BULBS. 99 
GALANTHUS—SNOW DROP. 
The dried bulbs do not stand being kept out of the 
ground too long; keep in a dry room. 
GLADIOLUS. 
Two seasons are required to produce commercial or 
free flowering bulbs from the small bulblets that form 
at the base of the bulb. These bulblets are sown the 
next spring thickly in drills, covered with half an inch 
of soil. They are taken up about the middle of Septem- 
ber, or as soon as the leaves begin to wither. The tops 
are cut close to the corm, and after the bulbs are dried 
in a shed, they are stored away in shallow crates in a 
cellar, and are replanted the following spring to undergo 
another season’s growth; from North Carolina south- 
ward they may remain over winter in the ground where 
they grew, protected with a covering of litter. 
HYACINTH. 
From the small offsets four to six years are required 
to produce marketable bulbs. The hyacinth is not 
grown in the same soil oftener than once every four 
years. In Holland, where the finest bulbs the world 
produces are raised, the soil is carefully prepared, fine 
and light, entirely free from stone, gravel and stiff soil. 
The only manure used is from the cow stable, unmixed 
with straw or anything else. During winter the ground 
is dug two or three feet deep, and in March it is covered 
with three inches of cow manure, aiterwards spaded in 
afoot deep. Vegetables or flowers which do not ex- 
haust the soil are grown on it during the summer. In 
October, the soil is dug two feet deep. It is now 
divided into beds about 5 feet in width, which are care- 
fully raked over and made into rows a foot apert and 
