To Increase Flower and Bulb Sales 
The easiest and quickest way to increase your flower 
or bulb sales is to ^ show visitors your own well-grown 
flowers. The quicker way to procure visitors is to dis¬ 
play flowers in a public or semi-public place. Almost 
any down-town store, bank or hotel will be glad to have 
you bring in a complimentary basket or vase of gladiolus 
and will cooperate by allowing you to place your card 
on the display or will give information to inquirers as to 
where they were grown. 
Though your home town be large or small, it is a 
good advertising medium, as news travels fast now that 
we have (FORDS). 
Bulbs grown on Michigan sandy-loam are particularly 
good for resale as they are clean, high crowned, shiny 
bulbs. People buy with their eyes and the largest, shiniest 
are the first to sell. 
Forcing—Out of Doors 
Tt is possible to grow good Gladiolus flowers on almost 
any kind of soil, if water can be obtained, but many 
growers are desirous of growing better than just good 
flowers. To these I offer the following suggestions de¬ 
rived from years of growing Gladiolus for the show table. 
Large Plantings 
In view of the fact that on large plantings of Gladiolus 
bulbs, to be used for cut flowers, it is financially imprac¬ 
tical to fertilize and water as can be done on small plant¬ 
ings, I suggest the following for better blooms: Sow one 
crop of Soy beans and one crop of Rye, to be turned under 
before bulb planting. This will serve several purposes, 
adding humus, plant food, and making the ground more 
porous, and will also tend to eliminate weeds. Regular 
and thorough cultivation is recommended as it keeps the 
moisture at a level where the roots of the bulbs can reach 
it, even in the hottest, driest weather. This last 
summer has been a good trial of cultivation. We would 
have lost a great portion of our small planting stock, 
if we had not cultivated regularly. 
Small Plantings 
Well rotted cow manure and plenty of water are the 
best prerequisites of large flowers and numerous open 
blooms on a spike. Plow under the fertilizer in the fall 
before you use the field, or early spring. Watering should 
be done after the heat of the day is past. Thorough, oc¬ 
casional watering is much better than light, frequent ones, 
as surface watering tends to, bring the roots to the tpp, 
lessening support'for the plant and depriving the roots of 
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