ates ee +4 ones rel . Oren F.2'hy"e, fone Glass SB34) Book © 9297 foyngtNe COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: Che Nein Onion Culture A Complete Guide In Growing Onions for Profit aS »»> By T. GREINER Rewritten and Greatly Enlarged Gllustratea . ®. ri 2D Dad tree. | ED New York ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 1903 uw 0) > cc << cc ea) a Ww ne | o> 2 oe we eos Gi 2 Ore O 6 3 re co 5 mo — oe a < Copyright Entry .18-/@03 * CLASS & XXe, No * , s. ‘ Copyright 1903 By ORANGE JuDD Company = Be 2 +> THE STORY of The New Onion . Culture “- ee eee e 6 6.8 . . “~ . ve we «& . ee CONTENTS PREFACE Tue WHY AND WHEREFORES, a sort of introduction. A fable—The cat’s trick—History of the new onion culture—Blessings of an own home— Large scale operations—Horticultural training for your boy. CHAPTER '} WELL Becun, Hatr Done. How the plants are grown Procuring seed—Growing seed—Plants in boxes—Hotbeds—Sowing the seed—Fire_hot- beds—Hotbeds heated by waste steam—Cheap greenhouses—Plants for sale—Damping off— Soils for flats, frames and benches—Trimming the plants while growing. CHAPTER II As You Maxe Your Bep, so you will lie ' What soil to select—How to manure and prepare it—The best soil—Onions on muck— Sandy loam—Clean soil essential—Manuring the land—An onion and strawberry combina- tion—Preparing the soil. CHAPTER III A Drirricutty Eastry Overcome. How the plants are set in open ground : ; , : - The real work—One advantage of trans- planting—Width of planting—Marking the land —Trimming the plants before setting—Setting plants—Planting machines. CHAPTER IV PERSEVERANCE THAT Pays. Tillage as moisture pre- server and weed killer ; : ; : Objects of cultivation—Tools of tillage— Hand weeding—Mulching—Irrigation. ; 13 21 32 Vill CONTENTS CHAPTER, VY A TIMELY PULL AND Haut. When and how to har- vest the crop ; Danger in delay—Signs of maturity—Curing the crop—Curing sheds—An _ onion storage house. CHAPTER Vi THE FRAGRANT BULB ON SALE The Prizetaker a Pricetaker—An “inventory —Crating onions— The _ crates — Wintering onions. CHAPTERS Vil ALL’s WELL THAT ENDS WELL i Advantages and profits of the new way—Five advantages of the new method — Estimate of cost and profits. CHAPTER VIII THE OLD ONION CULTURE Sowing seed in the open ground—Drilling in the seed—After culture—Buying seed— Onions for pickling—Growing sets. CHAPTER 7) 8 Frontispiece—The Author 2. The Story of the New Onion Culture Vv 3. Yellow Prizetaker Onion 2 4. Plants Ready for Transplanting 3 s, Hotbed in Sunken Pit —. ; 4 6. Hotbed on Level Ground ¢ © 7. Forcing Pit Covered with Hotbed “Sash 4 8. Small Greenhouse—Elevation 8 g. Small Greenhouse—Cross Section . ‘ : 9 10: A Well-Prepared Seed Bed . : : : II 11. A Perfect Crop of Gibraltar Onions : ; ; 14 12. Row of Scallions t : : : 15 13. Onions in the New Strawberry Bed : : ‘ 16 i> Wisk Harrow... . P ° f , 17 is. ..Acme Harrow : ‘ 3 P : d 18 16. Meeker Smoothing Harrow . : ‘ 2 : 19 17. Old Style Garden Marker : : : : d 22 18. Single Tooth Attachment : ) : : P 23 19. Three-Tooth Marker P ne eee : f : 23 20. Tracing Wheel Marker . : : : : 24 21. Setting the Plants with Dibber 5 : ‘ . 25 22. Old Kitchen Knife as Dibber . : ; : : 26 23.- Dibber... : Z : : : 26 24. Trimming the Plants. ; : : : : ‘ 27 25. Wrong Way ' : z 3 ? : : F 28 26. Right Way : 4 ; : : 28 27. .Plant Set Right Depth ‘ E : ‘ : - 29 28. Plant Set Too Deep ‘ : ‘ : : : 30 29: Iron Age Hand Wheel Hoe ‘ : : 33 30. Wheel Hoe in Operation in the Onion Field . : 34 31. Single Wheel Hoe’ . EN has al . . 35 32. Lang’s Hand Weeder : : : é a ¢ 35 33. Homemade Onion Hoe . : : : ; 36 34. Onion Curing Shed . : ; : : : F 30 35. An Onion Curing Crib . , : re a 40 36. Michigan Onion Storage House : : Z ‘ 42 37. Bunch of Prizetaker Onions . . : ‘ ‘ 45 ILLUSTRATIONS Prizetaker Onions Crated for Market Iron Age Garden Drill in Operation Comparative Size of Round Onions Comparative Size of Flat Onions Homemade Pickling Onion Sieve Assorted Barletta Onions Egyptian or Perennial Tree Onion Onion Field in Bloom . Onion Seed Ready for Harvesting Potato Onion or Multiplier Large Red Wethersfield White Tripoli Onion Beaulieu’s Hardy White Onion The Onion Maggot . Plant Attacked by Thrips’ In bringing this revised and enlarged treatise on the new way of growing onions by the method which has become famous under the name “new onion cul- ture” before the public, the author makes no pretense of believing that there is a lack of literature on the subject of onion culture in America. On the contrary, he willingly and freely concedes that all phases of the culture of this vegetable have found a most liberal consideration at the hands of the writers of books, pamphlets, bulletins and agricultural newspaper arti- cles. The author himself has been guilty of adding largely to the mass of printed matter on onions. All this, however, together with the large sales which most of the more popular treatises on onion growing have met with right along, only proves the great importance of the subject. The first edition of The New Onion Culture was issued in the spring of 1891, and had to be followed by new editions in rapid succession to meet the unex- pected demand; yet this demand still continues. No further excuse will therefore be offered for this attempt to take the subject in hand once more, and to bring the “new onion culture’ into renewed and thoroughly up-to-date form. : Many hundreds of experiment station and de- partment bulletins and reports on the onion have been issued, a list of which will be given later on. A veg- xi Xil PREFACE etable that has commanded so much and so long continued intense attention, cannot be without great merit, nor without unusual promise as a profitable crop. True, the onion has often been looked upon as the pariah among vegetables. Yet the great majority of people are inordinately fond of onion flavor, even if some try to hide their liking for it as if they were ashamed of it. As a money crop, too, the despised onion occupies a front rank. Its annual production in the United States runs high up into the millions of bushels. The importations, especially of the large sweet or Spanish type of onions during spring and early summer, also represent a large figure, reaching sometimes close to the million-bushel mark for the year. My own earlier interest in onion growing was revived by the introduction, in 1889, of the Prizetaker onion, a variety of that large and very mild Spanish type which we now import in still considerable quan- tities from abroad. The bulbs, in my (then) New Jersey sandy loam grew so beautiful and perfect, and of such large size (although grown by the old method, from seed sown in open ground in spring), that | became really enthusiastic about the possibilities hidden in the crop. In my further experiments with this novelty, I stumbled, in 1890, upon the method now generally known as “the new onion culture.” The new plan may now be safely said to have passed the experimental stage. It has stood the ordeal of a dozen years of trial, and sometimes of hostile criticism or prejudice. But it has slowly made its way into favor with those growers who understand its scope and purport, and has made money for them. Already in 1893 I quoted from a letter then just received from Mr A. I. Root of Medina, Ohio, the publisher of Gleanings in Bee Culture, and himself known as an enthusiastic gardener, as follows, viz :— PREFACE Xili | “In regard to new points in vegetable gardening during the past season, I believe what has been called ‘the new onion culture’ has made the most stir. At one of the farmers’ institutes, I gave them a talk on the matter and exhibited some samples of large, fine Spanish onions. After I got through I felt a little afraid my talk had been pretty extravagant, and some of my hearers, I was told, criticised me a good deal. They said, “Oh, yes, Root can talk, especially’ when he buys manure from the livery stables, and puts on more of it to the acre than an acre of our ground is worth; but what good does such talk do us?’ “You may perhaps surmise there were some among my hearers of the class that claim ‘farming don’t pay.’ Well, a few days ago, a man I had seen a few times, came into the office and said he had something down stairs for me to look at. On the way down he asked if I remembered my talk in the winter. Then he said he had bought some seed, and had been at work trying the new onion culture. I felt afraid he had failed, and was going to blame me for my enthusiastic state- ments of what might be done on a single acre. By this time we reached the place where he had left his basket of onions. They were just beauties, and you ought to have seen his face while he held them up and told me how he did it. He hadn’t any greenhouse nor hotbed, so he raised the plants in boxes in the kitchen window, and planted them out in ordinary clay soil such as farmers use for corn and potatoes. I asked him if he had found a market for them, and he replied: “Why, bless your heart, Mr Root, there isn’t any trouble at all about the market. My neighbors right around me will take every last onion at one dollar per bushel, and I just wanted to see you, and tell that you wasn't extravagant a bit in telling what a farmer might do if he had only the will to do it.’ X1V PREFACE “Another man in the same neighborhood raised a wagon load in the same way, and ‘prought them to Medina, and sold them at once for siehie cents per bushel at a time when ordinary onions were bringing thirty cents per bushel.” I might tell a good many instances of a similar kind from my experiences during the past few years. It is generally found, that if the trial is made properly, and under circumstances not exactly unfavorable, the result will be such as to make anyone with a natural instinct for gardening, just as much of an enthusiast as the man in Mr Root’s story. After a full baker’s dozen years of experience in erowing onions by the new system, I am still in doubt whether to recommend it for general purposes of onion growing or not. Theoretically I see no objection to the substitution of the new for the old way even for the production of the crop of ordinary onion varieties for fall and winter use. The fact is to-day recognized by all authorities, and stands without dispute, that every one of our, common onion sorts gives much larger individual bulbs when the seedlings are started Saely under glass than when seed is sown in open ground in spring, as is the practice of the old style. The crop is easily twice, possibly three and more times as large. Farmers’ Bulletin 39, issued by the United States department of agriculture in 1896, says: “Experi- ments have demonstrated that the transplanting system has many advantages, the most important of which is, perhaps, the increase in yield. This increase is due to several causes. The plants receive a good start under glass before they are set in the field, and thus have the full advantage of the cool spring weather, which is most favorable to rapid growth; when sown in the field, a month or more is consumed before the plants PREFACE XV are fairly started. This is a very important consider- ation in the South, where the hot, dry weather may arrive very soon. Transplanting, if properly per- formed, always secures a full stand, which is uncertain where the seed is sown in open ground. Pulling the plants results in more or less root pruning, and this doubtless exerts some beneficial influence on the yield. “Experiments at many agricultural experiment stations show how material is the increased yield. At -the Ohio station ten selected transplanted Prizetaker bulbs weighed eight pounds and four ounces ; the same number of bulbs, not transplanted, four pounds and four ounces; Pompeii, transplanted, seven pounds and _ six ounces; not transplanted, four pounds and one ounce; White Victoria, transplanted, eight pounds and six ounces; not transplanted, three pounds and seven ounces; Yellow Danvers, transplanted, five pounds; not transplanted, two pounds and six ounces. Trans- planting gave a decided increase with each of the fourteen varieties tried, amounting to one hundred per cent in some cases. “At the Michigan station transplanted Prizetaker | onions gave a yield of 548 bushels per acre, while bulbs not transplanted yielded only 216 bushels; Southport, transplanted, 296 bushels per acre; not transplanted, 172; Giant Rocca, transplanted, 556 bush- els; not transplanted, 110. Experiments at the Rhode Island station gave a decided increase with Yellow Danvers, Red Wethersfield and White Portugal. Red Wethersfield onions transplanted at the ‘Tennessee station yielded 823 bushels per acre, while those not transplanted produced at the rate of 206 bushels. North Dakota station reports experiments with several varieties, including Yellow Danvers, in which trans- planted onions gave an increase from four to five times XVI PREFACE as great as those not transplanted. This enormous increase in North Dakota is due to the abundance of rain during the early spring.” In practice, the large growers of fall and winter onions in the great onion growing sections of the New England states, New York, Ohio, Michigan, etc, have been reluctant to make the change in their methods. For myself, I will confess, that if I had an ideal onion soil, and were growing staridard varieties for fall and winter market, the Yellow Danvers, Yellow or White Globes, etc, [ am not even now prepared to say that I would not grow them by the old plan, and I am dis- posed to leave the choice between the old and the new to each individual grower according to his particular circumstances and surroundings, and possibly personal notions and preferences. My own soil is not particularly suited to the ordi- nary onion crop. Try as I may, I am unable to grow a respectable crop of Yellow Danvers or Southport Globes, the leading varieties of that class, in the old way. The yield, 200 or 250 bushels per acre, is below the profit limit. For this reason I had to devise or adapt a system of my own to make onion growing profitable. I found it in the new onion culture. Its chief purpose is to enable me to grow very large specimens, and a very large yield, of the very mild onions of the sweet Spanish type. Americans may not think much of the Spaniards, as a nation; but they like the mild flavor of their onions. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of onions are annually imported into the United States from Bermuda (the old crop during January), from Cuba (new crop during Febru- ary), from France and Spain (during February, March, and up to midsummer). Various portions of our country have the right climate and soil to raise PREFACE XVil just as good onions as any coming from foreign countries. The retail customers of our grocery stores are asked to pay five, six or seven cents a pound for the imported “Spanish” onion. During summer, fall and part or all of the winter, the home-grown “Spanish,” Gibraltar and Prizetaker, onions can be sold by grocers at a profit at three cents a pound, and allow one dollar a bushel for the grower. I can see no sense, on the part of the retail buyer, in paying the price asked for the imported article, or of importing the real Spanish onions and offering them for sale, while the home- grown “Spanish” onion, which is in every way the equal of the other, can be had. I would like to see the imported bulb crowded out of our markets, at least to some extent. It can be done by making use of “the new onion culture,” and of the fine varieties of onions of the Spanish type which we now possess in the Prize- taker and Gibraltar. The only problem which remains for us to solve is that of keeping the large sweet bulbs of this class until spring or early summer, whether this be done by means of putting in cold storage, or of exposing to the fumes of burning sulphur, or in other ways, at which times they would find ready sale at possibly twicé the prices obtainable for them in the fall. The new plan of onion growing can be justly and earnestly recommended for four special purposes, viz: 1. For the production of a full home supply of the very finest and largest onions; and, especially to the novice, as the very easiest way of securing most desirable results. | 2. For growing exhibition onions that will be sure to take the prizes at any fair in competition with onions grown in the ordinary way. XVill PREFACE 3. For market gardeners who deal directly with retail customers and can work off a lot of really choice sweet onions in smaller quantities at high prices with their other crops. 