Chapter 6

Digging and Curing.

When one has many bulbs to take up it is best to commence early, about the last of August or the first of September. This gives a long season for drying, which is quite necessary, as it is difficult to cure a great many in a short time, especially in unfavorable weather.

The smallest stock should be taken up first, for several reasons: First, the small bulbs grown from seed or from bulblets do not all ripen at the same time, and if digging is deferred until after some of them have matured, these drop from their stems in handling, and keep one picking them up, which is a great hindrance. If taken up in time, they can be pulled off from the green stalks in handfuls. Second, when the little bulbs mature they change color from white to brown, and if any drop it is not so easy to find them in the brown soil. They may be taken up when no larger than apple seeds, cured, and kept till spring with perfect success. Third, the small bulbs are easily dried and, if taken up early, they may be cured and packed away for the winter, entirely out of the way of the larger stock. It is quite an advantage to have part of the stock disposed of early. Fourth, it is slow, puttering work to take up small bulbs running from one hundred to three hundred to the foot of row, and it should be done before cold weather. My rule is to take up seedlings first, then the stock grown from the bulblets, then the next size larger, and so on, leaving the largest to the last. This stock is heavy, and men can keep warm handling it, even in quite cool weather, such as we are likely to have late in the season.

For convenience in taking up small stock, we use a low seat made like a small sled with wide runners which do not sink into the ground. A burlap sack is folded several thicknesses and tacked on the top for a cushion. This seat, a spading fork, a garden trowel, and a half-bushel basket lined with cloth to keep the bulblets from passing through, are the appliances needed for the work. The row is first loosened, or slightly pried up with the fork. Then the man occupying the seat, with the row in front of him, thrusts his trowel under a few inches of it, and with the other hand grasps the tops and lifts the bunch up, giving it a slight shake. He then holds it over the basket, and pulls the bulbs off from the tops, dropping them into the basket. When it is nearly filled, the contents are sifted through a number five sieve (five meshes to the inch), which allows the earth to pass out. A second sifting through a number three sieve separates the bulblets from the bulbs. The latter are then spread out an inch or two deep in crates, and dried in the shade, after which the depth may be doubled for storage until cleaning time. The bulblets are poured into a box or barrel.

In digging larger bulbs, they are simply loosened up with the fork, lifted out by the tops, which are clipped off close to the bulbs, and are dropped into a coarse sieve, number two, placed over a bushel basket. Through this the earth and most of the bulblets are sifted into the basket. The bulbs are then spread in shallow crates to dry. The crates should be placed where the ventilation is good, and no rain can reach them. The bulblets are separated from the earth with a fine sieve, and put into a box or barrel.

By way of explanation I will say just here that the bulblets grown on small stock are easily separated from the bulbs, as the original bulbs were small when planted and shrink away to almost nothing, thus leaving the bulblets free to fall. With large stock the case is different. The original bulbs were large when planted, and although they wither and die as the new bulbs grow and mature, they still retain a considerable portion of their size. The new bulbs are formed close above the old ones, and the bulblets appear around the line of contact, sometimes between the two, so that they do not all become detached at the time of digging. Those that still adhere are removed in the process of cleaning.

It is advisable to dry bulbs of all sizes as soon as practical after digging. They look much brighter and more attractive when thus treated than when left lying in contact with the damp soil, for a considerable time, as this gives them a dull, discolored appearance. If grown for market, those that shine like satin are much more salable, and even for planting it is much more pleasing to have them bright than tarnished. Sometimes, when short of crates, or in a great hurry, we have piled up small bulbs with their accompanying soil in the field and left them to be cared for at a more convenient time. They kept all right and could have been kept until spring with sufficient covering, but they lost their luster and became dingy and unattractive.

Bulblets should not be dried. The reason for this will be given elsewhere.