144 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 
the young bulbs exhaust their energies in perfecting their 
own increase. After the first season’s growth in the 
bed, they are taken up and handled in precisely the same 
manner as the old bulbs. It requires from three to five 
years’ growth to make bulbs of merchantable size, which 
means, for the best bulbs, as large as they can be grown, 
without natural division, after which they produce but 
inferior spikes of bloom. 
The other method of propagation is by hollowing 
out the base of the bulb, leaving a narrow rim, and 
scooping out the center about one-fourth of its depth. 
This work is performed in August, in clear, dry weather, 
as in wet weather the bulbs will be very liable to rot. 
It is very desirable, as in propagating by cross-cuts, that 
the bulbs chosen for this purpose should be very strong 
and healthy. The hollowed-out part of the bulb ought 
not to be touched after the cutting, either by the finger 
or anything else, and the most common and best way is 
to: strew a dry board with fine, dry sand, lay the bulbs 
upon it, and to turn the hollowed-out part to the sun. 
After lying some time, the heart, which extends as far 
as the point of the bulb, becomes detached by the heat 
of the sun, and is carefully removed with a smooth stick, 
being careful not to bruise the scales of the bulb. The. 
pulbs are then kept in a dry place exposed to the sun, 
until it is time to plant out in autumn. In the mean- 
time small bulbs, in great quantities, will be formed all 
along the lines of the scales. When this kind of propa- 
gating proves successful, it is far more rapid than by 
cross-cuts, but the young bulbs are not as large, and 
they will require an additional growth of one or two 
years to make salable bulbs. 
Garden Culture of Hy acinths,< “Avani can 
be grown in the open air successfully, and with as little 
difficulty as any flowering bulbs. The only real enemy 
they have is frost. While classed with hardy bulbs, 