4. As a means to interest your boy or boys in gardening operations and making them enthusiasts in the business. Try the new onion culture on any of these lines. If you do your part only reasonably well, your highest success will be assured. T. GREINER. La-salle- N, Y,<1003) THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES A SORT OF INTRODUCTION “If I were a tailor, I’d made it my pride The best of all tailors to be; If I were a tinker, no tinker beside Should mend a tin kettle like me.” Who has never met the “Jack-of-all-trades’— knowing a little of all, and being proficient in none— a clever sort of person, and handy to have around as a “general utility” man, but never rising above the level of mediocrity in anything, or able to aspire to great things, or to command large pay! The man who excels, even in a seemingly unimportant specialty, is the one who will achieve a brilliant success, and get big pay for his work. Some of my readers undoubtedly have heard, or read, the old fable of the fox and the cat. The story, like other fables, has a moral, and is worth repeating. The two animals met in the woods, when the voices of hounds were heard in the distance. “Poor pussy,” said the fox, “what will you do when the dogs get after you?” “T know a trick,” replied the cat, “and am not alarmed.” The hounds, in the meantime, had come pretty close, and conversation was brought to a stop. The xix xx THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES fox sped through woods, and fields, and meadows, playing one trick after another, in the vain attempt to throw the hounds off the scent. The pursuers remained on his track, and finally overtook and grabbed him. — In his dying moments he looked up and saw the cat in the top of a tree, safe from harm. “Your one trick is worth more than my whole bagful,” sighed he, and expired. Many farmers are situated pretty much like the fox in the fable. They have a whole bagful of tricks by which they hope to escape the usurer and the sheriff. They raise a little wheat, and a little oats, a few potatoes, a little hops, some berries, a few hogs, or a cow, a horse, etc, things which often cost them one dollar and a quarter. for every dollar they get for them. They try. one trick after another, or two or three at a time, changing from one thing to another; and the harder they try, the harder they find themselves pressed, and at last—pity ’tis, ‘tis true—in only too many cases they meet a fate somewhat like the fox’s. © The whole bagful of ordinary tricks does not save them; but the one special cat’s trick of climbing up to the top of the tree or ladder will never fail to give a way of escape. To rise above the heads of the crowd— that is the trick -worth knowing. Learn the one trick well, and you'll be safe. What I wish to do in this little work, is to tell of a genuine cat’s trick which I have recently discovered— the trick of climbing up to the top in onion culture. To grow larger and better bulbs, and more bushels on a given area, than anybody else, has always been my aim as an onion grower. Yet it would be a rash move for me to defy the competition of growers anywhere who have learned and adopted my methods. This is a case THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES XX1 where the scholar may easily get bigger than his teacher. _ The new trick or “secret” in onion growing elimi- nates almost every element of uncertainty from the whole business, and gives to even the novice such ad- vantages that experienced growers, and may they live in the favored climate of California, would not stand the ghost of a chance in competition against him for the best crop, so long as they practice only the ordinary old method. It’s mere child’s play for me, or anybody that fol- lows my new plan, to grow twice as many onions on an acre as professional growers do under the old method, and to send bulbs to market over which the commis- sion merchants, and the storekeepers, and consumers themselves, can grow enthusiastic; bulbs, too, which are readily selling for seventy-five cents a bushel, when ordinary onions bring fifty cents. If I had been shrewd enough to keep the matter to myself, and work it for all.it is worth, I might make a nice round sum of money by a discretion which, as usual, is the better part of valor. But it isn’t my nature. I have to give the whole thing away, and teach my would-be competitors the ways in which they, if their soil conditions are more favorable than mine, can easily beat me. So I shall at least not be open to the charge of taking an unfair advantage over them. But, if I cannot be the best of all growers, I will at least try * * - * = The best of all teachers to be. It may be of interest to some of the readers to learn the history of the new onion culture. It was in 1888 when a new variety of the large “Spanish” type of XXil THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES onions was introduced under the name of “Prizetaker.” At that time I had the advantage of the use of as fine onion land as the sun ever shone upon, a fairly fertile soil in Monmouth county, New Jersey. I always made it a practice to test all promising novelties. The Prizetaker onion was one of them. It was one of the comparatively few novelties which have lasting value. It was above all others the one which made the testing of novelties so profitable. I could better have afforded to pay $500 or even $1000 for this test of the Prize- taker onion, than miss the chance to invent “the new onion culture.’ This is mentioned, to prove, en passant, the practical value of novelty tests in general. In short, even the first test of the Prizetaker onion, although grown in the old way, by sowing seed in open ground in early spring, resulted eminently satis- factorily. In the fall of that year I had the prettiest, most perfect onions, of reasonably large size, imag- inable, and I became so enthusiastic over this novelty, that I then described the new variety in agricultural papers as “the king of all onions.” Even the next year, in 1889, seed could only be obtained in very small quantities, and this at high prices. In order to make every seed count, and know- ing how easily onions can be transplanted, I sowed the seed in hotbed in March, and transplanted to oper ground early in May. The results were again so gratifying, the bulbs so large and attractive, and their quality so much admired by all who had a chance to test them, that acquaintances and neighbors were infected with my enthusiasm about the new onion and the new way of growing it. Among them was a lad of fifteen or sixteen summers, with the same yearning for pocket money which we expect to be the natural inheritance of all other boys. The ap- parent ease with which these large and salable bulbs THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES XX111 were produced, appealed with tempting and irresist- ible force to the lad’s mind. Finally he came to me © with a proposition. He must try to grow a larger patch for himself. There is no surer way to interest a boy in a certain task, and start him in the right way and in the habit of doing good work, than by letting him know he is to receive a share, or possibly the whole of the proceeds from his own efforts. There is nothing that will dis- courage a boy more quickly than lack of good faith on the parent’s side. Don’t make it the boy’s calf and the father’s cow. A prominent seedsman that spring offered a prize of $50 for the best crop grown from one ounce of Prizetaker seed. That was an extra inducement, so the lad got the ounce of seed and sowed it in coldframe early in April, transplanted the seedlings to open eround in May, and raised a crop amounting to a plump ton of nice onions which might have taken the prize for largest yield but for the competition by growers in California. As it was, the chief purpose was accomplished, namely to put a good lot of pocket money into the lad’s possession. It is safe to promise similar results to any boy for similar efforts. The experience of these three seasons had now firmly and permanently established the practice of growing the onions of the Spanish type by the new or transplanting method. It now only remained to im- prove and systematize this new way, and to bring it before the public for more or less general