HANDLING AND STORING GLADIOLUS BULBS. 85 



when they become too dry. This is the reason that gladiolus 

 bulbs imported from Holland are seldom satisfactory. 



If the temperature and humidity of the air in the storage 

 cellar can be properly controlled, I do -not know any reason why 

 gladiolus bulbs may not be kept in the cellar through the summer 

 and used for forcing in the greenhouse. They could be planted 

 in September and October, or at least two months before the new 

 crop of bulbs are sufficiently cured to be available for this pur- 

 pose. We have accidentally demonstrated this to our own satis- 

 faction. In the autumn of 1915 we found two lots of about 100 

 each in the cellar on the crates that had been overlooked at plant- 

 ing time. 



One of the varieties, the Marie Lemoine, had grown new 

 bulbs on the old bulbs, while on the crate in a dry cellar, without 

 forming roots or tops. The other variety, No. 121, did not form 

 new bulbs, but were somewhat shrunken. We saved both lots 

 and planted them last spring. 



The new bulbs of Marie Lemoine which formed in the cellar 

 the previous summer produced only a few spikes of bloom. The 

 bulbs of No. 121, which had remained in the cellar for two win- 

 ters and one summer, grew and bloomed just as well as bulbs of 

 the same variety that were a year younger. 



A few days ago I found a few bulbs of Mrs. Francis King 

 in the bulb cellar at Albert Lea that had formed new bulbs, while 

 in a perfectly dry state. I have these bulbs here as proof of my 

 veracity, as I will admit that I should have been very slow to 

 believe this story until I had the actual experience. 



Some time in April, 1915, we sent a small package contain- 

 ing four bulbs to a customer in New York. About a month later 

 he wrote that he had not yet received the bulbs, and we refilled 

 his order. In April, 1916, just about a year after we had sent 

 the first package, he received it and returned it to me, remark- 

 ing that a history of its journey for a whole year might be inter- 

 esting. 



A neighbor of mine who is a railway mail clerk says that 

 small packages and letters are sometimes left in the mail bags 

 when being emptied, and it is a rule that when ten empty bags 

 accumulate in a car they are made into a bundle and sent to 

 Chicago or some other large terminal. It is supposed that this 

 small package of bulbs was stored away in a bundle of mail bags 

 for about a year before it was discovered and sent on to its des- 

 tination. Upon examination we found that one of the bulbs in 

 this package had grown a new bulb about an inch in diameter. 

 We planted the new bulb that probably grew in a mail bag and it 

 produced a small spike of bloom. I hesitated quite a while before 

 writing about this incident because it is almost unbelievable to 

 those who have not had much experience with the gladiolus. 



