PRODUCTIOlsr OF TULIP BULBS. 31 



In summer, when the heavy work occurs, the temperatures are seldom 

 up to 80° F., a condition most favorable to the efficiency of labor. 



The following accoimt of the cost of growing an acre of tulips 

 must be considered excessive from a commercial point of view. It 

 is to be looked upon as the cost of experimental culture, but it is the 

 only available record in this country. It will serve as a basis for the 

 estimate of cost until such time as it may be possible to secure 

 cost accounting from commercial growers. 



The cost of the different operations is given in some detail, the 

 better to enable the grower to form his own judgment. 



Digging. — The best information as to efficiency in bulb digging 

 can be gleaned from an account of actual performance on the 

 Whatcom silt loam, which is a heavy soil near Bellingham, Wash. 

 In the summer of 1920 the short acre of tulips was dug between 

 June 22 and July 14. During the greater part of the time that digging 

 was in progress the crew consisted of one experienced man, four 

 boys with one year's experience, and three boys without previous 

 experience. Considering all the labor on the same basis, it took a 

 total of 61 days to dig the acre. Putting the matter another way, 

 the workers dug in a day an average of three beds 42 feet long. 

 This is 126 feet of a 3-foot bed in 8 hours. Under the conditions of 

 heavy soil and the large element of inexperience in the labor, this 

 may be considered a very fair average for an 8-hour day for a month's 

 digging. It should be noted, however, that at the end of the month 

 some of the boys were able to accomplish about twice their average 

 at the beginning. The average at the beginning was only two beds 

 a day, while toward the last each boy was able to dig 3^ to 4 beds 

 in a day. 



Cleaning tulips. — It has never been possible at Bellingham, Wash., 

 to get an estimate of cleaning continuously an acre of tulip bulbs. 

 At no time has it been possible to put a definite number of men on the 

 job and keep them on until they were through. At various times 

 however, the boys have been timed on representative squares of 

 shelving. 



When the bulbs are normal and the trays are well rounded an active 

 boy will clean four trays, but when not so full, as described under 

 ''Shelf room required," he will clean five trays, or 80 square feet of 

 tray space, in a day of eight hours. This means that the large bulbs 

 are picked out and the planting stock blown by a fanning mill as 

 described elsewhere. Extending this data to the acre unit, it means 

 that a man or active boy will clean the product of an acre of tulips 

 in 30 to 35 days. 



Marketing. — There is no use in attempting to get at the labor cost 

 of marketing an acre of tulips, for the reason that this depends upon 

 varying conditions that would be hard to duplicate. The Depart- 



