12 BULLETIN 797, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the work at Bellingham, Wash., however, both a narrow-bladed hoe 
and a 3-tined hoe have been used with good success, the latter while 
the weeds are small and the former afterwards. 
At Bellingham the beds are left rough at planting time. They are 
covered by the dirt as it falls from the shovel and are left untouched 
until the planting is finished, when the cultivation is begun by raking 
the beds smooth with a hand rake. This raking is kept up as soil 
conditions permit until the appearance of the plants above ground 
prevents it. After this, practically no cultivation is attempted, but 
hand weeding is practiced and the paths between the beds are kept 
free from weeds by the use of the hand or wheel hoe. Before digging, 
A A*- J..;. 
Fig. 6. — Covering bulb beds in tbe Virginia region in late autumn with a plow. 
the beds are hoed off to get rid of the old leaves as well as the remain- 
ing weeds. This practice is not satisfactory and is particularly ex- 
pensive. 
In the fields in Virginia, where bulbs are grown in beds 18 inches 
wide with 18-inch walks between, the practice is not essentially dif- 
ferent from that at Bellingham, but there the bulbs are not dug more 
often than once in three years. In autumn and early winter in that 
locality the beds are covered by turning a furrow each way from the 
paths, thus covering them with 3 or 4 inches of soil. ( Fig. 6. ) Before 
the plants begin to push through in the spring the beds are gone over 
thoroughly with a spike-tooth harrow. After the tops die down the 
weeds are kept mowed and allowed to lie on the ground. 
