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The objects of digging secured, which are, as Dr. David 
Griffiths says, “To renew the fertility of the soil, to 
separate the merchantable bulbs from the others, and 
to distribute the remaining ones, the bulbs are better 
off in the ground.” In our own practice, we are plant¬ 
ing earlier each year and if a good bulb and legitimate 
increase is desired, all bulbs should be in the ground 
by the end of September. The actual time of digging 
is regulated by the coats of the bulbs, and when they 
approach the decided brown of commerce they are ready 
to dig. This is a good deal reflected by the tops, but 
not strictly, since in some varieties it is not necessary 
to wait until the tops are entirely dead, while in others 
it is. If the bulbs are left in the ground after they 
are ripe the coats crack and otherwise deteriorate. 
But what matters that we dig at the right time, 
that we work out a system of rotation, that we study 
economical growing; of what avail are experiments and 
the expense of them if a forcing bulb cannot be grown 
in the United States? The answer to that is, that the 
Government Experiment Station at Bellingham, Wash¬ 
ington, and the Oregon Bulb Company are both growing 
a forcing bulb. We are not guessing as to that. Our 
experiments and the results of our greenhouse sales 
declare plainly there is no magic in the Holland bulb 
whereby it will force and the American bulb will not. 
It will. Let us make no mistake as to this. It will. 
Each year at blooming time which runs from April 
1 to May 20, we keep open house. And each day brings 
its hundreds of visitors, and fete days thousands. Last 
season 50,000 visited the Tulip farm, as it is called. 
This is a tribute to the massed color and the varied 
and individual excellencies of the varieties. Interest- 
