The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-12
GOOD PROFITS
 IN GROWING
 DUTCH BULBS Uncle Sam FaVOPS Work and Wants His Easter Lilies
 Grown at Home.
SAVING OF MILLION
 A YEAR IS POSSIBLE
Interesting Horticultural Ex- periments Conducted at Government Plant on
 Puget Sound.

l be made a profitable industry in this country?
 The department of agriculture is i'm c1ined so to believe, US conclusions be ing drawn from certain rather elabor- ate experiments in which it has best engaged during the last half dozen years.
 Dutch bu1bs'' means tulips, hya- cinths and narcissuses. Everybody loves these flowers, and their popular ity may be estimated from the fact that we import every year more than $1,OOO0OO worth of the bulbs for planting out of doors. They come from Holland, where climate and soil are especially suited to their produc- ton.
 There seems to be no good reason why most of these bulbs should not be grown in the United States. It was with this idea in view that in 1907 pr. Beverly T. Galloway (noW assistant secretary of agricultural sent experts into various sections of the United States for the purpose of picking out a. region suitable for bulb growing. Careful investigation indicated that the region best suited for this kind Of farming was in the neighborhood of Puget sound, and accordingly a bulb garden was forthwith established near the town of BellinghaIn, in the state of Washington.
 This garden is a strip of land about a quarter of a mile in length. It has attracted such widespread interest that many thousands of people from Seattle, Portland, Tacoma and other cities visit it each spring to enjoy the spectacle of myriads of blooms of many gorgeous coIors, in masses such as cannot be seen anywhere else in this country. They offer, indeed, a magnificent sight; and news of the ex- al f9 r. that representatives of several bulb farmers in the Netherlands have come across the Atlantic to take a look at the garden.
 The climate of the Puget sound re- zion is much like that of Holland, be- ing moist, and neither very hot nor very cold. As for the soil, in the neighborhood of Bellingham it is a, silt 1oam containing much decomposed or ganic matter, and closely resembles the soil which in the Netherlands pro- duces the finest crops of bulbs.
 Tulips in particular are historically associated with the Netherlands. They are of oriental origin, and were first introduced from Turkey into Europe in the sixteenth century. It was on the dikeIands of Holland, however, that their earliest cultivation on a large scale was accomplished, their popularity eliminating in the ceie- brated tulip mania When this re- rnarkab1e craze was at it's height, as much as $2,0O0 was paid for a single bulb of a new and desirable variety.
 Very interesting is 1t, then, to learn that the tulips grown at Bel1ingham are decidedly superior to those in ported, the bulbs producing better and healthier plants, and yielding earlier and larger flowers longer and stronger stems than the same varie- ties produced in the Netherlands. This 13 1 S{r +a6 l0xrS tests" in which the homegrown and Ho11and-grown bulbs were planted side by side As a rule, the plants from the Be11ingham bulbs were freer from disease, and lowered from five to seven days earlier than those of the imported bulbs. In addition, the blooms were of better color.
 The varieties of tulips tested at the Be1lingham garden have been grown from Offsets Where new varieties are desired, they are secured by planting seed. The method of har- employed in Holland. They are dug out of the beds with a small, short handled spade, or with the fingers when practicable. It is intended, however, to make a trial of digging them by machine, which would con siderably reduce the labor.
 The narcissuses grown at Be1ling- ham seem likewise to be superior to the inported-that is to say. 1 healthier, better co1ored, and with ! longer stems. This last is an inn 1 portant point commercially. It has already been proved that the mar cissus in variety can be successfully | produced for market in various parts l of the United States. At Portsm outh 1 and Richmond, Va, at Santa Cruz, i and Ukiah, Cal, and in other sections the growing of this highly valued l plant, for cut flowers or bulbs, or for | both, has developed into an industry 1 of considerable importance.
 Experiments at the Bellingham gar den have dem onstrated beyond ques- | tion that the famous Double Van Sion varfety-one of the most popular i of the forcing narcfssus, and which l heretofore has baff1ed every effort to | produce it commercially in this coun- l Iry-can be successfully grown in the Puget sound region. Imported bulbs of this variety, unfortunately, do not produce satisfactory blooms after the first season. 6
 Tn the eighteenth century nya- cinths were so highly prized that as much as s1,0O0 was occasionally paid for a single bulb. Even today they are held in very high esteem both in America and abroad. They are pro pagated artificially by 'buIblets," which are obtained by "scooping'' or scoring mature or so-caI1ed moth err bulbs
 The former of these two processes consists in scooping out the base of