s just the
opposite. A bulb too small to bloom will yield many times more bulblets
than a large one of the same variety. Sometimes as many as two hundred
bulblets have been found on a single bulb.

Corm and cormel are the correct botanical terms respectively for solid
bulbs, like those of the gladiolus, and the small underground increase,
but these names are rarely used in commercial horticulture.

CHAPTER III.

Soils and Preparation.

The gladiolus will grow on almost any soil, and do well with only a
moderate chance. While it has its preferences, it readily adapts itself
to circumstances, and makes the most of what it finds. Whether sand,
clay, gravel, muck or loam, it will get a living out of them, though
gravel is perhaps least desirable. The gladiolus withstands drouth very
well, but likes plenty of moisture much better, and low land well
drained is excellent for it. It ought not to be under water. Good farm
land, suitable for corn or potatoes, answers its purpose very well, and
it flourishes on green sward properly plowed and harrowed. The richest
place in the garden suits it admirably, and it shows its appreciation of
special favors by ready response in growth and bloom.

The ground should be plowed or spaded to a good depth, about the same as
for potatoes, and harrowed or raked until it is thoroughly pulverized,
not only on the surface, but down deep.

Fertilizers.

Any crop can be well fed with good stable manure properly applied, but
this is sometimes out of reach. In such cases we must either resort to
commercial fertilizers or depend upon the plant food in the soil, which
is seldom sufficient for any crop, especially one whose yield of profit
may be greatly increased or diminished by the giving or withholding of
nourishment. The gardener cannot afford to take any risks along this
line. His crops are too valuable. The safe course is for him to assume
that the land is poor to consider the ground as simply a place of
anchorage for the roots of plants, and a reservoir for plant food to be
supplied; and then, to furnish the amount needed to produce the crop.
Fortunately, most soils do, as a matter of fact, contain a fair supply
of fertility, but very rarely as much as a crop can appropriate, and it
is best to be on the safe side. The gladiolus is a sturdy grower, able
to assimilate a generous supply of nutriment, and should be properly
fed.

In regard to the use of stable manure as a fertilize