The Ohinemuri Gazette. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1911. LAND OF INTENSE CULTURE

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2797, 31 May 1911, Page 2

The Ohinemuri Gazette. WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1911. LAND OF INTENSE CULTURE

Iran object lesbon is wanted to illustrate the phenomenal success achieved by intense cultivation surely 'Holland can supply it. The country has'rio't'onethird the area of the North Island, but it has a population of between" five and six millions. From the gardening industry alone Holland not only provides

for the requirements of her own population, but also exports largely to Britain, Germany, Denmark, and Belgium. About three per cent of the cultivated land is devoted to horticulture. Of fresh fruit Holland's exports represents over a quarter of a million sterling per annum, fresh vegetables nearly half a million, dried and preserved vegetables £132,000, bulbs and roots threequarters of a million sterling, plants, trees, etc., .£300,000, flower and vegetable seeds £35,000, or approximately two millions sterling a year. The largest consumer of this produce is .Prussia, followed by Britain and Belgium, smaller supplies being shipped to North America and the > Dutch East Indies^ Holland goes in largely for vegetable growing, one district alone producing over twelve million heads of cabbage annually. The quality of Dutch cabbages is proverbial. One special feature to which the attention of producers is directed in Holland is the arrangement by which the produce of orie province is timed for gathering when that of another is exhausted. Thus, the crop of cauliflowers from South Holland is arranged to come in when the Westland one is drawing to its close. There is also a very large production of cucumbers,'the bulk of it being forced in frames on stable manure. Onions are not regarded in Holland as a product of market gardening, but as an agricultural crop. Readers will scarcely realise that Holland actually exports between forty and fifty thousand tons ot onions, principally to the United Kingdom. This is a crop to which a large amount of intensive cultivation is directed, the onions being often sown in autumn under glass, the seedings being transplanted as early as possible in the spring. An area of something like fifty thousand acres is devoted to fruit growing in Holland. Something like three thousand tons ot Dutch strawberries are annually sent to Germany, the fruit being largely forced under glass. Another lucrative fruit export is hot-house grapes, of which about a thousand tons are grown annually. To the rearing of ornamental trees, chiefly for export to England, Belgium, Denmark, and North America, an area of about five thousand acres is devoted,

giving employment to about three thousand persons. So profitable is ornamental tree growing 111 Holland that the cost of the land comprising the nurseries ranges from £jo to ,£320 per acre. Another important Dutch industry is the prqduction of cut flowers, greenery, and pot plants, comprising the oldest industry in the country. The business of forcing has been greatly developed of late years, so as to be independent of the seasonal changes. Dutch bulbs are

known the world over, as the industry dates back to the days of Queen Elizabeth, when the original tulips and hyacinths were brought from the east. The cultivation and export of both tulips and hyacinths, of which Britain has the M larg-

est share, represents a revenue to the

country of over £ 800,000 per annum, and employs four thousand people. The preparation of the best plants for the cultivation of these two

kinds of bulbs is so costly tliat the value of the land rises in some cases to nearly .£SOO per acre. Holland has a damp, marshy soil specially suitable for horticultural pursuits, and the countless waterways by which the country is intersected in all directions render carriage cheaper and conduce to the

success of the intensive cultivation for which the country is proverbial, and

which has enabled it to support such a

large population considering the re-

stneted area.