The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-05-04
TULIP FARMING IN IRELAND
Bulb Culture Gives Employment to
Great Many of the Poor
People.

narcissus, or an anemone or an iris
farm, since it's many acres of gardens
and fields are given up to the culture
of these and every other kind of bulb;
but when l saw it day of May, says
London Pail Mall Gazette writer,
the tulips with their great deep cups
and gorgeous coloring seemed to have
plotted out every other lesser BIOS
som.
The little fields lie scattered at the
feet of whitewashed, golden-roofed
cottages dotted here and there about
the outskirts of the quiet sea-girt vii
lage, 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 stretching away on all sides.
Out beyond the little turf-built
banks, which make so effectual a bar
| rler between the blossoms and the
rough breezes; lie the sand dunes and
the sea, shimmering and sparkling in
the brilliant May sunshine it's blue
waters rejecting 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
cottiers, bought up at different peri
DDS, just as he could get them, by
| the enterprising cultiyator of bulbs
The green banks of turf and the privet
hedges, close cut and sheltering, are
the same that the dead and gone oc-
cuplers OF the snow-white cottages
built for themselves in times gone by,
to guard their more prosaic crops of
potatoes, or cabbage, or lettuce from
the winds Of the east and north.
The soil is sandy, so much so that
ones 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 weaklings, but
great strong giants, measuring from
head to foot from two and a half to
three feet, with deep generous cups.
and sturdy stems ard rich green foil
age full of health and vigor They
| flourish bravely, massed together in
the sandy soil, lifting their chalice-like
cups in the sunshine, or drinking in
the heavy dews of evening.
Here lies a great bed of orange yell
low, the "Bouton dor" one broad
sheet of golden delicately fashioned
! goblets; beyond them spreads rich
mass. of cherry-red then a sea of pure
| white, then one of lilac, then pink,
then primrose, and so on through
every conceivable 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 gor-
geously brilliant tinting and softest
and most delicate texture.
Here is 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 and green
and brown; here, again, a strip of
| curious-looking black tulips, LA
Tulipe Noire,' with it's deep, velvety-
dark petals. Quieter-looking still is
the array Of green blossoms flecked
with the palest primrose, while there
are hundreds of other kinds less curl.
| Gus, but more beautiful and delicate:
white tipped with crimson, lilac pen
ciled in. white, orange fringed with
scarlet, and so on through an indie
scribable variety of dainty and ex-
| quisite blooms, the mere sight of
| which dazzles ones eyes in the strong
sunshine.
Here and there this sea of beauty
and color is flecked by small light
looking structures of wooden laths and
! white canvas-like flotilla of white
sailed boats or cloud of white but
terflies-designed to keep off the
strength of the suns rays, and so
hold back little longer the full de-
velopnent of the blooms beneath:
while at one end of the field is a huge
white tent, put up over a number of
the most choice and valuable sorts
with the same wise intention
In one of the many drying and Sort
ing houses a number of men and bows
were busily employed in packing into
large, roomy boxes some exquisite
blooms of tulips and ranunculi and St.
Bridget anemones and other choice
blossoms, destined for the then forth
coming Temple show in London, or the
less imposing flower display in the
Waverley market. Edinburgh.
It appears that the peculiar nature
of the soil, sandy and moist and we'll
| manured year after year as 1t has
been, makes it prominently suited to
bulb growing.