to one-half inch in diameter,
and with the best possible opportunity they will grow somewhat larger.

Seedlings should be taken up as soon as they show the first sign of
ripening, i. e., when their tops begin to turn yellow. The reasons why
this work should be done early are given under the head of "Digging and
Curing," which also describes in detail the mode of doing it. Most of
the earth falls off in the process of taking up the bulbs and pulling
them from the stems, and the rest is sifted out. The bulbs are then put
into flats, an inch or two deep, and allowed to dry. Sometimes they are
dried with the tops on, and kept in that condition till planting time,
but most growers prefer to take them off when green.

CHAPTER X.

Growing from Bulblets.

Success with the gladiolus depends more upon the use and management of
bulblets than upon any other one thing. Let us suppose the case of a
person who grows bulbs in his garden for flowers, and saves only the
bulbs, allowing the bulblets to go to waste as of no value,--and this is
exactly what many people do. What is the result? The bulbs that are
saved have bloomed, nearly all of them at least, and consequently they
are somewhat flattened in vertical diameter, which is more or less of a
falling off from the ideal round or conical shape. These are planted and
bloomed the next season, and only the bulbs are saved, as before. This
process is repeated year after year, the bulbs becoming gradually
thinner and less vigorous, the spikes diminishing in height and the
flowers in size, until, by and by, the grower comes to the conclusion
that his bulbs have "run out."

Now follows the experience of one who saves the bulblets, or a portion
of them. He plants them, and they make bulbs, mostly too small to bloom.
The next year these are planted, and in turn make larger bulbs, of
blooming size, perfect in form, and capable of yielding spikes of
flowers that will be an honor to the varieties from which they were
grown.

The first example shows why bulbs deteriorate when only bulbs are saved,
and the second, how to keep them up to a high standard of vigor by
renewing them from time to time with bulblets.

As success with bulbs depends largely upon the use and management of
bulblets, so success with bulblets depends, to a great extent, upon the
care given them while out of the ground. This has been dwelt upon in a
former chapter, and may be still further emphasized to good adv