16 



BULLETIN 19*7, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



coats to split. A dry, cool basement or half basement would seem 

 to be an ideal place for such storage, but in a region adapted to 

 bulb culture any building in which the ventilation is under good 

 control will answer the purpose. In any location in such a building, 

 except possibly close to the roof, where the temperature gets too high, 

 bulbs can be cured successfull3\ After being cleaned the bulbs re- 

 main on the shelves in the bulb house until planting begins or until 

 they are packed and sent to market. Sometimes the bulbs have been 

 packed immediately after cleaning them, but it is better to leave 

 them on the shelves and to box or sack the merchantable ones just 

 before shipment is to take place. At times, when it is impossible to 

 control light and air in the bulb house on account of being obliged 

 to put tulips, narcissi, and hyacinths in the same compartment, 

 it may be possible to cover the bulbs on the shelves with wheat chaff 

 or buckwheat hulls. They keep very well in this v^aj. Sometimes 



the shelves may be 

 covered with burlap, 

 or burlap curtains 

 may be hung in front 

 of th© shelves. 



Narcissus bulbs re- 

 quire less care in 

 their handling than 

 those of the tulip, but 

 it is a very easy mat- 

 ter to injure them, too. 

 When dug they are 

 usually thrown into 

 windrows in the field. 

 In the absence of sun 



Fig. 10. — Dug bulbs curing under Utter from the beds. j_i • , i 



they can remain there 

 for several days without injury. It has been the practice at Belling- 

 ham to let the larger bulbs have a few hours of sun, but in the Vir- 

 ginia bulb region it is said that two hours of exposure to the sun at 

 midday are very likely to ruin many varieties. In the Netherlands 

 it is a common practice to cover the windrows of bulbs with a thin 

 layer of sand. We usually cover them with the litter hoed off the 

 beds before digging. (Fig, 10.) "Wlien the bulbs are finally placed 

 upon the shelves they may be piled thicker than tulips, but the thick- 

 ness of the pile should be governed by the moisture content of the 

 bulbs. They will withstand more aeration than tulips. It is for this 

 reason advisable not to handle the two kinds of bulbs in the same 

 compartment of the bulb house. 



In practice, the curing, handling, and drying of narcissus bulbs 

 are very likely to be done on a makeshift basis. In other words, 



