ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES. 103 



they may be taken up and dried within a few weeks 

 after the flower stems are cut. The bulbs are then 

 replanted in October, and in three years from sets they 

 will attain marketable size. An average yield is about 

 60,000 full-sized bulbs to the acre. 



TUBEROSE. 



This is a great industry in the United States, the pro- 

 duction at present in one section in a radius of twenty 

 miles around Magnolia, N. C. , amounting annually to 

 about 6,000,000 bulbs, 75 per cent, of which is ex- 

 ported to Europe. Propagation is by offsets. From 

 North Carolina southward, small sets will make large 

 flowering bulbs in one season; northward it requires 

 two seasons. 



The ground is prepared as for a crop of potatoes. 

 Planting is done in drills 30 inches apart, the sets being 

 placed 4 inches apart, 3 inches below the surface. The 

 crop must be cultivated constantly. After frost, the 

 bulbs are lifted, their tops cut to within two inches of 

 the bulb, and they are then placed on shelves or in 

 trays to remain four to eight weeks to dry or cure. On 

 a small scale the roots may be tied in bunches and hung 

 upon rafters to dry. 



ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES. 



Possibilities in Plant- Breeding. Mankind is 

 awakening to a fuller realization of the grand possi- 

 bilities of wonderful accomplishment presented in the 

 domain of plant-breeding, or the amelioration of useful 

 and ornamental types of plants. 



The world has made creditable progress in this 

 science within the past quarter of a century, but the 

 work which has thus far been accomplished, represents 



