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of Plant Industry is: “Do not plant on the same ground 
oftener than once in two and preferably once in three 
years/’ and our experience concurs. Not only will the 
ground become foul with tulips, which try as one may 
cannot be wholly eradicated, but the soil becomes fa¬ 
tigued with continuous planting, and the bulb suffers. 
One may increase the friability and enrich the character 
of the soil by a cover crop one year of vetch and rye, 
putting it the next year into some crop of commercial 
value with the fertilizer requirements incident to that 
crop, that will not draw from the soil the same con¬ 
stituents as the tulip—and it should again be good tulip 
land. But each grower will have his own rotation, 
and his particular formula as to the application of 
fertilizer. The best fertilizer is the best available. And 
that is as it should be with this caution: A tulip bulb 
of size and substance cannot be grown on lean land. 
The tulip bulb attends closely to its business of re¬ 
plenishing the earth with tulip bulbs. The seed we 
are not yet concerned with in a commercial way, but 
the grower is joyful over the number and size of the 
bulblets that adhere to the mother bulb. To be a good 
reproducer and at the same time bear an admired flower 
—there is a variety to which to cling. We have found 
it advantageous so far to plant all the bulblets, although 
there arises a question when stocks have been worked 
up to the desired amount whether bulblets below 3 or 4 
centimeters should be saved. Bulbs of 5 to 7 centi¬ 
meters reach merchantable size in two years while those 
of 8 centimeters attain a mature size in one year. 
Thus far we have planted our bulbs in rectangular 
beds four feet wide with the length that of the plat 40 
feet. We make concave paths between the plats some 
