2 BULLETIN 191, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



but, true to their scientific training, they are inclined to withhold 

 advice and judgment because, so far as is known, no actual demon- 

 stration has yet been successfully accomplished on a scale large 

 enough to cominand respect. The reason for this can be summed 

 up in the j)hrase " We have thought that all of these stocks could be 

 bought cheaper than we could grow them." Whatever may be the 

 truth regarding this prevalent opinion, whatever may have been the 

 facts in the past, it is very certain that in the future the conditions 

 are going to be different. The dissemination of such information 

 on the subject as is available at this time is therefore pertinent. 



In this brief bulletin details have been largely eliminated. The 

 various methods of bulb culture are described, with little attempt to 

 discriminate between them. As American experience is not extended 

 enough to have crystallized into general practices, it is consequently 

 considered advisable to present those methods which have succeeded 

 in this country and abroad. Variations in practice will be inevi- 

 table as an industry in bulb production is developed in this country. 



Thus far, the commercial production of Dutch bulbs has in this 

 country been confined mainly to the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, in 

 the former north of Norfolk and in the latter north of San Francisco. 

 The available data are more or less meager in either case, but good 

 bulbs have been produced in both regions. 



The western bulb area appears to be rather narrow, being con- 

 fined to a strip of territory which receives suitable rainfall and is 

 sufficiently affected by seacoast conditions to prevent rapid transition 

 from winter to summer. 



The eastern area is much more indefinite as to width, as the heat 

 and moisture conditions are not so sharply defined. In the interior, 

 in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, small quantities of tulip and 

 narcissus bulbs have been grown sufficiently long to show the pos- 

 sibility of the successful production of many varieties. 



Some of the hardier and more robust of the narcissus varieties 

 thrive well and naturalize even in the Gulf States, but this region 

 is best adapted to the so-called South France stocks. The growing 

 of tulips and Dutch hyacinths probably should not be attempted 

 there. 



Contrary to what would be generally supposed, it is not too cold 

 for tulips and narcissi to succeed as far north as Sitka, Alaska. 

 They thrive well along the entire northern border of the United 

 States wherever the moisture conditions are suitable. 



From the above it will be seen that these stocks succeed under a 

 great diversity of conditions. Indeed, they seem to be as adaptable 

 as ordinary cultivated crops. 



The successes with the three main groups of these bulbs on the 

 northern Pacific coast ; the large production of a long list of narcissus 