adoption. The first edition of The New Onion Culture came out in the spring of 1891, and made considerable stir among American gardeners. Ever since that time my efforts for the further improvement and simplification of the new method have been continued, apparently with good success. The pages of the little book now XXIV THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES before the reader, which is an entirely new work, give evidence of the progress that has been made, and con- tain all the information about the new plan now available. I claim some credit for the discovery of this novel method. Still I admit I am not the first person who transplants onions. On a small scale, specimens have been grown in England ina similar way for exhibition ; various growers have for generations employed the transplanting process for filling out gaps in their onion rows; and others have practiced a plan almost idegtical with mine in growing early onions for bunching. But to apply the principle to field culture, to reduce the crude plan to a system, and to practice, advocate and teach it in advance of all others—that, I claim, is my merit. Professor W. J. Green, of the Ohio experiment station, has worked out this same problem, simul- taneously with me, but entirely independently. Nei- ther of us knew that the other was following the same track. The first, though brief, description of the novel method appeared in How to Make the Garden Pay, written by me in autumn, 1889, and published at the beginning of 1890. Professor Green, soon after, gave his version of the new onion culture in a bulletin issued by the Ohio experiment station, and since then the new method has been the subject of innumerable newspaper articles, notices in bulletins and in agricul- tural books. In my attempts to reach a maximum crop, I have often met difficulties which many other growers will not have to face. For a long time the privilege of selecting ideal conditions of soil and locality for my operations had been withheld from me, and I have had to make the best of circumstances and surround- ings in which I happened to be placed by accident or THE WHYS AND WHEREFCRES XXV otherwise. Yet adverse circumstances have not been able to discourage me, and there is no need of anybody giving up in despair merely because the conditions at his disposal are not the most favorable. By discreet management, one can do pretty well even if things do not happen to be just as one would like to have them. It is perfectly feasible, perfectly practicable, to grow onions by this new plan even on rented land. Yet I believe I would rather live in a hut, surrounded by a few acres of land, all my own, and be able to say, “Ty suis, Jy reste’ (here I am and here I stay) than live ina rented palace. No matter how poor or defect- ive the land, by a little effort here and there, and by little additions now and then, the land can be brought up to the highest state of fertility and cultivation in a few years, and the humble house can gradually be transformed into an earthly paradise, and all this with- out much actual expense, or conscious effort. This course surely will prove more gratifying than to oper- ate on rented land, to make improvements from year to year, and after a short period of occupancy turn the whole over to somebody else, and let others enjoy the benefits from the former occupants’ labors and pains- taking. But in whatever situation in this respect you may find yourself, do as I always have tried to do, namely, make the most of your opportunities, Have I any doubt that Prizetaker and Gibraltar onions may be grown in this way by one, two, three or four acres with a profit? No, not the least. But this book is not written for the purpose of getting the reader wild on the subject, and into trouble. It is written primarily for the purpose of inducing you to make some careful trials of the new onion culture, operating at first on a small fraction of an acre of care- fully selectec land, to enable you to learn not only how to grow the onions, but also how to exchange them for XXV1 THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES cash after they are grown. Then my responsibility ceases. If you then conclude to grow these onions by the acre or acres, you do it at your own risk and pre- sumably with full knowledge of what you are doing. I had still another object in view in writing this onion story. What was done by the lad already men- tioned, in this case, can be done by any wide-awake youngster of ordinary intelligence. The new onion culture points out or opens an easy way to him of earn- ing a little pocket money of his own, and of growing a crop of which he may be proud, and which will take the prize at horticultural fairs, securing a little addi- . tional reward, notwithstanding the competition of the old experienced onion grower who works only on the old plan. And what a chance for horticultural schooling and training this affords besides! Can there be a better opportunity for awakening your boy’s interest in horti- cultural matters and making him study up horticultural problems for himself, than by putting a copy of this book, and an ounce or two of Prizetaker or Gibraltar onion seed into his hands, and a few square rods of good land at his disposal for a start, and then tell him: “Go ahead and see what you can do.” THE NEW ONION CULTURE CHAPTER’ .1 Well Begun—Half Done HOW THE PLANTS ARE GROWN Our aim always is and must be for a prize crop— for specimens so large and fine that we can expect the first prize at any fair, and are sure of top prices in any market. In this an early start is the chief condition of full success. Without it the undertaking is not zell begun; with it, it is really more than half done. This includes all reasonable care in procuring the needed supply of seed in good time. We try to begin sowing seed just as soon after January first as we can get a spot for it in the greenhouse or a hotbed. I usually have the best success from plants started along in Jan- uary or not later than early in February. Yet I have grown fine crops from seed sown as late as first week in April. It depends somewhat on the season, but the earlier sowings ordinarily will give the best crops. Some of my onion growing friends grow their own Prizetaker onion seed, which is not a particularly difficult matter, and insures the possession of the seed whenever they wish to sow it. I frequently have found difficulty in securing seed, especially of the 2 THE NEW ONION CULTURE Gibraltar onion, early enough for sowing in the green- house when I most desired to sow, namely in January. Sound, medium-sized Prizetakers are easily kept over winter, and may be planted out about September first or next spring, in furrows six inches deep and five or six inches apart, in soil of medium fertility for seed production. When most of the seeds in a head are ripe, the head is cut off and put away in a dry and airy spot, to dry, and the seed then thrashed out atsu properly cleaned. Fig 3—YELLOW PRIZETAKER ONION When we depend on the seedsman for our supply, however, the order must be given in good season so that the seeds will be on hand when needed. Only two varieties come in consideration with me, the Yellow Prizetaker (Fig 3) and the Gibraltar onions. At pres- ent there is little demand for red onions of any kind, and for the pink (or red) Prizetaker no more than for Wethersfield or Red Globe. The yellow sorts are the HOW THE PLANTS ARE GROWN 3 ones that are wanted. For experiment you may plant any other sort or sorts that you care about. In a small way, plants may be raised in boxes (so- called flats) placed in a kitchen window. A flat ten by eighteen inches will give plants enough for a full family supply of fine onions. Such a box should be about four inches deep, and be filled with very rich, clean soil, or with rich compost covered about an inch deep with clean sand. Plants raised in flat, ready for transplanting, are seen in Fig 4. > SS SE eee —$<$<——_ Fig 4—PLANTS READY FOR TRANSPLANTING The great majority of gardeners have no green- house facilities. They must make use of hotbeds. For operations during February or March, at least in a northern climate, cold frames will not answer; nor will muslin covering. Common hotbed sash is the neces- sary