ets should receive the most thorough and careful
cultivation from the time the little shoots appear until the crop is
ready to be harvested. The surface should be stirred often to keep down
the weeds and encourage a steady and vigorous growth. Inasmuch as the
product is a valuable one, it pays to give it every advantage. The work
of harvesting is described at length under the head of "Digging and
Curing."

There is one curious fact connected with bulblets, which is worth
mentioning. Although they need the most judicious care when out of the
ground, if best results are to be attained, their vitality and tenacity
of life are such that they may be left around, exposed to all kinds of
weather, and treated with perfect neglect, and yet, when they come in
contact with the earth some of them will grow. I recall an instance of a
barrel of bulblets that stood in a shed through two winters and one
summer, and when the second spring came they were poured out on the
ground, and probably twenty per cent of them sprouted.

(See further Notes Pages 95-100)

CHAPTER XI.

Peeling Bulblets.

It is sometimes desirable to increase a stock of bulbs faster than it
can be done in the ordinary course of nature, even with the best of care
and skill in growing. This is often the case with new, high-priced
varieties, and occasionally with an old and popular one that naturally
increases very slowly, as the Shakespeare. It has been discovered that
this end can be achieved by peeling the bulblets before planting. Even
if the bulblets have been kept in perfect condition, the shells are
somewhat of an obstruction to their growth, and it is easy to see that
the removal of these would be a great advantage by giving the kernels
freedom to start and flourish unhindered. The hard covering is nature's
safe protection for the beautiful little bulblet within, and it comes so
near to being waterproof and air-tight that the tiny sprout is slow in
making its way out. Many of them remain shut in, and so are lost to the
grower. Careful peeling overcomes this difficulty, and they all grow,
like bulbs. Not only this, but they grow much larger for the peeling,
and also yield a fair product of bulblets, thus increasing their rate of
multiplication in various ways.

When I first heard of the advantages of peeling bulblets I decided to
try it, and engaged a number of girls to do the work at their homes in
the winter, paying ten cents an hour. I had a ch