54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" liftino;" full}' eiglit-fokl ; for instead of having; a good handle to 

 each bulb 3'ou will have to grope about in the soil to find it. My 

 plan of "lifting" is to have a man go along the rows with a spade, 

 thrusting it in under the bulbs ; not raising them out of the ground, 

 but onl}' loosening the soil. I follow, taking the stalks in my hand, 

 as many as I can grasp, pulling up the plants, to which very little 

 earth will adhere, and leaving each kind by itself with its label 

 near it. 



This labor is very light, for me at least, and the task is quickly 

 done. The stalks are cut off the same day, as closely as possible 

 to the bulbs ; which are then gathered up in boxes and put into a 

 place out of reach of the frost, where the}' sta\' until Decem- 

 ber, when the dry roots, the old withered bulbs, and the bulblets, 

 are taken off; the clean bulbs are then removed to my cellar, 

 where they remain until the tenth of May comes again. As I aim 

 to lift the bulbs as near the tenth of October as possible, it will be 

 seen that the}' are out of the ground seven months in every year. 



Propagation. — There are three ways of propagating the gladio- 

 lus in its special varieties, and one way of raising new kinds. 

 The first way to be mentioned is merely a curiosity of propaga- 

 tion, and of no practical use. The Uower stalks of most kinds 

 have a leaf on the lower end, — if the stalk be cut below the leaf 

 and inserted into moist sand, a small bulb will usually be formed 

 in the axil of the leaf. 



A second way is by cutting the bulb into pieces. If a 

 bulb be stripped of its husks, there will usually be found 

 two large buds at the top and smaller ones in a line down 

 each side. Just as every bud of a grape vine may be made into 

 an independent plant, so every bud of a gladiolus bulb may 

 be made to grow, and form a bulb. Some of the buds are 

 double or triple and will make two or three bulbs. Nevertheless 

 it takes so much care and attention to make the smaller buds 

 start that, practically, it is not advisable to cut a bulb into more 

 than two pieces. Care must be taken in peeling the bulb not to 

 break off such shoots as may already have started. If the bulb 

 be left uncut, it is not often that more than one bud will grow, 

 though some kinds will increase very rapidly without cutting. The 

 two species psittaiinus and dracocephalxs will usually yield three 

 or four l)ull»s for every one planted. 



The only way of propagation, however, that can be called rapid, 



