2 BULLETIN 28, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Among the earlier experimenters in bulb growing on the Pacific 
coast with whom the Department of Agriculture cooperated is Mr. 
Carl Purdy, of Ukiah, Cal. As early as 1902 Mr. Purdy wrote : 
Some years ago I went into the high mountains east of this place to grow 
lilies, and soon followed with all my bulbs, narcissus included. The bulbs that 
I produce are, I claim, superior to any that I import, and very hard, clean, and 
free from rot. It is certain that narcissus can be grown as cheaply here as in 
England and of better quality. I find no difficulty in growing good tulip bi^bs 
with plenty of offsets, but I can as yet hardly produce as large ones as the best 
Dutch growers send out; still I regard it as a mat er of fertilization to do so. 
The flowers are of a higher grade. I am practically barred at present from the 
eastern market by the high freight rate, as at $3 per hundred pounds the pro- 
tection is more than neutralized. 
Mr. John W. Macrae Smith, of Bellingham, Whatcom County, 
Wash., in Xovember, 1902, sent to the Department of Agriculture 
samples of narcissus, tulip, and hyacinth bulbs that he had grown, and 
under date of December 8, 1902, replying to a request for a collection 
of bulbs for testing, wrote as follows : 
I am very sorry to say that my bulbs are all planted and most of them coming 
through the ground. I am greatly disappointed at not being able to have a 
proper test made, as it postpones until another year a matter that I am very 
anxious to have settled, and that is the superiority of home-grown bulbs over 
any imported stock. Bulb growing so far has been very discouraging finan- 
cially. It takes about three years to produce marketable bulbs, and a man of 
moderate means can not afford to put his time and money into a business where 
he has to wait so long for returns and then has to take chances as to whether 
the market is ready for him. 
Mr. George Gibbs, of Clearbrook, Wash., more than fourscore 
years of age, is enthusiastic over the results of his experiments in 
bulb growing, as outlined in his early correspondence with the 
Department of Agriculture, and is firmly convinced that Dutch bulbs 
equal to, and possibly in some respects superior to, those grown in 
other countries can be grown in that region. Under date of April 
19, 1903, he wrote that he wished " to see the industry started cor- 
rectly and early put upon a paying basis, with the very best varie- 
ties money can buy." Mr. Gibbs has lived to see the Department of 
Agriculture take up the work, and he may yet realize his hopes as 
to the commercial production of bulbs in the Puget Sound region. 
In 1907 Dr. B. T. Galloway, then Chief of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, under whose direction this work has been carried on, sent 
experts into the Puget Sound region and other sections of the United 
States for the purpose of selecting the location which in their judg- 
ment was best adapted for bulb growing. Upon receipt of their 
report in 1908 Hon. James Wilson, the Secretary of Agriculture, 
authorized the establishment of a garden near the city of Bellingham, 
Wash. 
