lbs, that is of diameter 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches have bloomed well
out of doors. Mrs. Frances King bulbs of only 1 inch to 1-1/4 have
produced well; America and Chicago White for best results need larger
grading than King.

Watchfulness in winter storage is necessary. If bulbs are racked or
shelved too deep and become moist, they must be thinned and turned or
both; if they become too dry, as they will if your cellar or storehouse
lacks moisture, you may put more layers in the racks, or spread
newspaper over them or spray the floor of your storeroom as often as may
be necessary to maintain proper moisture which can be told by feeling of
the bulbs.

Those, and they are many, both Amateur and Commercial growers who
exhibit blooms at Flower shows should remember that if spikes are cut
when the lowest blooms begin to open and transported to the exhibition
halls early and there, standing in vases allowed to open their blooms,
will be much more perfect and free from that bruised condition shown by
blooms which have not been cut until the flowers on the spikes were
nearly open.

One reliable grower keeps his black hard-shelled bulblets in gunny sacks
containing about one bushel mixed with about 20 per cent of fine dry
earth. He has been quite successful in keeping the bulblets in this
manner, and when so kept the shells do not harden to such an extent as
to prevent sprouting of the kernel, as sometimes is the case when they
dry out too much. This same grower believes in soaking the black
hard-shelled bulblets for 36 hours in water just before planting, but no
longer.

Gladiolus bulbs stored in bins should be turned every few days,
especially after February, as this tends to prevent sprouting. They
should not be kept in too warm and dry a place. It is best to keep them
quite cool, the thermometer running as low as forty degrees Fahrenheit
at times, and in an atmosphere of the ordinary cellar, which usually has
some moisture. If they become troubled with green fly, sprinkle them
with tobacco dust once a week.

Gladiolus bulbs stored in racks have been kept in good condition by
close covering of double or triple thickness of newspapers, the bulbs
being levelled off and the newspapers laid closely over the racks and
kept close to the bulbs by loose strips of wood laid over them. Others
have kept gladiolus bulbs in very good shape in old paper flour sacks,
which contain half a bushel or three pecks of the bulbs (the bulbs
being