followed spray program will control fungus attacks, the value of 
the iris crop is such that no undue risks can be taken by the 
growers and, hence, new land for each year’s crop still remains 
essential. 
The omnipresent virus disease presents still another problem 
that can, at least, be partially solved by planting the bulbs on new 
land. As in almost any other horticultural crop, bulbous iris are 
very much subject to virus diseases which can spread at an alarming 
rate. The almost total disappearance of the pretty Spanish iris and 
the ugly spotting of the flowers of English iris must be ascribed to 
this scourge. It is transmitted by insects which feed impartially on 
diseased and healthy plants and infect the latter. To the grower 
who is spending much money and time to free his plantings from 
virus-diseased plants, and to keep them clean, the threat that 
possibly diseased volunteers from previous crops might show up 
is enough to make him look for fresh land in entirely different 
locations. 
If we add to these problems the ones of rodent attacks, leaf spot 
diseases and mechanical injuries of the bulbs in digging, cleaning 
and grading, then we find that bulbous iris production is one 
phase of horticultural effort that has its full component of prob- 
lems and difficulties. 
These troubles, however, absolutely do not militate against the 
bulbous iris for garden use. It is only when we bring millions of 
bulbs together in a comparatively small area that the chances for 
disease and pests attacking the planting multiply in geometrical 
proportion. It is not that a planting of one thousand bulbs is twice 
as vulnerable as a planting of five hundred. The chances of trouble 
developing are at least a hundred times as great. 
Big Business 
Commercial production of bulbous iris, then, is “big business.” 
It takes expensive equipment from the moment that the land is 
prepared to the happy day that the crop is harvested. Briefly, the 
requirements are tractors for plowing, disking and_ harrowing; 
slow moving tractors for planting and digging; special machinery 
for the harvest; air-conditioned rooms for curing the crop, and con- 
stant heat until late in the fall when the retarded and cured crop 
is planted back. In the meantime the salable, round bulbs have 
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