Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-09-25
A BIG GARDEN.
HOLLAND. LAND OF TULIP AND
THE LILY.
A Country Where Flowers and FRA
grancc Dazzle and Intoxicate
the Senses-Flowers Used
as Fertilizers.

From the middle of April to tho end
of May Holland is riot of color. Around
Haarlem, especially where the tulip
fields cover acres, the country looks as
If splsshed with hues from the palette
OF Turner. Imagine field of the great
cuplike, satiny blossoms, yellow as the
breast of canary, the next blood red,
another orange, blue, snow white, pink,
salmon. royal purple and almost black.
Not garden beds few yards across, but
acres upon acres of masses of vivid.
brilliant color. Then there are hyacinths
In all tints, and narcissus aud daffodils.
and lilies of the valley; miles of that low
lying sand, which has been reclaimed
from the sea, which, as matter of fact,
lies several feet below sea level, are ut
this season brilliant with colors which
no words can describe and few artists
dare to paint. Ones eyes ache after
driving through the fields, and the per
tune is perceOtible for several miles.
They raise them for the bulos--the
Dutch supply the world with bulbs.
We are probably all more or less fa-
miliar with the tulip craze in Holland,
which in 1886 and 1857 assumed such
proportions that the profit in single
season made By one village of tulip
growers amounted to over $4,000, 900,
and single bulbs of rare varieties were
sold at prices running as high as $500.
The fever reached such n pitch that the
Government was obliged to interfere
and declare the contracts made by tulip
spectators illegal. A similar craze oc-
Cured in the hyacinth trade in 1871,
and in tho library of one of the large
tulip growers of HARLEM, whose family
have been in the business upward of
four centuries, there are records of hya-
cinth bulbs having been sold for 1900
fiorins, or over $500. Though the craze
has long since subsidized, the Dutch are
still the horticulturists of the world.
While they make speciality of all sorts
of dubious plants, their light, sandy soil
seems peculiarly adapted for flower and
market gardening, and-from early spring
until autumn frosts, Holland is a veri-
table flower garden, Intoxicating in fra
GRANGE and gorgeous in color. Living
surrounded by such color must have ex-
erted a powerful influence upon natu-
rally artistic temperament.
We, utilitarian Americans, naturally
ask. "If they raise the tulips and
hyecinths and lilies of the valley for their
bulbs, what do they do with the flowers7"
And it comes something in the way of
shock to be told that they use them as
fertilizers. But it is fact; I've seen
two-horse wagon load of hyacinths, fresh
and fragrant-think of it, ladies, a pile
as high as an ordinary load of hayl-
dumped in the corner of field to decom-
pose and resolve themselves into COM
post; great heaps of tulip, lilies of the
valley, datfodils and narcissus are treated
in the same way. And then when
thought of the times, in the days of nv
youth, when have bought lilies CT the
valley at fifty cents spray, shuddcred
ct the waste. But the Dutch tulip
farmers tell me that it is the only way
they have of disposing of the blossoms.
wonder that some enterprisinn
Yankee does not look into the matter
and ascertain if it would not be practi
cable to start an essence factory in this
section of the country. The flowers are
certainly fragrant enough, and they
could be had by the ton for the cutting,
Chicago Herald.