10 BULLETIN 1270. tf. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
a slightly different motion from that used in cleaning. (PL III, 
fig. 1.) 
The box container is hung in a stout frame so that it can swing 
backward and forward with a sort of jerking motion which slides 
the bulbs from one end to the other. The removal of a movable par- 
t it ion in one end and a slightly modified shake drops the bulbs into 
the lug box on the ground without handling. 
When daffodil bulbs are fairly well dried, about a dozen oscilla- 
tions of the bulbs from one end of the screen to the other is sufficient 
to remove the loose dirt from a load consisting of about a bushel 
of bulbs. Then four more jerks of the handle again drop the sieved 
bulbs into the lug box. 
It takes three men to operate this machine advantageously, two 
at the machine and one to bring the bulbs and take them away. 
A modified form of this shaker consists of the screen-bottomed box 
pivoted on a piece of pipe supported on two stakes driven into 
the ground. The box is then oscillated through a small arc. allowing 
the bulbs to slide from one end to the other, thus screening out 
the soil. 
STORAGE 
The method adopted for handling the bulbs as they leave the 
field is of great importance, for the labor connected with it is heavy. 
A good crop of daffodils will yield 800 to 1,000 lug boxes to the 
acre. These when brought in will weigh more than 50 pounds each 
and measure nearly a bushel. The number of handlings must there- 
fore be reduced to a minimum, and the space used to store them must 
be economized. 
It is believed that it is scarcely practicable to erect buildings and 
provide shelving to handle a large acreage of these bulbs grown on a 
wholesale plan. Several suggestions based upon methods which have 
been employed will therefore be useful: 
( 1 i It is possible to finish the curing of these stocks on shelves put up 
temporarily in the field. These can be covered with canvas or corrugated iron, 
for all that is necessary is to keep off the sun and rain. 
(2) In regions having very dry summers where the bulbs come out of the 
ground dry, the merchantable stock can be taken out in the field as the bulbs 
are picked up directly out of the windrow and put into slatted crates for the 
market. The crates can be stored in well-aerated open sheds until the time for 
shipment arrives. The planting stock can then be put on shelves in the bulb 
house. When handled in this way drying must be well done in the field or the 
bulbs are likely to mold in the pack. 
(3) The most certain method is to put the bulbs on shelves in a bulb house 
where all conditions are under control. This is the method which has been 
employed by the Department of Agriculture and probably will be the one mostly 
in use by small -rowers, especially where large numbers of varieties are grown 
or where the varieties grown are expensive ones. It is realized, however, that 
in large operations with medium-priced varieties the expense of housing in 
this way i- heavy, so that some cheaper handling may have to be devised. 
The methods accessary in handling in storage will vary with the 
conditions. In the Puget Sound region it is necessary to be rather 
careful about drying the bulbs well, and it has been found that 8 
inches deep on the shelves is about the limit. It takes two weeks to 
completely ilvy oil' the roots after the bulbs have laid three or four 
days in the windrow. In the District of Columbia region, however, 
the drying will occur in half the time. In the Santa Cruz region 
i" California little attention is paid to the drying of the bulbs. 
