164 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



takes long to develop gains warmth (and the fermentation 

 of the sap is hastened) by letting it " cook," as they say, in 

 the sun. On the contrary, if it is a quickly ripening variety, 

 they keep it much less time in the oven (that is, under sand 

 in the sun). These have a little more sand over them, and 

 are stored a little sooner in the bulb house. One grower 

 said he had for fourteen years planted a Francois 1st and 

 taken it out every year exactly in the same state as he had 

 put it in, it had not changed in form or size, nor had it 

 given a single offshoot. Another said he kept a Due de 

 Bourgogne thirty years in the same way. G. Voorhelm 

 said he had known a bulb look the same for fifty years, 

 but he did not mention whether it had ever given offshoots 

 or not. 



In the end of June, or about that time, bulbs are put away 

 into bulb houses. The houses should be perfectly dry, inside 

 and out, for damp is very injurious — the houses should be 

 thoroughly well ventilated, the wind allowed to blow 

 through. It is better if the bulb house be made to open on 

 three sides. When the bulbs have been sometime stored 

 on the shelves, they are cleaned ; they then go through a 

 medical examination, and if there are any weak or sickly, 

 they are separated from the others. The evil, if it exists, 

 can be detected by cutting the bulb at the place where the 

 fans or leaves come off. If the circle of tunics looks quite 

 healthy, with no stains or spots upon them, there is no fear 

 of disease — there is none if there is no outward mark of decay 

 anywhere to be seen ; x but if there is the smallest spot or 

 mark, the knife must cut down to the root of the evil. 

 Amputation does not kill the bulb, and it is the surest 

 remedy. As some of these diseases are contagious, they can 

 be communicated to others even in the ground, where they 

 are not so closely packed as they are upon the shelves, 

 1 Except new disease. 