thing to cover hotbeds at this time. There are two ways of constructing a hotbed; one by digging a pit and filling this with a two-foot layer of fresh and fermenting horse manure, as shown in Fig 5; another by piling this manure layer directly upon the ground, a frame corresponding with the size and desired number of hotbed sashes to be placed in « 4 THE NEW ONION CULTURE either case upon the manure, and then filled with pre- pared “hotbed” soil, as shown in Fig 6. It is only for a southern location, or for very late planting at the North, that an ordinary cold frame may be made to answer. ‘This is a simple box of boards or planks, slanting from the rear, where it is about twelve inches high, to front, where it is only six to eight inches high. This box is set directly upon the ground in some well-drained and well-protected sunny spot, facing south or southeast. It is then filled with sith UAUE situs bile Nie fr Joh ul GY YYYW) 4 Lilt ile : 1 YW fff YU YT Por. Nt : yy iWieatdy st Sucitiat Fig 5—HOTBED IN SUNKEN PIT a mixture of good turfy loam, sand, and a little fine old compost to about four inches from the top. Ordi- nary rich garden soil, freed from stones and rubbish by sifting, and further enriched with fine old compost, well mixed and sifted together, will also answer every purpose. The surface is made fine and smooth with a steel rake, and marked off with straight furrows from front to rear. They are easily drawn across with the handle of the rake, or with a little stick, or even the finger, and should be about an inch deep, and about one and a half inches apart, or as close as they can be made conveniently. HOTBEDS 5 I sow about one and a half ounces of seed on the space covered by a single sash frame, which is usually three feet by six or nearly that, and expect from it from 5000 to 8000 plants. To grow the 120,000 plants required for a one-acre patch would therefore call for the use of a frame of not less than nearly twenty sashes. The seed is to be evenly scattered into the furrows, and the latter carefully filled in again with the hand. The soil is then well firmed by pressing a piece of board or block of wood down upon it. The sash or sashes are then put on, and the bed left pretty much See Y Wl At WAC IW (lay Mere Vath Y YY YY PL? EP —L- ~ raed, Fig 6—HOTBED ON LEVEL GROUND to itself, except giving air on fine days, and an occa- sional thorough watering when the soil seems to become very dry. In eight weeks, more or less, the plants will be ready for transfer to open ground. Personally, I am getting to be more and more in favor of greenhouses for growing plants of any kind, and of onion plants in particular. We have to start onion plants early—earlier, really, than it is conven- ient to make and operate hotbeds, unless the latter are heated by an ordinary flue, or, still better, by the waste steam of factories. A so-called fire hotbed (one heated by a flue) is a rather simple affair, and easily and cheaply put up ’ : 6 THE NEW ONION CULTURE when you have the needed sashes at command. Select a well-drained and well-protected spot for the bed. If possible, it should slightly slope to north or south. Dig a pit at lowest end for a simple furnace, and with a few firebrick, some grate bars, and an iron door, build a fireplace. The flue should run under the center of the bed, ending in a chimney at the upper end. The hotbed itself is a simple frame, with a scantling as a ridgepole, say two feet above the ground, and a line of ten or twelve-inch plank on each side. The two rows of sashes, resting on light rafters, and meeting over the ridgepole, form a kind of a gable roof over the bed. This arrangement, of course, is simply a modified hotbed. The operator has to get at his work in open air, by raising or removing sashes, as in ordinary hot- beds. Still he has this advantage, that he can control the bottom heat. Whenever he gets ready, and no matter how hard the ground may be frozen, he can start up his fire, and soon get the bed in shape for planting. If you have an opportunity to use waste steam, you should consider yourself especially for- tunate. You may be able to conduct it into lines of two-inch tiles laid right under the frames, and thus secure a reliable and controllable medium of heating your plant beds at smallest expense. It is a chance too good to be neglected. But there is nothing to hinder you from utilizing this same waste steam in greenhouse heating; and if you have the sashes anyway, you can put one up quite cheaply. In the absence of waste steam, a simple flue might be made to answer. The illustration will give you an idea of the construction of building. Put up a simple frame, three-quarters span, and board up at the sides and back. Better have these walls double, and well lined with paper, or the space filled with dry FORCENG .PITS:.~. 7 sawdust. Three rows of ordinary hotbed sashes form the roof. The flue is situated as shown in Fig. 7, and heated from a fireplace constructed as described for the fire hotbed. There is no need of going further into the details. I will only call attention to some of the advantages of this plan. In the first place, there is next to no money outlay required for it. The few boards and scantling needed for the frame can be found on almost any place, or can be had for little money. Anybody of ordinary intelligence and mechanical skill can put up the frame. Yf Q MLE Ue laea CeO SCALE OP FEET’. j AY ee TES ear OEY eo a RT EE oe ee De aes 4s BG SA 1D b Fig 7—FORCING PIT, COVERED WITH HOTBED SASHES. A few of the sashes can be hinged, to serve for venti- lation. You can do all the work of running this half- and-half arrangement under shelter and with comfort. ‘The flue being on one side gives a chance to raise all the different vegetable plants. The high bed furthest back, over the flue, will be the warmest. Here you can start tomato, pepper and egg plants, etc, or use it for forcing cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. The next bed, in the center, which is somewhat cooler, may be used for tomato, pepper, early cabbage and similar plants after they are well started, also for forcing lettuce, radishes, etc. The bed on the ground level is the coolest and just right for growing onion plants. 8 THE NEW ONION CULTURE A building of this kind is much better and handier —and cheaper in the end, because more satisfactory and more prolific of results—than ordinary hotbeds. If you are not afraid to invest an extra one hundred dollars or so, better put in a hot water heater, with the necessary pipes. The house will be managed with one-half the labor, and double the satisfaction. A neat little greenhouse well suited to the needs of the small grower and amateur, is shown in Figs 8 and g. It is a double-span house, a little more costly than the other, but extremely convenient, and fit for raising gj °. Fig 8—SMALL GREENHOUSE—ELEVATION ' any kind of vegetable or flower plants, or forcing any kind of ordinary vegetable. The pit for the heater is dug at the north end of one of the spans. If I build another, however, I should have only one span of double the length. Many other styles of greenhouses might be men- tioned. Some growers who have a lot of hotbed sash available for the purpose will wish to put up a cheap structure and utilize their stock of sashes for the roof. A house of this kind does not cost much, and with a little ingenuity and good management may be made to answer any purpose of an onion plant nursery. It should be remembered that onion plants are quite SMALL GREENHOUSES 9 hardy. They are not injured by a light frost, nor by extremes of temperature or sudden changes, nor by a direct transfer from greenhouse to open air conditions without previous hardening off. It is true, however, that we can force more rapid growth at a compara- tively high temperature, ranging say between sixty and ninety or more degrees Fahrenheit, than in a much lower one. One of my friends, near a neighboring city, hie has grown several acres of Prizetakers on the new plan yearly for several years, has taken another course to secure his hundreds of thousands of plants. In his vicinity lives a party who makes a business of growing Fig Q—SMALL GREENHOUSE—CROSS SECTION anrually a million or two of tomato plants under con- tract for some large