18 
BULLETIN 28, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
1 
" ; ^ 
..., -f 
• • 
- JF Ilk-- 
- 
FURROWING OUT BEDS BY MACHINERY. 
Machinery in connection with the bulb work is being substituted 
for hand labor whenever possible. To this end for the past two sea- 
sons a limited number 
of tulip bulbs have been 
planted in long, narrow 
beds about 18 inches 
wide in order to test 
machinery in digging 
the bulbs. Figures 17 
and 18 show the man- 
ner of making and 
planting these beds at 
the United States Bulb 
Garden. An ordinary 
turning plow has been 
used in that section for 
opening beds for bulbs. 
but, so far as the writer 
is aware, this is the first 
time a celery ridger has 
been used for this pur- 
pose. 
The bottom of the 
broad furrow that is 
opened with the celery 
ridger. drawn by a 
horse, is raked smooth 
by hand and the bulbs 
planted in the ordi- 
nary way from 4 to 6 
inches apart in rows. 
(See fig. 18.) With 
this method of plant- 
ing it will be possible 
to test machinery in 
harvesting. 
OUTSIDE TESTS. 
Flowering tests on 
the trial grounds of the 
United State- Depart- 
ment of Agriculture in the season of 1910 and 1911. embracing a 
number of varieties of Bellingham-grown and Holland-grown tulips, 
showed remarkable superiority of the home-grown product over the 
Fig. 17. — Opening furrow beds with a celery ridger. 
Fig. IS. — Planting tulips in furrow beds. 
