CHAPTER III 



PLANTING. TIME OF YEAR. SEED- 

 SUCKERS. PREPARATION OF SUCKERS 



PLANTING 



Time of Year. There is no doubt that, in districts 

 favoured with rich soil and good seasons, March is the 

 ideal month for planting. All vegetation is then springing 

 naturally ; showers during the following month help to 

 start the eyes of the bulb in putting out leaves and roots, 

 and when the May rains come the young suckers rush 

 along faster than at any other time of the year. In 

 districts not so favourably situated, planting is done in 

 January or February, for the American market from 

 March to June. 



Seed-suckers. The best for general purposes in planting 

 are " maiden suckers," * that is, suckers about eight 

 months old which have taken on adult foliage, and passed 

 beyond the stage when the leaves are narrow in proportion 

 to their length " sword-suckers." They are cut down 

 to within 6 in. of the bulb, where they measure 8 to 14 in. 

 across the cut surface. The heart eye should be destroyed, 

 all the outside eyes cut away with the exception of the 

 largest and fullest, and the old roots cleared off. If the 

 heart eye is not destroyed, there is a tendency to form a 

 new bulb on the top of the old one and the plant is then 

 very easily blown over ; besides there is the risk when the 

 sucker is from eight to ten months old that the bunch is 

 already formed, in which case it will probably turn out to 



* H. Q. Levy in Journ. Jam. Agric. Soc. t xvi. 74. 

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