2 BULLETIN 23, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Among 1 the earlier experimenters in bulb growing on the Pacific 

 coast with whom the Department of Agriculture cooperated is Mr. 

 Carl Purdy, of Ukiah, Cal. As early as 1002 Mr. Purdy wrote : 



Some years ago I went into the high mountains east of this place to grow 

 lilies, and soon followed with all my bulbs, narcissus included. The bulbs that 

 I produce are, I claim, superior to any that I import, and very hard, clean, and 

 free from rot. It is certain that narcissus can be grown as cheaply here as in 

 England and of better quality. I find no difficulty in growing good tulip bulbs 

 with plenty of offsets, but I can as yet hardly produce as large ones as the best 

 Dutch growers send out: still I regard it as a mat er of fertilization to do so. 

 The flowers are of a higher grade. I am practically barred at present from the 

 eastern market by the high freight rate, as at $3 per hundred pounds the pro- 

 tection is more than neutralized. 



Mr. John W. Macrae Smith, of Bellingham, Whatcom County, 

 Wash., in November, 1002, sent to the Department of Agriculture 

 samples of narcissus, tulip, and hyacinth bulbs that he had grown, and 

 under date of December 8, 1902, replying to a request for a collection 

 of bulbs for testing, wrote as follows : 



I am very sorry to say that my bulbs are all planted and most of them coming 

 through the ground. I am greatly disappointed at not being able to have a 

 proper test made, as it postpones until another year a matter that I am very 

 anxious to have settled, and that is the superiority of home-grown bulbs over 

 any imported stock. Bulb growing so far has been very discouraging finan- 

 cially. It takes about three years to produce marketable bulbs, and a man of 

 moderate means can not afford to put his time and money into a business where 

 he has to wait so long for returns and then has to take chances as to whether 

 the market is ready for him. 



Mr. George Gibbs, of Clearbrook, Wash., more than fourscore 

 years of age, is enthusiastic over the results of his experiments in 

 bulb growing, as outlined in his early correspondence with the 

 Department of Agriculture, and is firmly convinced that Dutch bulbs 

 equal to, and possibly in some respects superior to, those grown in 

 other countries can be. grown in that region. Under date of April 

 19, 1903, he wrote that he wished " to see the industry started cor- 

 rectly and early put upon a paying basis, with the very best varie- 

 ties money can buy." Mr. Gibbs has lived to see the Department of 

 Agriculture take up the work, and he may yet realize his hopes as 

 to the commercial production of bulbs in the Puget Sound region. 



In 1907 Dr. B. T. Galloway, then Chief of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, under whose direction this work has been carried on, sent 

 experts into the Puget Sound region and other sections of the United 

 States for the purpose of selecting the location which in their judg- 

 ment was best adapted for bulb growing. Upon receipt of their 

 report in 1908 Hon. James Wilson, the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 authorized the establishment of a garden near the city of Bellingham, 

 Wash. 



