THE PRODUCTION OF NARCISSUS BULBS 17 
years will be found to be about the maximum under intensive culture. 
When, however, plenty of room is allowed, such as is common in 
clumps and borders in ornamental plantings, good yields are often 
obtained for an indefinite number of years where good fertility is 
supplied. Indeed, naturalized plantings 100 years or more old are 
common, and they still produce. 
HARVESTING FLOWERS 
In general, it may be maintained that the production and market- 
ing of flowers is the business of the bulb consumer rather than that of 
the producer. From a business point of view it is rare that both 
jobs can be well done by the same individual. Besides, when produc- 
tion obtains generally, the producer who markets flowers is interfer- 
ing directly with the business of his main client. Of course, one 
aspect of the case is that many a young narcissus-bulb producer feels 
that he must have the additional revenue from the cut flowers in 
order to get by at all. It may be that for a time this added revenue, 
while the business is small, will be the means of enabling some of our 
growers to get established. 
In the free-for-all competition and the development of the grow- 
ing business in widely scattered centers, as is now probable, and the 
practicability of shipping the cut blossoms across the continent, it 
is not possible to predict what aspects these features of the business 
will assume in this country. All that can be done now is to call 
attention to them. 
So far as the effect on the plant and its future production is con- 
cerned, the cutting of the flowers with a maximum of stem, as is 
common, has, in the writer's opinion, only a slightly deleterious 
effect on bulb yield. Contrary to the case of the tulip, the narcissus 
cut is considered decorative without the inclusion of green leafage 
or with green from some other source, but the flower stem of the 
daffodil functions as a leaf, and its removal deprives the plant of 
close to 10 per cent of its elaborating surface. The effect, however, 
is much less pronounced than in the tulip when leafage is removed. 
REMOVING THE FADED FLOWERS 
In tulip culture the removal of the flowers as they fade is neces- 
sary, but in daffodil culture there is no such imperative requirement. 
It must be confessed, however, that there seems to be some difference 
of opinion, for the evidence given by the foreign bulb grower is 
contradictory. So far as the experience of the writer goes it is im- 
material whether the flowers are pulled off or not. No case of in- 
jury from disease has been seen from leaving them on, and the seed 
production is almost nil, so what can be the object of the extra labor? 
In a few varieties which make seed abundantly the advantage is 
plainly seen, but with the average run of daffodils no such ad- 
vantage is evident. 
APPEARANCE OF THE FLOWER SPIKE 
The customary way to test the quality of a consignment of daffo- 
dil bulbs is to cut open a few in order to determine the presence or 
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