28 BULLETIN" 797, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PACKING BULBS. 
Bulbs in large bulk are prone to sweat and are easily bruised and 
mashed against the sides of the containers. For these reasons it is 
necessary to make shipments in some fine packing material that will 
sift in between the bulbs. Several substances are employed for the 
purpose, but grain chaff is most commonly used. Buckwheat hulls 
are preferred to all other materials, and rice chaff is a close second. 
\Yheat chaff and chopped straw, while usable for a moderate time, 
are inclined to absorb moisture under moist atmospheric conditions. 
Sawdust has at times been employed, but has not always proved satis- 
factory. It is better when old and weathered, especially if free from 
turpentine and thoroughly dry. Redwood sawdust would probably 
be much better than other kinds, but the writers know of no experi- 
ence with it. In some instances peat and finely broken up sphagnum 
have been employed. 
Tulip bulbs are commonly packed in paper bags containing about 
250 and the requisite quantity of hulls and then are shipped in crates 
holding 2,000 to 5,000 bulbs. Hyacinths are handled in much the 
same way as tulips, and so also are many varieties of narcissus, but 
the commoner, hardier varieties of the latter are more often for- 
warded in slatted crates holding 2.000 to 5,000 bulbs or more, with no 
packing materials. Sometimes hyacinths are forwarded in the same 
way. 
Since 1917 the shipping of bulbs from the Netherlands has been 
attended with many difficulties, and they have arrived in all sorts of 
conditions. Probably owing to the difficulty of securing packing ma- 
terials, but little was used. Hundreds of cases were a complete loss, 
and the commoner narcissus, which is usually shipped without pack- 
ing, appeared to suffer about as much as the tulips and hyacinths. 
Indeed, tulips, mostly without packing material, have come through 
in the past two years in good condition. Much depends upon the 
position of the cases in the holds of the vessels and the length of time 
in transit. A large unaeratecl package is dangerous with any bulbs, 
since some heating is bound to occur ; consequently, root action starts 
and very soon decomposition sets in. 
SHIPPING BULBS. 
The experience of the Department of Agriculture in the shipment 
of the bulbs of both the tulip and narcissus has been uniformly sat- 
isfactory. The latter have been shipped in citrus crates without 
packing. Tulips were put up one year in cloth sacks packed with 
buckwheat hulls, about 250 to the sack, and crated in slatted crates 
holding about 20 of the sacks. The past season 125,000 tulips were 
put up loose in buckwheat hulls in tight wooden boxes holding about 
