14 BULLETIN 1327, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Year's Day. At Bellingham. Wash., it does not blossom out of 
doors until the middle of April. 
YIELDS 
Yields of these bulbs under field conditionshave been obtained on 
but two varieties, Muscari conicum and M. comosum plumosum. The 
records on both are believed to be reliable and to indicate what is 
to be expected under the best conditions of fertility and culture in 
the Puget Sound region. 
The stocks used in these experiments were imported in 1917, 
grown at Bellingham, Wash., for two years, dug, and the increase 
replanted for another two years. The records are those for 1921 
and later. 
MUSCARI COMOSUM PLUMOSUM 
The records on the Plumosum variety are from plantings made in 
August, 1919, on unfertilized soils which had raised one crop of 
potatoes after being cleared of forest growth. The planting stock 
consisted of the small bulbs from the previous planting. They 
varied from 6 centimeters in circumference downward. These were 
planted at the rate of 35 to the 3-foot row. 
The record shows that during a 2-year period 3,745 bulbs (107 
rows) 6 centimeters and under in size gave a turn-off of 2,500 mer- 
chantable stock and allowed an increase in the planting of more than 
50 per cent in 1921 (183 rows). 3 
The planting in 1921 was 77 rows with 14 bulbs to the row, 60 
rows 21 to the row, and 46 rows 35 to the row, while in 1919 there 
were 107 rows with 35 bulbs to the row. 
THE CONICUM VARIETY 
The reproduction in the Conicum variety is well-nigh phenomenal 
under conditions of reasonable fertility. The conditions under 
which the yields given below were obtained were identical with those 
in the case of the feathered hyacinth previously described. The 
character of the reproduction, in this variety is very similar to that 
of Heavenly Blue, but it is still more vigorous. 
Out of a planting of 13,500 bulbletsf (184 rows) set in 1919 and 
left in two years there were marketed about 8,000 in 1921, with stock 
enough to furnish a planting of approximately the same area (180 
rows) in 1921 and turn off in planting stock about 8,000 besides. 
This means that when all the increase up to about 5 centimeters in 
circumference is planted, about three-fourths of it can be marketed 
at the end of two years, and an increase of one-third to one-half in 
the area to be planted back is possible. 
In 1923, from a planting of 13.500 bulblets 5 centimeters and 
under in 1921 it was possible to plant 29.400 bulblets (294 rows) and 
turn off 13,000, nearly as many as planted. 
FUTURE OF GRAPE HYACINTHS 
The flexibility in their season of flowering, the use being made of 
them as cut flowers on the Pacific coast, together with their appeal 
"A good comparison of yields In bulb culture when the bed method of planting is em- 
ployed is not necessarily on the basis of the Dumber of bulbs planted and harvested but 
the Dumber of rows of properly sized stocks so set as to contain not the same number of 
bulbs but a comparable quantity of plant material. 
