PRODUCTION OF TULIP BULBS. 9 
under this system is one of the most intensive of horticultural prac- 
tices, and there is a decided advantage in thick and exhaustive 
cropping. The land over the whole bed is fully occupied by the 
plants, and there is a minimum of vacant area in the paths between 
the beds, probably not more than 6 or 8 inches of unoccupied soil in 
the 4 feet needed by the work incident to culture and handling. 
In the production of tulip bulbs, to a greater degree than with the 
narcissus, gladiolus, and many other bulbous stocks, care in handling 
the plants is a very important factor. The main advantage of a 
row system of planting is to allow the use of some implement for' 
keeping down weeds and cultivating, but in tulip culture the use of 
even a wheel hoe close enough to obviate the necessity of hand 
weeding is likely to prove detrimental. The leaves are stiff, rigid, 
in the way of tools, and easily bruised, and mechanical injury of any 
kind to the growing plant is conducive to the development of the 
fire-disease organism which, together with the loss incident to a thin 
planting on heavily fertilized soil, would at least go a long way 
toward offsetting the advantage gained in handling the crop on a 
cultivated-row basis. 
The bed method of planting, if well done, has a decided advantage 
in that the bulbs are more easily set at a uniform depth. They are 
planted in a geometrical design, and each can be found without sur- 
face indications when the first row in the bed is located. These are 
very important considerations in a crop in which uniformity of 
growth and delicacy of handling are demanded. 
The advantage of row planting with implement cultivation has 
not yet been made clear. Implements can not well be operated closer 
than 3 inches to a row of tulips. This necessitates the hand weeding 
of 3 inches on each side of the row. In beds the rows are 6 inches 
apart. It appears from this that the hand labor for a given length 
of row is identical whether the planting is 6 inches or 2 feet apart, 
and the closer planted bed holds three or four times as many bulbs 
as the other per unit of area. Some employ a bed 8 to 10 inches 
wide with about a 16-inch space between. 
With these few observations, the question as to which method is 
best is left open, with the statement that so far as experience goes 
the production of tulip bulbs adapts itself to the intensive rather 
than the extensive method of culture. 
For the present the subject of planting or digging tulips by ma- 
chinery may be dismissed. No machinerv for either of these opera- 
tions has yet been invented. 
WHEN TO PLANT TULIPS. 
The best time to plant tulips is before the middle of September, but 
through October is all right. The main objects of digging the bulbs 