canning houses which supply the plants to their tomato growers. Some of the green- houses in which these plants are grown usually stand empty until nearly the time that onions can be taken off the benches and set in open ground. A crop of onion plants may ‘here be produced just as well as not, and with but slight additional expense. So my friend contracts for his plants with these tomato plant grow- ers with profit to both parties in the transaction. In my own little greenhouse I have for many years done exactly as these professional plant growers do, namely, have grown my onion plants during the win- 10 THE NEW ONION CULTURE ter; and when the benches were cleared from them in April, filled the vacant spaces up with tomato, egg and pepper plants just as fast as there was a chance. Thus I make the best use of my available bench room. Often there is considerable call for Prizetaker onion plants in early spring, and even up to June. The price usually asked for them ranges from fifty cents to one dollar per thousand plants, and I am sure that they can be grown at that figure at a good profit where greenhouses are available, and possibly stand idle anywhere during a part of that time. In growing onion seedlings under glass I have had to fight only one single enemy—and that is the. damping-off fungus. I have at times lost a consider- able portion of my plants from this cause. The stem appears to dwindle away near, usually just below, the surface of the ground, and the top falls over and dries away. The infection undoubtedly comes from the soil. If we use new soil, or any soil that is free from the fungus, the plants will remain healthy. Watering the soil freely with a solution of copper sulphate, a pound to two hundred gallons of water, has seemed to prevent the loss of plants from this cause. An excessively high temperature and a close, moist atmosphere should be avoided, and the surface of the bed should never be allowed to become dust dry. To provide for possible loss caused by the disease, however, I practice and advise sowing seed rather thickly as already stated (not less than one and one-half ounces to the space covered by an ordinary hotbed sash). It is better to be compelled to thin plants where too thick, than to have large vacant spots in the bed. It is possible, however, to prepare the seed bed in such a manner that the fungus is entirely kept out. For instance, I have used clear, sharp sand brought fresh from the bank of the river, sowed the seed in bane ee PREPARING THE SEED BED II this, and then fed the plants entirely on liquid manure. I have a cistern under one corner of the barn. The rain water washes a good deal of pigeon manure off the roof into this cistern. Then I add chemical ferti- lizers, especially acid phosphate, muriate of potash and a little nitrate of soda or potash, and find that by be *. = or ; SER Of. we SBE aim 5 HN\\: se ATS SS SVIINE AK Pals igh ee Hf ee SACLE wiz : CG; Z 7 2S 3 5 2 BEINN EES vw," “9, Neen oti a a YG Lp RAZ CS fl Cape A ze os g Ships , Fig IO—A WELL-PREPARED SEED BED watering the onion beds copiously with this liquid, I can force a very rapid growth in my seedlings. Another safe plan is to fill the seed bed, bench, frame or box pretty well up with good old compost, or very rich soil well pressed down, and on top of this ‘to place a layer, an inch or inch and a half deep, of clear, sharp river sand. The seed is sown into this sand. The roots of the seedlings will soon get down 12 THE NEW ONION CULTURE into the rich feeding grounds under the sand, and produce a wonderfully thrifty and healthy growth, as seen in Fig Io. A further advantage of this method is that but few weeds come up among the onion plants. If weeds appear, pull them up by hand. Where plants stand overcrowded in the rows, thin, even severely, where needed. The bed will require frequent and copious watering. When the plants are making good growth, during latter part of February and especially in the sunshiny days of March, I give my onion seedlings their regular daily soaking. When standing as thickly in the beds as I want them they are also sure to get top-heavy and will need repeated and severe clipping. I usually cut them back with a pair of common sheep shears, removing each time nearly the full upper half (in length) of the plant. Our aim is to get seedlings the bulb of which, just above the roots, is between one-eighth and three- sixteenths of an inch in diameter (if of nearly pencil thickness, all the better), and this by the time that the open ground is ready to receive them. CHAPTER: i As You Make Your Bed, So Yow ll Lie WHAT SOIL TO SELECT, HOW TO MANURE AND PREPARE IT “What spot would you advise me to select for my onion patch?” The inquirer had told me that he had a piece of good loam, not excessively fertile, ‘tis true, but having been cropped with carrots and beets the year before, consequently quite clean, and in fair tilth, and of course, well underdrained. “That is the exact spot you want,” said I. “Why not plant it on that deep, rich muck?” came the next query. “Tt is decidedly too loose and moist. The fine Gibraltars and Prizetakers might all take a notion to grow up thick-necked—romps, scallions, and worthless for sale or keep. By all means take loam, sandy pre- ferred, and if possible with good natural drainage, but certainly not without thorough diainage of some kind. Water should never stand on the surface of an onion patch even for a single day.” On the whole, however, I do not object to well- drained, deep, rich muck. I myself have grown ex- cellent crops, in the old way, on such soil, and once I went through a several-acre patch in Mt Morris, N Y—soil being muck with a little sand mixed in, and the land arranged for sub-irrigation—which had an enormous crop of Yellow Danvers upon it, un- doubtedly more than 1000 bushels per acre. It will 14 THE NEW ONION CULTURE be hard to find better onion soil than a well-drained, well-subdued sandy muck. With good plants, and an early start, I would not hesitate to set Prizetakers or Gibraltars on such well- drained muck land. Small, poorly-grown plants, set late in the season on moist muck soil that is exces- sively rich in nitrogen and less abundantly supplied with mineral plant foods, are liable, especially in a wet season, to give you thick-necked, worthless onions, and plants rather than bulbs. Sand and sandy loam, however, favor this undesirable development much less than other soils. ren OOOO WEY), AM .@ WOK Wy, Wy Uns iY U4) Fig II—A PERFECT CROP OF GIBRALTAR ONIONS I wish to call especial attention to this fact, that wherever plants of nearly pencil thickness were set reasonably early in the season, the onions were large, uniform and fine, without break in the row, and the yield at a high acre rate. One of the finest crops of perfect bulbs—of Gibraltars, Yellow and Pink Prize- takers—that I ever grew, I secured last year on a clay loam of only fair fertility, but having good drainage. The season was excessively wet, especially in its earlier part, and reports received by me showed that many patches of onions of this type, all over the country, produced little else but scallions. My patch had re- ceived only a light dressing of old stable manure, but a good dose of muriate of potash and acid phosphate, WHAT SOIL TO SELECT 15 at the rate of several hundred pounds each per acre, applied broadcast just before the last harrowing. Such an application seems always safe, in fact safer than the use of excessive quantities of organic and nitrog- enous manures, except on sandy soils. Stimulated by the continuous and excessive rain- fall of the earlier part of the season, the onion plants showed some tendency to produce thick necks, and a continuation of these abnormal conditions might have spoiled the patch. But the rains finally ceased, recur- ring only at reasonable intervals and just sufficiently ) "i | iy » ih ; | | } iH AW Ad. hf ie W,*Yyi; Wm L Wy \\ Ii YY, "yp Yj G 4 (7 Fig 1I2—ROW OF SCALLIONS to provide a fair supply of moisture for healthy growth. The outcome was a crop of onions which as an average appeared as seen in Fig II in comparison with scallions, Fig 12, the single specimens weighing from three-fourths to one and one-half pounds apiece. The soil must be free from stones and coarse gravel, and rubbish of any kind, and as near as pos- sible, also, from weed seeds. A new clover sod that will pulverize nicely will do first rate; but if the sod is old and tough, it would hardly be suitable for our purpose shortly after being broken. A crop of pota- toes, corn, beets, carrots, cabbages, etc, will get such a sod land in admirable shape for a succeeding crop of onions. 