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mercial position it has attained, one is inclined to be 
most humble when he checks up on the modest acreage 
in which he is interested. A historic flower truly with 
way stations: Persia, Constantinople, Vienna, Switzer¬ 
land, France, Holland, and (may we hope it) the North¬ 
west Pacific area. A flower of the world, vigorous, 
adaptable, adventurous,—and yet we are told both con¬ 
fidentially and from the house-tops that a forcing tulip 
cannot be grown in America. But more as to that 
later on. 
What is known as the Oregon Bulb Company, Salem, 
Oregon, started as a private enterprise eight years ago 
with the purchase of $36.00 worth of tulip bulbs by 
Dibble & Franklin, still members of the company. With 
the next purchase $550.00, it was recognized that this 
was an excursion into “No Man’s Land.” The tulip was 
labeled Holland bulb; the few attempts to grow it in 
the United States had been inconclusive. If a business 
was to be built up, first of all as fine a shipper, as 
firm a keeper, as keen a forcer, as staunch a general 
purpose bulb must be grown as the Holland bulb. Noth¬ 
ing less would be fair to the demand, nor in the long 
run satisfy it. Then followed perforce a period of 
yard stick work, years of experimentation and creeping 
progress in which the home-grown bulb was subjected 
to unsparing tests both in the greenhouse and in the 
field, side by side with the imported Holland bulb. 
That the results of these tests have not been to the un¬ 
doing of the American bulb, is indicated by the in¬ 
corporation of the Company in October, 1922, the in¬ 
crease and purchase of stock until the planting is now 
six acres in beds, Holland wise, and definite forward 
plans for the future. 
