COMMERCIAL DUTCH-BULB CULTURE. 17 
tulips and hyacinths receive the best care and attention, while nar- 
cissi take the space that is left. At Bellingham it has been the 
practice to cure and store these bulbs in an open shed, a purely tem- 
porary structure, wherein the protection is barely enough to keep 
off sun and rain. Indeed, at times, owing to lack of space, even 
tulips have been cured under similar conditions with fairly good 
success, but after cleaning they have always been stored in a more 
careful manner. The conditions at Bellingham are possibly rather 
favorable to such a makeshift treatment. A dirt floor constantly 
moist and the influence of the near-by coast tend to mitigate the evil 
effect of too rapid drying. 
Hyacinths are allowed to remain in the windrow but a short time 
after digging, at most a day, and the small sizes not at all. The 
larger bulbs are well coated and protected with more or less dirt, 
so that in our situation they are not injured by a few hours' sun. 
They may be brushed lightly with a rough broom in the windrow 
and then put on the bulb-house shelves to dry. Experience* shows 
that they need the airiest position in the bulb house, and on this 
account they should not here be stored or cured in open sheds with a 
dirt floor, though in many situations having a drier atmosphere 
such sheds might be sufficiently dry. As with tulips and narcissi, 
the aeration of the bulb house must be much more complete during 
the early stages of storing and curing hyacinths, on account of the 
large amount of superflous moisture. After two or three weeks in 
storage less air is necessary, but hyacinths require better aeration 
during their entire period of dormancy than the other two groups. 
The hyacinth is not only subject to molds in storage, like the other 
bulbs, but is prone to succumb much more quickly to storage rots, 
which are less prevalent when the bulbs are kept dry. 
The temperature of the storage room must necessarily be variable 
and bear a direct relation to moisture conditions. It is probable 
that the protection of an ordinarily constructed house properly con- 
trolled as to ventilation will afford suitable storage conditions in any 
region where bulbs can be successfully grown. A stuffy, heated condi- 
tion close to the roof, however, would be detrimental, and the opposite 
extreme of dampness in a basement, half basement, or lower floor 
should also be avoided. In short, a bulb storage house requires daily 
attention. No formula can be given for its handling. The grower 
must study his conditions and become sufficiently conversant with the 
subject to know what to do when the conditions in any portion of the 
house are not what they should be. The latitude in temperature per- 
missible in storage is indicated by Dutch practices with bulbs that 
are habitually subjected to artificial heat in order to hasten certain 
processes which take place during the dormant season. A distinct 
126953°— 19 3 
