieties, but to a much more limited extent.
Tulips are propagated in two ways—by offsets from the bulb and by seeds. The offsets grow to a flowering size in three or four years, and may be relied on to reproduce the variety truly. Most varieties produce offsets in considerable abundance. There is a remarkable peculiarity about seedling tulips. When they begin to flower, after growing for four or five years, the flowers are of one plain dull colour, ​whatever may have been the colours and markings of the flowers from which the seeds were taken. In this state the seedling tulips are called "breeders," and they usually remain in this condition for several years. Then at last comes a spring when several of them "break" into the brilliant colours which we look for in tulips, and into the markings which are called "flamed," or "feathered." They can now be classified under some of the recognized varieties, and are ready for the market. How long it will be before the "breeders" begin to break no one can say, but various devices are tried to hasten the event, such as withholding and then giving water, moving the bulbs from a very poor to a very rich soil, and even sending them to a distance for change of air. When the "breeders" have assumed the desired colours and markings, they are said to be "rectified," but they ​then grow less vigorously, and multiply less rapidly. “Breeders,” therefore, are chiefly used in propagation, and are called by the Dutch “mother tulips.” There is, of course, always the chance that these seedling tulips will give rise to a new variety. Great skill is needed in the cultivation of them, and an intelligent and careful grower will produce well-marked flowers where another would fail. The Dutch growers commonly manure the ground in which the tulip is to be ultimately grown, and then plant it with potatoes, in order to make the soil, which would otherwise be too strong, suitable after a couple of years for the reception of the bulbs. Every summer they are taken up, the offsets are detached, and all replanted in fresh soil. Those who wish to feast their eyes on a sea of colour should hie to Holland about Easter-time, ​and travel through the Hillegom-Haarlem district when they will see acres upon acres of tulips and hyacinths in full bloom, while in the cities the quays (kaden) are lined with barges converted for the nonce into floating flower-beds.
A SHADY AVENUE.
Street scene in Katwijk-aan-Zee, a resort of marine painters.
​“is adapted to the second or third row in the bed; the stem is firm and elastic, the foliage full and broad, of a lively green; the cup large, and of the finest form; the white pure, and wholly free from stain; the pencilling on the petals is beautifully marked with black or dark purple, and the feathering uniform and elegant; it preserves its shape to the last, the outer leaves not sinking from the inner; in a word, it is considered the first flower of its cast, and the best that has ever been produced in England;”
An old English poem sings the charm of the tulip in the following strain:
For brilliant tints to charm the eye, What plant can with the tulip vie? Yet no delicious scent it yields To cheer the garden or the fields; Vainly in gaudy colours drest, 'Tis rather gazed on than caressed.”
​The fisheries, especially the herring fishery, are now on the decline, owing to foreign competition. It is not necessary to waste any sentiment over what will happen to the Marken and Volendam fisherfolk when the Zuider Zee shall have been partially drained. These good people have practically taken from that fishing-ground all fish fit to be put on the dining-table, and they admit it. In the future they will, like the hardy islanders of Urk, who chaff the others as “pond-fishermen,” have to sail out into the North Sea, or become “cow-milkers,” as the Dutch style landlubbers.
UNLOADING PEAT.
Markeners taking in their stock of fuel for the winter. Peat is used by all classes, from the lady's dainty boudoir to the fisherman's humble cottage.
​lady's chaufferette; the other, a lighter and softer peat (zachte turf, or lange turf, because cut in greater lengths), which is of a more fibrous character. Gouda not only makes cheese, but fashions clay into pipes of quaint shape, many of which find their way into the clubs of the “Knickerbockers,” or descendants of the Dutch in New York. Delft, early in the seventeenth century, when commercial relations were started with Japan, began by copying the blue porcelain of Seto, and “old Delft” is nowadays worth more than its weight in silver. There is in Delft the celebrated pottery known as “De Porceleijne Fles” (The Porcelain Bottle), which has existed uninterruptedly for about 250 years, and its mark is familiar to purchasers of its wares the world over. It stands in its original place, and, so to speak, under the same roof. Its artistic adviser is Heer A. ​Le Comte, already mentioned in connection with the Rijks Museum “Huis Lambert van Meerten.”
Holland, being a little country, cannot support its musicians, and so it is that many of them emigrate to occupy leading positions in all the orchestras of the world. We have among us Johannes Wolff, Morris Sons, Jan Mulder, R. Lohman, and Mossel, the last named residing in Manchester. Van Rooij, the Dutch singer, is well known at Covent Garden. With us are also several Dutch painters—Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, who hails from Dronrijp, Mathias Maris, W. L. Bruckman, Nico Jungman, Cossaar, and A. van Anrooij. As an actor De Vries has made a reputation in England.
The Netherlands possess an army composed of ten regiments (afdeeling) of Infantry, three regiments of Hussars, one ​regiment of Engineers, three regiments of Field Artillery, one regiment of Horse Artillery, four regiments of Garrison Artillery, etc.; numbering in all about 30,000 men. Besides these regular troops there exists the Schutterij, a kind of Landwehr. As to the Indian Army, which consists of 36,000 men, 13,000 of whom are Europeans, it is composed of volunteers enlisted specially for service in foreign parts. From time to time one hears of the “endless war in Acheen,” but of late years this disturbed part of the Dutch possessions has been comparatively quiet; a humanitarian sentiment prevails, which has prevented the Acheenese being put down with a hard hand.
The Navy consists of just over a hundred vessels, and is manned by about 8,000 sailors. The names of most of the Dutch warships serve to recall the Navy's glorious deeds in the past.
​Formerly, each town had its own standard time, while the railways and post-offices made use of Greenwich time, a system which was somewhat confusing, the other clocks being twenty minutes ahead of that time. Now, however, Amsterdam time, which is nineteen minutes ahead of that of Greenwich, has been uniformly adopted thoughout the Netherlands.
THE END