20 BULLETIN 797, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
try were thus carefully cleaned, but this practice has been abandoned 
for the past two or three years. 
Much time may be saved in the handling of narcissus bulbs by a 
little judicious planning based on the characteristics of each variety. 
As an example, when the bulbs of the bicolor Empress are on the 
cleaning tables, the easiest way to handle them is to break off and 
throw to one side, by hand of course, the increase, leaving the large 
bulbs on the table to be handled later with a shovel. With bicolor 
Victoria, however, where there is likely to be a large number of small 
bulblets, the easiest way is to pick out the large bulbs by hand and 
leave the small ones on the tables, to be shoveled up later and put 
through a blower to take out old scales and other extraneous matter. 
In the same way, the characteristics of the different varieties must be 
taken into consideration in handling the bulbs expeditiously. This 
is as true of tulips as of narcissi. The cleaning of the Cardinal's 
Hat variety should be done very differently from the Proserpine or 
Double Early Titian. 
Hyacinths when dried are gone over carefully by hand, mainly 
for the purpose of culling rather than cleaning and separating them, 
for there is no splitting in the ordinary propagation of these bulbs. 
The main process of this kind occurs the first year, when the bulblets 
are separated from the mother-bulb clump. Often the older bulbs 
are left to lie in the rows for a day and then are swept with a broom 
before being put on the shelves. The smaller sizes, however, go 
directly to the bulb-house shelves, like tulips. The most difficult 
job of cleaning in the case of the hyacinth occurs the first autumn 
after propagation. At this time the bulblets come out of the ground 
in a clump interlaid with the old bulb scales, which still hold to- 
gether more or less tightly. Usually the separation of this clump 
is done entirely by hand, each bulblet being picked out individually. 
This work can be very much simplified. The clumps must be broken 
up by hand, though it is not necessary to pick up the bulblets indi- 
vidually ; but after the separation the whole mass can be put through 
a good blower (a fanning mill properly padded) , when the stock will 
be rendered ready to plant. After the first year the work on the 
bulbs in the bulb house need consist of only a "pawing over" the 
shelves to pick out imperfect and diseased and rotted bulbs. 
SIZING. 
The Dutch grower, with high-priced land and low-priced labor, 
probably sizes his bulbs closer than the commercial grower in this 
country ever will. In the work of the Department of Agriculture 
the sizing has been rather closely done also, and, indeed, the Dutch 
methods have been employed in greater part with most of our 
work. 
