s. With extra pains, many of
these could be brought to small blooming size, but it is better to keep
them below that limit. The next year they will all grow to first and
second sizes and the bulbs will be perfect in form and full of energy.
Of these there will be no two alike, and such bulbs are generally in
demand. Some will be of superior merit, and many good. Each purchaser
will find at least a few that he will prize. By sowing seed every year,
the grower will always have fresh stock coming on, and if careful to use
only seed of high grade, he will establish a reputation as a producer of
fine seedlings. He can, in time, make arrangements for growing seed
himself, and thus save the expense of buying, besides enjoying the
satisfaction of knowing its excellence.

Another way of starting is by purchasing small stock. This has the
advantage of making salable bulbs the first year, also quantities of
bulblets, but there is another side to the question, which is less
encouraging. If the stock is simply common mixed, which is about the
only grade offered for sale, the grower is likely to find that a good
part of it is such as he can take no pride in, and he will be under the
necessity of beginning soon to weed out the undesirable varieties. The
same difficulty will re-appear in the crop grown from the bulblets. This
method involves more expense than would appear at first thought, and is
likely to be rather unsatisfactory as to quality in the end. If small
stock of high excellence could be bought, it would be the perfection of
a start for a beginner, but it is very seldom obtainable. Every grower
knows that bulbs the size of peas are far more prolific of bulblets than
those of the same variety two inches in diameter. Accordingly, he sells
the large ones, which bring good prices, but make little increase, and
retains the small ones, which would yield only trifling returns if sold,
but are of great value as multipliers of stock.

Still another and very good way of beginning in the business is to buy
blooming bulbs of fine named sorts, cultivate them separately, and sell
them by name. He who adopts this plan does not need many varieties. It
is better to purchase few, and a larger number of each. If he selects
those that are in good demand, he is pretty sure to find ready sale for
all that he can raise. He is not likely to have too many of the May or
Augusta, nor of those newer and more expensive favorites, America and
Princeps.