Changes

Commercially, the growing of the bulbs for eastern and foreign markets is a sure source of revenue, and is conducted extensively throughout southern California. The local market for the so-called flowers is of course limited, but if grown in a practically frostless belt, the blooms will more than pay for the cultivation of the winter field, as in that season of the year flowers of all kinds are scarce. The average retail price for good blooms in midwinter is 50 cents a dozen; the wholesale price about $1 a 100. Bulbs at retail cost about one-half, or even less, what they do in the East. The commercial growers get at present (January, 1916), $25 to $60 a 1,000, according to size, the market calling for tubers 1 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Larger sizes are quoted as "fancy" and command extra prices. Although they can be grown in almost any soil with some success, a free cool blackish loam is best, and they do not thrive in a hot gravelly or stony soil. The lands near the coast, where swept by the cooling sea-breeze, are productive of the best results, both in bloom and tuber. Land containing sufficient alkali to prevent the growth of many common crops will produce good callas if other requirements are present. In field-planting it is much better to put in small bulbs about 4 inches apart than to sow the offsets promiscuously in the row; when the sets are thus sown, they should be taken up the following year and the small bulbs properly planted. Offsets sown as above and left four to six years (the usual time for a good crop) have never produced satisfactory results. No pest seriously attacks foliage or bloom, but in dry years more especially, the common sow-bug eats into the tubers very seriously and receives considerable assistance from millipedes. Both these pests are a considerable nuisance to the California nurseryman and gardener.

Commercially, the growing of the bulbs for eastern and foreign markets is a sure source of revenue, and is conducted extensively throughout southern California. The local market for the so-called flowers is of course limited, but if grown in a practically frostless belt, the blooms will more than pay for the cultivation of the winter field, as in that season of the year flowers of all kinds are scarce. The average retail price for good blooms in midwinter is 50 cents a dozen; the wholesale price about $1 a 100. Bulbs at retail cost about one-half, or even less, what they do in the East. The commercial growers get at present (January, 1916), $25 to $60 a 1,000, according to size, the market calling for tubers 1 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Larger sizes are quoted as "fancy" and command extra prices. Although they can be grown in almost any soil with some success, a free cool blackish loam is best, and they do not thrive in a hot gravelly or stony soil. The lands near the coast, where swept by the cooling sea-breeze, are productive of the best results, both in bloom and tuber. Land containing sufficient alkali to prevent the growth of many common crops will produce good callas if other requirements are present. In field-planting it is much better to put in small bulbs about 4 inches apart than to sow the offsets promiscuously in the row; when the sets are thus sown, they should be taken up the following year and the small bulbs properly planted. Offsets sown as above and left four to six years (the usual time for a good crop) have never produced satisfactory results. No pest seriously attacks foliage or bloom, but in dry years more especially, the common sow-bug eats into the tubers very seriously and receives considerable assistance from millipedes. Both these pests are a considerable nuisance to the California nurseryman and gardener.

}}

}}