BULBS. 99 



GALANTHUS SNOW DROP. 



The dried bulbs do not stand being kept out of the 

 ground too long; keep in a dry room. 



GLADIOLUS. 



Two seasons are required to produce commercial or 

 free flowering bulbs from the small bulblets that form 

 at the base of the bulb. These bulblets are sown the 

 next spring thickly in drills, covered with half an inch 

 of soil. They are taken up about the middle of Septem- 

 ber, or as soon as the leaves begin to wither. The tops 

 are cut close to the corm, and after the bulbs are dried 

 in a shed, they are stored away in shallow crates in a 

 cellar, and are replanted the following spring to undergo 

 another season's growth; from North Carolina south- 

 ward they may remain over winter in the ground where 

 they grew, protected with a covering of litter. 



HYACIXTH. 



From the small offsets four to six years are required 

 to produce marketable bulbs. The hyacinth is not 

 grown in the same soil oftener than once every four 

 years. In Holland, where the finest bulbs the world 

 produces are raised, the soil is carefully prepared, fine 

 and light, entirely free from stone, gravel and stiff soil. 

 The only manure used is from the cow stable, unmixed 

 with straw or anything else. During winter the ground 

 is dug two or three feet deep, and in March it is covered 

 with three inches of cow manure, afterwards spaded in 

 a foot deep. Vegetables or flowers which do not ex- 

 haust the soil are grown on it during the summer. In 

 October, the soil is dug two feet deep. It is now 

 divided into beds about 5 feet in width, which are care- 

 fully raked over and made into rows a foot apart and 



