The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-05-04
TULIP FARMING IN IRELAND
Bulb Culture Gives Employment to
a Great Many of the Poor
People.

1t is not exclusively a tulip farm
any more than it is a daffodil, or a
narcissus, or an anemone, or an iris
farm, since its 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 a day of May, says
London Pail Mall Gazette writer,
the tulips with their great deep cups
and gorgeous coloring seemed to have
| blotted 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
rier 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 cultivator of bulbs
| The green banks of turf and the privet
| hedges, close cut and sheltering, are
the same that the dead and gone &C.
cupiers 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 and 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 a 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, strip of
curious-looking black tulips, LA
Tulipe Noire," with its deep, velvety-
dark petals. Quieter-looking still is
the array of green blossoms fecked
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 fiotilia of white
sailed boats or a cloud of white but
| terfies-designed to keep off the
strength of the suns rays, and so
hold back a little longer the full de-
velopment of the blooms beneath:
| while at one end of the field is a huge
white tent, put up over 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 boys
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.
1t appears that the peculiar nature
of the soil, sandy and moist and well
MANFRED year after year as 1t has
been, makes it precminently suited to
! bulb growing