The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-28
TULIP FARMING IN IRELAND.
Acres and Acres Compose the Field
 of Great Strong Giants

It is not exclusively a tulip farm any more than it is a daffodil. or a nar-i cissus or an enemone, or an iris farm, since in many acres of gardens and fields are given up to the culture of these and every other kind of bulb; but when l saw in a day of May the tulips, with their great, deep cups and gor- geous col0ring, seemed to have plotted out every other lesser blossom.
 The little fields lie scattered at the feet of whiteWashed, golden -roofed cot tages dotted here and there about the outskirts of the quiet seagirt village, almost in the shadow of the church steeple. and as one drives along the white sandy roads one sees the tulips in dazzling strips of gold and pink and purple and white and crimson stretch ing away on all sides.
 Out beyond the little turf-built banks which make so effectual a barrier be- tween the blossoms and the rough breezes, lie the sand dunes and the sea, shimmering and sparkling in the bril- liant May sunshine, it's blue waters re f1ecting back the cloudless azure of the skies and throwing into greater relief the rugged outlines of the islands on it's bosom. while here and there a tiny white-winged yacht sails fast before the strong sea wind to some enchanted fairy land.
 The bulb farm is struggling and irregular, consisting as it does of the little fields and potato gardens of the cottairs, bought up at different periods i1lc ba 0A4TI5 oAf thaTo an, terprising cultivator of bulbs. The green banks of turf and the priyet hedges, close cut and sheltering, are the same that the dead and gone occu- piers of the snow white cottages built for themselves in times gone by, to guard their more prosaic crops of pota- toes, Or cabbage or lettuce from the winds of the east and north.
 The soil is sandy, so much so that one's feet sink softly into it to the depth of many inches as one traverses the narrow pathways which intersect that dazzling array of tulip beds. Field after field is stretched before one, acres and acres of tulips-and such tulips! None of your slender, dropping town bred weddings but great strong giants, measuring from head to foot from two and d. half to three feet, with deep, gen erous cups and sturdy stems, and rich green foliage full of health and vigor They flourish bravely, massed together in the sandy soil, lifting their chalice- like cups in the sunshine, or drinking l In the heavy dews of evening.
 Here lies great bed of orage yellow, the "Bouton d'Or," one broad sheet of | golden, delicately fashioned goblets; be- yond them spreads a Arich mass of cherry red, then g. sea Of pure white, then one of lilac, then pink, then prim- rose and so on through every conceiv- able variety of shade and color. One has to see this farm of acres and acres of tulips to realize its beauty-this heavenly tapestry of gorgeously bril- l liant tinting and softest and mors del- 1 icate texture.
 Here is a bed of Parrot" tulips, a singularly handsome section, with their grotesque ragged edged, huge, wide open cups splashed in varying tints of orange and scarlet, green and brown; 1 here, again, a strip of curious looking l black tulips, La Tulipe Noire," with | its deep velvety dark petals. Quieter looking still is the array of green blos- sons fleclSed with the palest primrose while there are hundreds of other kinds less curious, but more crimson, lilac penciled in white, orange fringed with scarlet and so on through an indiscrib- atle variety of dainty and exquisite blooms, the mere sight of which dag zles one's eyes in the strong sunshine
 Here and there this sea of beauty and color is f1ecked by small light look ing structures of wooden 1aths and white canvas-like @ fotilla of white sailed boats or cloud of white butter. fiies-designed to keep off the strength of the suns rays, and so hold back g little longer the full development of the blooms beneath while at one end ot
 the field is huge white tent, put III over number of the most choice an6 valuable sorts, with the same wise in. tention.
 In one of the many drying and sort. ing houses a number of men and boys
 were busily employed in packing into g
 large roomY boxes some exquisite
 blooms of tulips and ranuncull and St
 Bridget anamones and other choice
 blossoms, destined for the then forth
 coming Temple show in London, ol
 the less imposing flower display in tho l Waverly market, Edinburgh.
 It appears that the peculiar nature O
 the soil, sandy and moist, and wei
 manured year after year as it has been
 makes 1t pre-eminently suited for bull
 growing.
 The bulb farm gives great deal ot
 employment to thte, poor people of thu
 neighborhood, especially in autumn
 when the work of lifting goes on
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