64 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 
obtained. Where the soil is very heavy and wet, the 
season of growth will be longer, and the pips larger and 
stronger. This is the character of much of the land 
near Hamburg; but for that market many pips are 
grown miles away, where the soil is of a lighter or sandy 
nature, more like that of Berlin. The pips ripen 
earlier, are not as large, and are, in all respects, like 
those from Berlin, where the soil is light. Pips, for 
market, must be three years old, to produce satisfactory 
spikes of bloom. In a heavy soil, pips two years old will 
be as large as those, grown in a lighter soil, will become 
in three years, but they will not do for the florist, as the 
spikes will contain but half as many bells as they should. 
Two-years-old pips are often sent to this market; they 
have sold well, because they look well, but the results 
were disappointing, and the fault has generally been laid 
to the grower, when it is due to those who wish to sell 
cheap. 
The perfection of soil for pips would be a rather 
heavy loam, made rich, and the location should be on a 
southern slope, where it would be dry, warm and airy. 
There the pips would grow strong and ripen quickly, 
consequently they would get sufficient rest to force early. 
Such a condition of soil and climate is found in some of 
the valleys of the Harz mountains, where the Lily of the 
Valley is extensively grown, and for early forcing there 
is none better, if as good. These pips bring the highest 
price of any in the market. In other words, the dealers 
charge a higher price for these than for any others, 
simply because they are better, although the Hamburg. 
merchant is very careful not to mention locality as the 
cause of good pips, prefering his own reputation to 
stand for that. In evidence of this we would say, that 
one of the largest and most successful florists, near New 
York, last year tried, as an experiment, twenty-five 
thousand of these pips, and they gave him ninety-five 