16 THE NEW ONION CULTURE Whatever the soil, and in whatever condition, the leavings of the preceding crop, coarse weed stalks, etc, should be removed with great care before the plow is struck in. All such rubbish interferes in a very inconvenient manner with after-cultivation, and any neglect in the proper preparation of the soil will be greatly regretted later in the season. - This disposes of the problem what soil to select for the onion crop. Now what about manure? Some suggestions have already been given. I have usually recommended greatest liberality in the use of all sorts of manurial substances. Fig 13—ONIONS IN THE NEW STRAWBERRY BED “Put it on thick” is still my advice when we have plenty of any kind of good compost that is reasonably free from weed seeds, and the soil is of a rather sandy nature. But if the latter is strong loam and very rich already, or a loose rich muck, I feel that light dress- ings of organic manures will do well enough, and may be safer, the larger proportion of the plant foods to be given in the form of standard chemicals, especially plain superphosphate (such as dissolved South Carolina rock) and muriate of potash, up to 500 pounds per acre of the former and 200 or 250 pounds of the latter, and an occasional light dressing, say 100 pounds, of nitrate of soda if the plants seem to need it, that is, WHAT MANURE TO. USE £7 if they fail to make a thrifty succulent growth: These applications of chemical manures, especially phosphate and potash, I believe are always safe and will seldom fail to show good results. Yet I do not wish to be understood as asserting that good onion crops cannot be grown without them. I have seen and grown ex- cellent crops of fine solid bulbs on good soil manured only with common barnyard or stockyard manure. All sorts of domestic manures come acceptable for onion growing—horse manure, cow manure, hog Fig 1I4—DISK HARROW OR PULVERIZER manure, sheep manure, poultry manure—or all sorts of mixtures and composts, the finer the better. Poultry manure is most excellent for onions, and there is no need of being afraid of it. My way of managing it is to scatter some dry soil, muck or sifted coal ashes under the perches from time to time. Thus I obtain a fine, dry, rich compost, and I would not hesitate to put this inch-deep all over the ground if I could only get enough of it for such a dressing. It brings the onions every time. I usually apply it after the ground is plowed in spring, mixing it with the surface soil by thorough harrowing. Besides these manures I would use everything else 18 THE NEW ONION CULTURE I could get hold of in the shape of fertilizing ma- terials, such as wood ashes, leached and unleached, etc; but I should not use raw manure, and none not reasonably free from weed seeds, as I have already stated. For house use, and especially to secure a supply of fine bulbs for the table during midsummer, I have sometimes planted a lot of onion seedlings in the new strawberry patch, in the manner illustrated in Fig 13. I usually plant my strawberries rather farther apart than most people. I lay off the rows four feet apart, and set the plants three feet apart, and for such Fig I5—ACME HARROW inveterate plant-makers at Michel’s Early perhaps even four feet apart in the rows. This leaves plenty of vacant space between the plants, which may be utilized to good advantage by setting half a dozen or a dozen of onion plants between each two strawberry plants in the row. Of course these onion plants are pulled up early, sometimes even for green onions, and in most cases before the tops have entirely died down, so as to make room for the strawberry runners, which in the latter part of the season try to occupy the entire space in the rows. But I have grown as large and solid onions in this manner, and this without extra fussing and with less painstaking than in the regular onion patch. HOW TO. FIT THE -LAND 19 HOW TO FIT THE LAND FOR THE ONION CROP If at all practicable, I invariably try to plow the land deeply and thoroughly during the fall previous, leaving it in the rough and exposed to the benevolent action of the weather, especially repeated freezing and thawing. Fine manure in the desired quantity may be applied any time during the winter or early spring directly upon the plowed surface, or upon the snow covering it. While spring plowing may not be required on mucky or loose loamy soils, I would not omit it if the soil is packed hard by winter rains and snows, or if — CROP 45 I find the demand for them, however, more brisk earlier in the season. Fig 37—A BUNCH OF PRIZETAKER ONIONS The Prizetaker onion is a much better keeper. I want a portion of my onions to be of this sort, for holding until the increased demand later in the winter or toward spring. It is then, usually, when our 46 THE NEW ‘ONION CULTURE grocers ask five or more cents a pound for the imported Spanish bulb. I can see no reason why we cannot meet the demand for a sweet onion at this time, or at any other, with our domestic bulbs, which are at least as good in every way as, and possibly better in some respects than, the foreign importation. If it is only a foolish notion that got into the handlers or ‘consumers of sweet onions that makes them consider the imported Spanish article superior to our own production, it only remains for us to teach them better things and the truth in the matter. The stores in my own vicinity sell very few im- ported Spanish bulbs after I begin to supply home grown Gibraltars and Prizetakers to them and to consumers. Whoever once buys and tries our own, becomes at once a convert to the principle of patron- izing the home trade, not for sentimental or patriotic reasons, but for the sake of the better product and the better bargain, and for the recognized superiority of the home-grown bulbs. People who have proper onion storage facilities will find no difficulty in keeping the Prizetaker sound and perfect until spring, and in find- ing quick sale for it at a good price. A few fine spec- imens for home use may be kept for a long period in perfect condition by being tied and hung up in a frost-proof garret, as shown in Fig 37. Years ago I hit upon the plan of crating up the choicest bulbs in the same way as the imported article, thus competing with the foreign product in our city and town markets. This is now proving quite a profit- able method of marketing the bulbs of the crop. The crate shown in Fig 38 is similar to the one in which the imported Spanish onions are put up. End and middle pieces are seven inches wide and nineteen and one-half inches long. The slats which form the sides, as shown, are nineteen and one-half inches long —_. + SELLING THE CROP 47 and two inches wide, and there are sixteen of them required for each crate. The crates will cost about ten to twelve cents apiece. Possibly, by substituting split stuff, such as the orange growers use for their Fig 38—PRIZETAKER ONIONS CRATED FOR MARKET orange boxes, instead of sawed slats, the cost per piece could be reduced to below ten cents. I often put bulbs in these crates that I would not dare to ship in barrels. Sometimes we have large fine bulbs that are imperfectly capped over, and there- fore not fit for long keeping. It would not be safe or good policy to put them up in bulk, and under ordinary , 48 THE NEW ONION CULTURE circumstances they would represent just so much waste, or at best, we might be able to sell them as “seconds ’ for a reduced price to somebody who would want them for immediate culinary use. Such bulbs will often answer very well for mixing with others in the fancy crates, as they are usually sold and used without much delay, and as dealers who handle imported Spanish onions are used to just that kind of imperfect bulbs, and to their deterioration and decay when kept for some little time. To give an idea of the size of these crated Prize- takers, will state that the number of specimens