2 BULLETIN 1082, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
an abundant moisture supply from October to June, and we have 
dry summers. We have fertile sands, inexhaustible loams, and deep 
friable silts, upon all of which tulips can be grown. 
With the start which has already been made by the Department 
of Agriculture on Puget Sound, by three or four companies in south- 
ern Michigan, by an association in the Willamette Valley, by a 
company in northwestern California, another in the Norfolk (Va.) 
region, and a score more* in a smaller way in many scattered localities, 
the prospective grower should have no difficulty in obtaining the 
information required to enable him to avoid the pitfalls and to take 
advantage of the essential elements of success. This bulletin fur- 
nishes some of the necessary information. It is based upon investi- 
gations made on Puget Sound at Bellingham, Wash., in two locations, 
the first on the shore of Bellingham Bay and the second 3 miles 
inland. 
THE TULIP BULB. 
The whole tulip plant at maturity is condensed into a gigantic bud, 
called a bulb (see PL I), not very different from an onion. In the 
tulip, however, there is a single, continuous, usually brown protective 
covering. On the front of the mature bulb is a groove marking the 
position of the flower stem of the previous season (PI. I, Figs. 2 and 3) , 
the base of which usually remains attached to the base of the bulb. 
A full-grown bulb which has not flowered has a long stout neck and 
no flower-stem groove. (Compare clumps in PL I, Fig. 4.) The long 
neck is the petiole or stem of a strong leaf (PL II, Figs. 2 and 3) pro- 
duced the year before flowering. (Compare the two clumps in PL 
I, Fig. 4, with PL II, Figs. 2 and 3.) 
The bulb is made up of concentric layers attached to a basal plate 
(stem), between which at certain points are found buds, some or all 
of which, when the bulb is planted, develop into new bulbs, which 
may vary in size from 3 to 14, or in rare cases 20 centimeters in cir- 
cumference. Usually one, often two, and sometimes three bulbs of 
this cluster will flower the next year, but it is seldom that more than 
one will give a first-class bulb of merchantable quality. (See clumps 
in Pis. Ill to V.) 
The bulb of the tulip, unlike that of the narcissus, is always the 
product of the current season's growth and is not more than one year 
of age. One or more bulbs (PL III) are formed each season from 
each bulb planted, the size, quality, and number of such increase 
being directly dependent upon the size, vigor, and quality of the 
bulb planted; the soil, climatic factors, fertility, tilth, freedom from 
weeds; the general care and condition of the planting; and the 
character and adaptability of the variety. 
The bulb grower is dependent for his profit on the character of 
the large bulb of this cluster, and for the continuation of his business 
