TULIP TIME

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4188, 24 May 1939, Page 10

TULIP TIME

GLORY OF THE NETHERLANDS. To most people the very name of Holland conjures up mental vistas of wind mills, canals and—tulips. Such a mind picture is correct enough, as far as it goes, though Holland has much else of worth and beauty besides. In its tulips, however, the ■country possesses something of great beauty and material value, for tulip bulbs from the Netherlands are sought by buyers throughout the world, and often’ yield handsome profits to their growers. April and May are the two months of the year during which the tulips are in the full glory of their bloom. To travel between Haarlem and Aalsmeer or Leiden during this time is to enter a world of beauty undreamt of, for acres and acres —miles and miles —of gloriaus color stretch like a vast patchwork carpet across the wide, flat landscape. Fields of red, pink, then white, yellow—there seems to be no .limit to the variety of colors, and each particular shade is kept to itself.

To the Netherlander who cultivates tulips the bulb is the important thing., and to him the bloom is merely on indication of the plant’s condition. Fields of magnificent flowers are mown down to be used as humus fertiliser for the nexscrop. Though people in other lands have attempted to enter into the competition with the Netherlands tulip bulb trade, they have not succeeded in reaching the high standard of skill in production which has for so long been the secret of the Netherianders' superior results.

The regions around Haarlem, Leiden, Aalsmeer and Scheveningen, in the provinces of Nord and Zuid Holland, have always been the main tulip-growing districts. Truly, it may be said that these two provinces with their tulip fields, bordered by canals which are dotted here and there with wind mills, are the glory of the Netherlands.

The tulip was first introduced to the Low* Countries from Turkey in the fifteenth century and became a popular favorite almost at once. Tile soil f the Netherlands was found to be ideal for its culture, and soon the plains showed glowing patches of brilliant color. Indeed, during the seventeenth, century the tulip became a positive mania ’ with the people. Quiet and sober business men gave up their ordinary occupations to engage in the tulip trade.

The mania may be likened to England’s historic craze—the South Sea Bubble. Its results were not dis-sim-ilar, for, finally, speculation in the tulip market reached such absurd intensity that the States of Holland were forced to check it by, a proclamation in 1636. Though the mad market collapsed, those who had not lost too much of their money lost none of their enthusiasm either, and the flat lands of Noord and Zuid Holland continued to produce acres of colorful blooms, just as they do this day. The exalted place which the tulip enjiyed was in no manner exaggerated by Dumas in his famous book “The Black Tulip,” in which he characterises the tulip fancier, Cornelius van Baerle, and his jealous and treacherous rival, Isaac Boxtel.

To-day the tulip is still held in high regard in the Netherlands. It is a national asset materially, and as a thing of great beauty it attracts tourists who come to see Holland in tulip time.