4 BULLETIN" 28, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the United States Department of Agriculture as " Bellingham silt 
loam," and is thus described in a report dated January 30, 1909. 
entitled " Soil Survey of Bellingham Area, Washington": 
The soil of the Bellingham silt loam, to an average depth of 12 inches, is a 
dark brown to drab colored heavy silt loam, carrying a large quantity of 
decomposed organic matter. When turned up with a plow and in a dry con- 
dition, the soil becomes lighter in color and has a light-brown or grayish 
appearance. The subsoil is a heavy drab-colored to slightly mottled silt. loam, 
which becomes somewhat heavier and more compact as the depth increases, 
and at 30 to 36 inches usually has the characteristics of a silt clay. Small 
pockets of gravel or coarse sand are frequently encountered in the deeper 
subsoil . 
The mechanical analysis of a sample of the Bellingham silt loam 
in comparison with a sample from the island of Guernsey, one from 
the Netherlands that is reported to be the type of soil best suited 
to hyacinth-bulb production, and one from the average type of soil 
in the Netherlands used for hyacinth-bulb production is shown in 
Table I. 
Table I.— Mechanical analyses of soils used for growing bulbs on the island 
of Guernsey, in the Netherlands, and at the United States Bulb Garden at 
Bellingham, Wash. 
Locality. 
Fine 
gravel 
(2-1 
mm.). 
Coarse 
sand 
(1-0.5 
mm.). 
Medium 
sand 
(0.5-0.25 
mm.). 
Fine 
sand 
(0.25-0.1 
mm.). 
Very 
fine sand 
(0.1-0.05 
mm.). 
Silt i Clay 
(0.05-0.005 ; (0.005-0 
mm.). ! mm.). 
5.6 
.0 
.3 
.3 
7.8 
.4 
.6 
1.3 
4.8 
19.5 
10.3 
.4 
12.1 
78.5 
76.7 
2.7 
15.8 
2.5 
8.3 
38.3 15.5 
Netherlands, best type of soil. . . 
Netherlands, average type of 
.6 .4 
5.5 4.0 
Bellingham silt loam 
68. 7 i 18. 1 
It will be noted that the Bellingham silt loam is low 7 in medium 
and fine sand and high in silt and clay. Tests at the Bellingham 
bulb garden lead to the belief that the lighter type of soil — that is. 
the one containing the highest percentage of medium and fine sand 
and consequently low in silt and clay — is best suited to hyacinth-bulb 
growing. 
The work thus far has included the propagation and growling of 
hyacinths, tulips, and narcissuses. At the time the garden was estab- 
lished 170,466 bulbs w T ere planted. In 1912, in addition to over 
1,000,000 bulbs planted, approximately 33,000 were put into the con- 
gressional distribution of the Department of Agriculture. 
HYACINTHS. 
In the eighteenth century hyacinths Avere among the most prized 
of cultivated florists' flowers, and enthusiasts of those days paid 
as much as £200 sterling ($973.30) for single bulbs of exceptional 
