2 BULLETIN 1082, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTTJRE. 



an abundant moisture supply from October to June, and we have 

 dry summers. We have fertile sands, inexhaustible loams, and deep 

 friable silts, upon all of which tulips can be grown. 



With the start which has already been made by the Department 

 of Agriculture on Puget Sound, by three or four companies in south- 

 ern Michigan, by an association in the Willamette Valley, by a 

 company in northwestern California, another in the Norfolk (Va.) 

 region, and a score more in a smaller way in many scattered localities, 

 the prospective grower should have no difficulty in obtaining the 

 information required to enable him to avoid the pitfalls and to take 

 advantage of the essential elements of success. This bulletin fur- 

 nishes some of the necessary information. It is based upon investi- 

 gations made on Puget Sound at Bellingham, Wash., in two locations, 

 the first on the shore of Bellingham Bay and the second 3 miles 



inland. 



THE TULIP BULB. 



The whole tulip plant at maturity is condensed into a gigantic bud, 

 called a bulb (see PI. I), not very diJBPerent from an onion. In the 

 tulip, however, there is a single, continuous, usually brown protective 

 covering. On the front of the mature bulb is a groove marking the 

 position of the flower stem of the previous season (PL I, Figs. 2 and 3) , 

 the base of which usually remains attached to the base of the bulb. 

 A full-grown bulb which has not flowered has a long stout neck and 

 no flower-stem groove. (Compare clumps in PI. I, Fig. 4.) The long 

 neck is the petiole or stem of a strong leaf (PL II, Figs. 2 and 3) pro- 

 duced the year before flowering. (Compare the two clumps in PL 

 I, Fig. 4, with PL II, Figs. 2 and 3.) 



The bulb is made up of concentric layers attached to a basal plate 

 (stem), between which at certain points are foimd buds, some or all 

 of which, when the bulb is planted, develop into new bulbs, which 

 may vary in size from 3 to 14, or in rare cases 20 centimeters in cir- 

 cumference. Usually one, often two, and sometimes three bulbs of 

 this cluster will flower the next year, but it is seldom that more than 

 one will give a first-class bulb of merchantable quality. (See clumps 

 in Pis. Ill to V.) 



The bulb of the tulip, unlike that of the narcissus, is always the 

 product of the current season's growth and is not more than one year 

 of age. One or more bulbs (PL III) are formed each season from 

 each bulb planted, the size, quality, and number of such increase 

 being directly dependent upon the size, vigor, and quahty of the 

 bulb planted; the soil, climatic factors, fertihty, tilth, freedom from 

 weeds; the general care and condition of the planting; and the 

 character and adaptability of the variety. 



The bulb grower is dependent for his profit on the character of 

 the large bulb of this cluster, and for the continuation of his business 



