20 BULLETIN" 797, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



try were thus carefully cleaned, but this practice has been abandoned 

 for the past two or three years. 



Much time may be saved in the handling of narcissus bulbs by a 

 little judicious planning based on the characteristics of each variety. 

 As an example, when the bulbs of the bicolor Empress are on the 

 cleaning tables, the easiest way to handle them is to break off and 

 throw to one side, by hand of course, the increase, leaving the large 

 bulbs on the table to be handled later with a shovel. With bicolor 

 Victoria, however, where there is likely to be a large number of small 

 bulblets, the easiest way is to pick out the large bulbs by hand and 

 leave the small ones on the tables, to be shoveled up later and put 

 through a blower to take out old scales and other extraneous matter. 

 In the same way, the characteristics of the different varieties must be 

 taken into consideration in handling the bulbs expeditiously. This 

 is as true of tulips as of narcissi. The cleaning of the Cardinal's 

 Hat variety should be done very differently from the Proserpine or 

 Double Early Titian. 



Hyacinths when dried are gone over carefully by hand, mainly 

 for the purpose of culling rather than cleaning and separating them, 

 for there is no splitting in the ordinary propagation of these bulbs. 

 The main process of this kind occurs the first year, when the bulblets 

 are separated from the mother-bulb clump. Often the older bulbs 

 are left to lie in the rows for a day and then are swept with a broom 

 before being put on the shelves. The smaller sizes, however, go 

 directly to the bulb-house shelves, like tulips. The most difficult 

 job of cleaning in the case of the hyacinth occurs the first autumn 

 after propagation. At this time the bulblets come out of the ground 

 in a clump interlaid with the old bulb scales, which still hold to- 

 gether more or less tightly. Usually the separation of this clump 

 is done entirely by hand, each bulblet being picked out individually. 

 This work can be very much simplified. The clumps must be broken 

 up by hand, though it is not necessary to pick up the bulblets indi- 

 vidually ; but after the separation the whole mass can be put through 

 a good blower (a fanning mill properly padded), when the stock will 

 be rendered ready to j)lant. After the first year the work on the 

 bulbs in the bulb house need consist of only a "pawing over" the 

 shelves to pick out imperfect and diseased and rotted bulbs. 



SIZING. 



The Dutch grower, with high-priced land and low-priced labor, 

 probably sizes his bulbs closer than the commercial grower in this 

 country ever will. In the work of the Department of Agriculture 

 the sizing has been rather closely done also, and, indeed, the Dutch 

 methods have been employed in greater part with most of our 

 work. 



