PEODUCTIOIS- or TULIP BULBS. 11 



Since tulips are grown mostly in regions where low temperatures 

 and humid conditions obtain during the growing season, it will be 

 much safer for the grower to practice clean culture. 



SPRING CULTIVATION. 



In tulip culture tillage of the soil with implements after the plants 

 are above ground is not generally considered practicable. In the 

 present location of the tuhp experiments of the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry it has been scarcely possible, on most of the soils, to do any 

 cultivation after winter sets in until about the time the early varie- 

 ties are done blossoming. In spring, therefore, cultivation has not 

 gone beyond keeping the paths free of weeds with a wheel hoe and 

 weeding the beds mostly by hand when weed growth was bad. One 

 tool which meets with greater favor than any other with the men 

 when work on the beds is imperative is a light hoe with a blade only 

 3 inches wide. With care this can be operated to remove the weeds 

 between the bulb rows while standing in the paths. In reasonably 

 clean soil the common 5-pronged hoelike cultivator can be used to 

 good advantage when reduced to three teeth set to a spread of 2^ to 

 3 inches. This can be drawn between the rows to a depth of about 2 

 inches to very good purpose in aerating the soil which has been 

 packed by the winter rains. In the experimental work, however, 

 cultivation of the tulip beds in spring has not been generally prac- 

 ticed. 



It is absolutely essential to good results that weeds be kept down. 

 The work of weeding is amply compensated by the saving of labor 

 at the time of harvest, to say nothing of preventing the accimiulation 

 of weed seed in the soil and the interference with the crop where 

 weeds are bad. 



Proper handling of the soil will reduce the weed nuisance to a 

 minimum. With ground kept continuously well tilled and free from 

 weeds through late-autumn cultivation of the beds, and with a good 

 stand of vigorous tulips, weeds become a minor factor in tulip-bulb 

 production. This experimental work is on new ground, and it is far 

 from free of weeds. In spite of this, last year only 1^ man days were 

 spent pulling weeds from the beds on an acre planting. 



P^' AGE OF FLOWERING BULBS. 



The " age of flowering bulbs" is in reality a misnomer, but is used 

 because so often heard in connection with the bulb business. AU 

 tulip bulbs, whether large or smaU, are in reality of the current year's 

 production and therefore not over one year of age. The tulip pro- 

 duces a new bulb or bulbs each year just as truly as the gladiolus 

 or freesia corms are renewed by an entirely new structure each season. 

 (See Pis. Ill, IV, and V.) For this reason the flowering quality of 



