PRODUCTION OF TULIP BULBS. 31 
In summer, when the heavy work occurs, the temperatures are seldom 
up to 80° F., a condition most favorable to the efficiency of labor. 
The following account of the cost of growing an acre of tulips 
must be considered excessive from a commercial point of view. It 
is to be looked upon as the cost of experimental culture, but it is the 
only available record in this country. It will serve as a basis for the 
estimate of cost until such time as it may be possible to secure 
cost accounting from commercial growers. 
The cost of the different operations is given in some detail, the 
better to enable the grower to form his own judgment. 
Digging. — The best information as to efficiency in bulb digging 
can be gleaned from an account of actual performance on the 
Whatcom silt loam, which is a heavy soil near Bellingham, Wash. 
In the summer of 1920 the short acre of tulips was dug between 
June 22 and July 14. During the greater part of the time that digging 
was in progress the crew consisted of one experienced man, four 
boys with one year's experience, and three boys without previous 
experience. Considering all the labor on the same basis, it took a 
total of 61 days to dig the acre. Putting the matter another way, 
the workers dug in a day an average of three beds 42 feet long. 
This is 126 feet of a 3-foot bed in 8 hours. Under the conditions of 
heavy soil and the large element of inexperience in the labor, this 
may be considered a very fair average for an 8-hour day for a month's 
digging. It should be noted, however, that at the end of the month 
some of the boys were able to accomplish about twice their average 
at the beginning. The average at the beginning was only two beds 
a day, while toward the last each boy was able to dig 3J to 4 beds 
in a day. 
Cleaning tulips. — It has never been possible at Bellingham, Wash., 
to get an estimate of cleaning continuously an acre of tulip bulbs. 
At no time has it been possible to put a definite number of men on the 
job and keep them on until they were through. At various times 
however, the boys have been timed on representative squares of 
shelving. 
When the bulbs are normal and the trays are well rounded an active 
boy will clean four trays, but when not so full, as described under 
" Shelf room required," he will clean five trays, or 80 square feet of 
tray space, in a day of eight hours. This means that the large bulbs 
are picked out and the planting stock blown by a fanning mill as 
described elsewhere. Extending this data to the acre unit, it means 
that a man or active boy will clean the product of an acre of tulips 
in 30 to 35 days. 
Marketing. — There is no use in attempting to get at the labor cost 
of marketing an acre of tulips, for the reason that this depends upon 
varying conditions that would be hard to duplicate. The Depart- 
