Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-07

the side. The varieties are kept separate,
each row being labeled with its own name.
The most of the bulbs exported by Holland
are raised near Haarlem, and this means
an amount equal to about $5,00o,000 annual
", much CT which comes from the United
States
The Seat of the Tulip Craze.
1t was at HARLEM that the best tulips
were raised during the great craze, when
such bulbs brought their weight in gold. That
was about the only time that the Dutch
lost their heads and went wild over specula-
ton. They speculate still, but most of their
enterprises are on an investment basis.
During the tulip craze, along about when
Boston was started, one HARLEM tulip bulb
brought s1500, with a team of gray horses
and a carriage thrown in, and an Amster-
dam bulb was sold for twelve acres of land.
Both of these bulbs were of the variety
known as the Semper Augustus, of which
there were then only two in existence. At
the same time other varieties brought enor-
nous sums. Tulip buying was regular
business and men grew rich and poor from
the trade. Some Dutch mortgaged their
houses to buy tulips, and the loss of peck
of bulbs caused a mans ruin.
The Dutch tulips now sell for ordinary
prices, but they are still handled on bust
ness principles, and both cultivation and
marketing have been reduced to a science.
The bulbs are set out in September and
October. They are carefully cultivated by
skilled workmen, many of the farms en-
ploying hundreds of hands. They are pack
ed for the market just so and are shipped
to seed and flower dealers all over the
world.
Low Wages.
I doubt If the ordinary Dutch farmer
makes money. Take the go 900 who have
less than fifteen acres. They cannot at
best produce more than a living. Indeed,
some of these are selling their farms and
renting others. Lands are high and rents
are calculated at about per cent of the
land values.
Wages are very low. A good farm hand
can be hired for from 80 to 40 cents day,
and a common price is $50 year, with a
suit of clothes and a pair Of boots thrown
In. Many of the farm hands now go off to
Belgium and France at harvest time, so
that labor is scarce. There Is also an exc
dus from the country to the cities and the
factories, where the wages are higher
Even in the cities the wages paid seem
ridiculous in comparison with those of the
United States. The government usually
pays as much as any one. Here are some
figures recently published as to what men
received who worked on state contracts:
Common workmen got cents an hour, car
penters 61a cents and masons and brick
layers cents. Blacksmiths received 7
cents an hour and turner's, planners, filters
diu IRON WOTheTS o CENTS. Inc wages In
the factories are no better, and the hours of
work range all the way from nine to thir-
teen per day. On the farms both men and
! women work. and the women, as a rule, do
as much as the men.
Child Labor in Holland,
In the factories there are also women and
children. Children are allowed in the
factories at the age Of twelve. The
little ones go to their labors at o'clock,
starting work on nothing but cup of hot
coffee or perhaps piece Of rye bread, and
coming home to breakfast at g. They go
back an hour later, and lay of for dinner
from II to I, when they return to complete
the day. The wages paid children are but
few cents day. and boys start into a
trade as low as 20 cents week. There are
fixed rules as to apprentices. some shops
refusing to take them because there are
no laws by which they can hold them after
they have learned enough to be of value,
OF late, however, technical schools have
been established and the children will have
a better chance to learn trades than in the
past. FRANK G. CARPENTER.