64 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



obtained. Where the soil is very heavy and wet, the 

 season of growth will be longer, and the pips larger and 

 stronger. This is the character of much of the land 

 near Hamburg; but for that market many pips are 

 grown miles away, where the soil is of a lighter or sandy 

 nature, more like that of Berlin. The pips ripen 

 earlier, are not as large, and are, in all respects, like 

 those from Berlin, where the soil is light. Pips, for 

 market, must be three years old, to produce satisfactory 

 spikes of bloom. In a heavy soil, pips two years old will 

 be as large as those, grown in a lighter soil, will become 

 in three years, but they will not do for the florist, as the 

 spikes will contain but half as many bells as they should. 

 Two-years-old pips are often sent to this market ; they 

 have sold well, because they look well, but the results 

 were disappointing, and the fault has generally been laid 

 to the grower, when it is due to those who wish to sell 

 cheap. 



The perfection of soil for pips would be a rather 

 heavy loam, made rich, and the location should be on a 

 southern slope, where it would be dry, warm and airy. 

 There the pips would grow strong and ripen quickly, 

 consequently they would get sufficient rest to force early. 

 Such a condition of soil and climate is found in some of 

 the valleys of the Harz mountains, where the Lily of the 

 Valley is extensively grown, and for early forcing there 

 is none better, if as good. These pips bring the highest 

 price of any in the market. In other words, the dealers 

 charge a higher price for these than for any others, 

 simply because they are better, although the Hamburg 

 merchant is very careful not to mention locality as the 

 cause of good pips, prefering his own reputation to 

 stand for that. In evidence of this we would say, that 

 one of the largest and most successful florists, near New 

 York, last year tried, as an experiment, twenty-five 

 thousand of these pips, and they gave him ninety-five 



