18 



BULLETIN 28, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



FURROWING OUT BEDS BY MACHINERY. 



Machinery in connection with the bulb work is being substituted 

 for hand labor whenever possible. To this end for the past two sea- 

 sons a limited number 

 of tulip bulbs have been 

 planted in long, narrow 

 beds about 18 inches 

 wide in order to test 

 machinery in digging 

 the bulbs. Figures 17 

 and 18 show the man- 

 ner of making and 

 planting these beds at 

 the United States Bulb 

 Garden. An ordinary 

 turning plow has been 

 used in that section for 

 opening beds for bulbs, 

 but, so far as the writer 

 is aware, this is the first 

 time a celery ridger has 

 been used for this pur- 

 pose. 



The bottom of the 

 broad furrow that is 

 opened with the celery 

 ridger, drawn by a 

 horse, is raked smooth 

 by hand and the bulbs 

 planted in the ordi- 

 nary way from 4 to 6 

 inches apart in rows. 

 (See .fig. 18.) With 

 this method of plant- 

 ing it will be possible 

 to test machinery in 

 harvesting. 



OUTSIDE TESTS. 



Flowering tests on 

 the trial grounds of the 

 United States Depart- 



Fig. 17. — Opening furrow beds with a celery ridger. 



Fig. 18. — Planting tulips in furrow beds. 



ment of Agriculture in the season of 1010 and 1911, embracing a 

 number of varieties of Bellingham-grown and Holland-grown tulips, 

 showed remarkable superiority of the home-grown product over the 



