10° BULLETIN 1331, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
to keep down weeds. It has the disadvantages that always accrue 
from the tramping of animals on the soft bulb ground and from the » 
use of horse tools among plants, which are sure to receive more or 
less mechanical injury. The advantages of the bed system have 
already been stated. DEE 
CULTIVATION 
As stated, row planting presupposes some regular cultivation. The 
bed system assumes that weeds are kept out, but no stirring of the 
soil is contemplated except in the paths. A narrow hoe can be used 
nicely between the 8 or 9 inch rows advocated while the plants are 
small. After the autumnal growth of the large plants is fully de- 
veloped the ground should be fairly well covered, chokmg out most 
of the weeds. The few that come up after that must be taken care 
of by hand. Of course, the beds should ‘be thoroughly gone over 
and cleaned up during July and August, when the plants are dor- 
mant. 
In any planting of this lily the soil should be so loose and friable 
naturally that little or no benefit will be derived from stirring it 
after planting. The interference of tools with the natural root de- 
velopment close to the surface of the ground more than offsets’ the 
advantages of the added aeration thus induced. The paths in a 
bed planting are kept clean with a wheel hoe. 
DIGGING 
Digging this as well as most other lilies will commonly be done 
with a spading fork. When row planting is practiced, the operation 
can be assisted considerably by barring off the rows on one side with 
a 10-inch plow, but it is doubtful whether an attempt to plow out 
the bulbs can be carried on with sufficient care so that they will not 
be bruised. In a regular bed planting the bulbs are most advan- 
tageously taken out with a short spade, as are Dutch bulbs generally. 
It is usually better to dig with the tops cut off a few inches high, 
shake out the soil from the clump, and lay the bulbs in small piles, 
which are soon to be gone over by hand to cut off the stem bases; then 
the bulbs are removed to the storage house to be sized and sorted. 
Care should be exercised not to leave the bulbs exposed to the sun. 
The hotter the weather and the clearer the atmosphere the more 
important this injunction becomes, 
HANDLING THE BULBS 
Care in handling should be the watchword all along the line. 
Lily bulbs are so delicate that even pouring them from one container 
to another is likely to cause decided injury. When a transfer is 
necessary it 1s wise to use a scoop? rather than to pour them from 
one basket or pail to another. Shovels or even small hand scoops 
such as are used to handle tulips and daffodils can not be employed 
to take any but the smaller sizes of these bulbs off of trays or shelves, 
and even with them the loading of the scoop should be accomplished 
mainly with the hand, to prevent bruising. 
2 AE eh OR tele OES Meck i ey 
1 These scoops are homemade contrivances with curved bottoms and slightly converg- 
ing sides, facilitating transferring the bulbs without bruising. They are illustrated and 
described in U. 8. Dept. Agr, Bul. 1082, The Production. of Tulip Bulbs. 
