32 



BULLETIN 1082, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTTJEE. 



meiit of Agriculture has usually shipped a mmimum carload in bulk. 

 With containers ready and tulips cleaned on the shelves, four men one 

 year packed 300,000 tulips in a little over a day. But this was what 

 might be termed " bulk shipment." The filling of small orders would 

 be slower, and more time would be consumed in proportion to the 

 number of the orders. It is believed that the cost of marketing 

 tulips will not differ very much from that of marketing gladiolus. 



Planting tulips. — Commonly the planting crew consists of two men 

 and four boys. A crew as large as this is used because inexperienced 

 boys are not able to keep bulbs set ahead of the two good men 

 mucking and raking. Usually with a httle experience and selection 

 boys may be found, two of whom can do the work. It is considered 

 that a good planting crew consists of two men and two adaptable, 

 experienced boys. Such a crew as this has put in 25 beds a day. 

 One crew of this size put in an acre of tulips on two occasions in a 

 little less than eight days. The same performance was duplicated 

 last year. ^Nlr. Houser, who managed the crew both years, is of the 

 opinion that such a crew after two weeks' experience should be able 

 to put in an acre in seven days. 



Cultivation. — Under cultivation is included all work done on the 

 ground in the way of raking, fall and spring cultivating, and hand 

 weeding. It is interestmg to note that one man spent 1^ days in 

 hand weeding 1 acre for the 1920 crop. The total time on this work 

 was 18 man-boy days. 



Marking and opening the beds. — Boys did the work of marking and 

 opening the beds on the acre in 10^ days. 



Sizing and storing. — The time required for sizing and storing tulip 

 bulbs in the experiments at BeUingham, Wash., is much in excess of 

 that necessary for commercial operations, on account of the multi- 

 plicity of varieties. One man occupied on this and other miscel- 

 laneous duties worked 16 days. 



Roguing. — It took one man 4^ days to rogue the acre of tulips in 

 1920. 



Cutting Jlowers. — To remove the flowers from the beds and compost 

 them took the labor of one man for 6 days. 



Table 4. — Labor of cjrovnng an experimental acre of tulip bulbs. 



Operation. 



Labor 

 sum- 

 mary: 

 Man-boy 

 labor 

 (days). 



Digging 61 



Cleaning 35 



Planting 48 



Cultivation and weeding 18 



Marking and opening beds 10§ 



Operation. 



Sizing and storing. 



Roguing 



Cutting flowers . . . 



Total 



Labor 

 sum- 

 mary: 

 Man-boy 

 labor 

 (days). 



16 

 6 



199 



