COMMERCIAL DUTCH-BULB CULTURE. 
13 
In the South, both horse and hand cultivation have been practiced, 
the bulbs being planted in rows 15 inches apart. There is little doubt 
that a method of planting and digging which will make possible the 
keeping down of weeds by some power other than the hand will 
prove decidedly advantageous. It is essential to get away from the 
practices of letting the weeds go after the plants are up, on the one 
hand, and of hand 
weeding after the HHM1 
plants are up, on the 
other. 
HARVESTING THE 
BULBS. 
Pig. 7.— Digging bulbs. 
Harvesting the crop r 
of bulbs is another , 
rather tedious opera- ft-^:l < ::f^ 
tion. (Fig. 7.) Thus 
far in the investiga- 
tions of the Department of Agriculture this harvesting has been 
purely handwork. The operator works on his knees with a light, 
short-handled spade. In the Netherlands a flat hand trowel is used, 
a tool which is not serviceable in our heavier soils. The proficient 
workman operates this with one hand and throws out the bulbs with 
the other, while the novice requires both hands in using the tool, 
letting go with one to 
\M .p pick up the bulbs. A 
...^ .k y.Mtk£i,^J,t .^Jm day's work in our 
silty soils consists on 
an average of about 
four 50-foot beds a 
day, and 50 to 75 per 
cent more on loose 
sandy soils. Tulip 
bulbs are put into 
small trays, which are 
shoved along the 
ground as the bed is 
dug. These are emp- 
tied into baskets or 
directly upon screen shakers (fig. 8), which sift out the greater part 
of the dirt. The bulbs are then transferred to the bulb house. Nar- 
cissi and hyacinths, except the smaller sizes, are dug like tulips, 
thrown into rows between the beds, and transferred to the bulb 
house later. The time allowed them to dry in this wa}^ will depend 
&'&> 
".'. '' >*xx~ 
Fig. 8. 
homemade shaker used to remove loose dirt 
from the bulbs after digging. 
