soil varies according to the ground cultivated. In Utrecht and Brabant
many thousand acres are devoted to tobacco, while Overyssel and
Gelderland, as a rule, grow rye, oats, buckwheat, and flax. In Drenthe the
greater part of the province yields peat, and North and South Holland are
famous all over the world for their rich pastures. Cabbages and
cauliflowers are also extensively cultivated for exportation, and in
Friesland they have begun to cultivate them also. From Wateringen to the
Hoek van Holland one sees smiling orchards, while from Leyden to Haarlem
blossom the world-famed bulb fields, too well known to need special
description.

The farm-work is done in the spring and summer. The women invariably help
with the lighter work of weeding in the fields, while in harvest-time
they work as hard as the men, and very picturesque they look in their
broad black hats and white linen skirts. But when the harvest is gathered
in, and the pigs have been converted into hams and sausages, the man's
chief labour is over, although the manuring of the land and the threshing
of the corn have to be attended to. Still, he has his evenings wherein to
sit by the fireside and smoke, presumably gathering energies the while
for the coming spring. A woman's work, however, is never ended, for
while the man smokes she spins the flax grown on her own ground and the
wool from the sheep of the farm. In some parts of Overyssel it is still
the custom for the women to meet together at some neighbouring friend's
house to spin, and during these sociable evenings they partake of the
'spinning-meal,' which consists of currant bread and coffee, and in turn
sing and tell stories.

A weaver always visits every house once a year with his own loom to assist
at these gatherings, and when the linen is woven it is rolled up and tied
with coloured ribbons, decorated with artificial flowers, and kept in the