con- tained in each crate ranged from fifty to sixty, only in rare cases reaching the latter figure. The large speci- mens on the table in front of the crate weighed about one and one-fourth pounds apiece. A foot rule ap- pears lying across the two at the right to show their diameter. In the following I give the experience of my friend, J. S. Woodward, of Lockport, who has grown Prizetakers quite extensively for a number of years. The soil on which they were planted was a rich, sandy muck, and his crops were immense. Like me, he had crates made in imitation of the imported Spanish onion packages, and of the dimensions already given. A crate of this kind holds something less than a bushel of onions, between three and four pecks, or nearly fifty pounds (the weight of a bushel of onions in this state usually being taken as fifty-six pounds). Mr Woodward would send a sample crate of Prize- takers to some reliable commission house each in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, etc, and solicit orders for a carload. Thus he has shipped his crops, in carload lots, to dealers offering him best prices, and he has had no trouble in disposing of his large -bulbs in this way, receiving for them from SELLING THE CROP 49 seventy-five cents to one dollar and thirty-five cents per crate, or an average of close to $100, and thus making the business pay him quite well. There are chances everywhere of selling at least a portion of the crop directly from the field. My emphatic advice is to sell all that can be sold at a fair price. Get rid of the onions, and pocket the money. With the crops of Gibraltars and Prizetakers that I usually raise, I can make more money from them selling at sixty cents a bushel, than I possibly could by growing Danvers, Yellow Globe or any other on the old plan, selling them at one dollar a bushel. It is surely no small job to take care of a crop such as can be grown on a single acre. It’s a big thing. Never lose sight of that fact. I imagine some people will wish to know how onions can be most successfully wintered over. Under some circumstances it may pay well to store and hold them for spring sales. An onion storage house found on the grounds of a grower in Michigan has already been described in a preceding chapter. There is a party over in Canada who grows quite a number of acres of onions every year, and he invariably holds them until spring, and makes money by so doing. Of course, I was anxious to learn how he winters such big crops, and made inquiry. He wrote me as follows: “For the purpose of keeping onions during the winter we have erected two large rooms in the end of our barn, above ground. These rooms are almost frost-proof in the coldest weather; are provided with double windows at each end, and double doors at entrance from driveway on barn floor. All the walls have a dead air space. Building paper is tacked on in the inside of each boarding that forms the hollow space. 50 THE NEW ONION CULTURE “Onions are not put into these rooms in bulk, but in thousands of slatted bushel boxes. The windows are kept constantly open, except in very cold weather. The idea is to put in dry, well cured stock, and place it in such a way that it may always be airing at suitable times, and yet be secure against low degrees © of temperature.” Be sure to bear in mind the following general hints: Never attempt to keep onions that are not capped over perfectly, and not entirely dormant, both at top and root part.': If they are thus perfect, 4 will not be a hard task to keep them over winter, provided you have a dry, cool and airy room, where you can keep them from freezing. Never store them in a large bulk together. Onions will also keep quite well when frozen. Store on the floor of some out- building, say fifteen inches deep, and as far away from the wall. When frozen cover with a two-foot layer of hay; but do not handle them. CHAPTER. oV1it All’s Well That Ends Well ADVANTAGES AND PROFITS OF THE NEW WAY That the new method of onion growing gives us a great increase of crop, besides many other advantages over the old way, is no longer a matter of doubt. The great question now is, whether the new way is also the more profitable one, and if so, how profitable. We have already seen that the transplanting method calls for one and a half to two pounds of seed per acre, while ordinarily not less than six pounds are sown. On the other hand, we have the additional labor of growing plants in frames, which is more than an offset for the saving of seed. The new way requires the considerable and tedious labor of transplanting, an operation which will cost at least twenty-five dollars per acre. On the other hand, we save so much hand labor in thinning and weeding that one might well be considered an offset for the other. On the whole, we have come to the conclusion that the expenses of the crop, up to the time of har- vesting, are very near the same, whether we follow the new or the old method. The chief advantages of the new onion culture, therefore, are clear gain. Among them we have: I. Earlier ripening of the crop. With six weeks to start in sowing, the crop will come to maturity several weeks earlier than it would otherwise. This gives a chance for marketing the earlier sorts much in 52 THE NEW ONION CULTURE advance of competitors who adhere to the old onion culture, as also in clearing the ground for a succeed- ing crop, such as celery, turnips, fall spinach, etc, while the season is made considerably longer for the late Prizetaker, which otherwise has hardly time at the extreme North to come to a full development. 2. A decided improvement of the bulbs in respect to shape and uniformity. 3. Quicker sale and better price, in consequence of the finer appearance of the bulbs. 4. A greatly increased yield, to the extent of doubling that obtained by the ordinary method. 5. The elimination of all uncertainties from the business. Even failure would mean what people now call a “big crop.” Nothing short of hail and flood could prevent a good profit in this new onion culture, if managed with ordinary intelligence and care. It requires particularly suitable or favorable con- ditions, and a considerable amount of skill, to produce a big crop of onions by the older method. Anybody of good common sense, even if of little practical expe- rience or unusual skill, who has a fairly good patch of ground, can, if he wants to, grow a crop of Gibraltars or Prizetakers of which he may be proud. The following is a somewhat rough estimate of the expenses and receipts on the basis of my own experience and surrounding conditions. Supposing that only tooo bushels are grown per acre, we then have the following: BXPENSES OF CROP PER ACRE Raisins the alagts 2 :1.- 36) eh ee ce $20.00 Rentor land,»one acre...) x5 Leste eae eee Se Mamie Oe oii a 28 UE es ies Ree eae 45.00 Superphospliate; A400: poumds) 1200 Yee oe eee: 2.40 Muriate of’ potash, 250. potnds. .vc.i32.).. 208 5.60 ADVANTAGES AND PROFITS 53 Mittate-or sadan 200 -poundsy <7 2.5... vee $4.50 PA peyane AMARILES CLC C's sake i xian dD 2 Bid 2s 2 ee 16.00 Piowine, and Parrowine > ia3!. as ade ve see 4.00 Maire nek oP ge feats' os Shake Raieint aea sykes Seeds eels 2.00 CENT Hol eers Se ao og Sa eho aw ida a 3.50 GUase on SF WEN Lae ei ace ahats 27.00 Cultivation: and: weeding. ).w.20 o..0ies'- bee ek 20.00 Pim tinip VCH BA 2.2 Pai sahs Se) oe sinia (ois ious 3] Lifting the plants............ 2 DET Cae ete ofa a ate ays etre ohn Gl Peime clones neces valstonto lels 2 Level “sround io]... .2-.6- ee oa rimmine the plants. <%-« «1 27 Srinkcenl pits: she ie re mnsrels: lets Ales With) thes Gtbber:,/..< 0s -/elere ers ae Importance of good plants...... TA Soils Ow, tO {ite =. <<.s.6 = 92) Soils. and “manures. .0. 5... e2 = ove 70 Macrosporium ...'.......0.-. 1ot/Southern states, Onions in the..... 105 Maggot .....-eeeee eee eens Bristorage: HOUSES... 22 of. 24. es were 2 Mildew ......-.eseeseeeeees 100|Strawberries and onions........ 18 Smut 2s sceecsceceeeccceeecs 95|Tillage as moisture preserver... 32 ADGA sie « chen ssn, canted xan in ms oe Bole. sAs weed: killer...) 50's 00% =e 33 Vermicularia .......-.....-- 102|Varieties of onions..........--- 75 Irrigation ........ cites cteeee 37| Adriatic Barletta.........-- aa Or Keeping onions during winter... 49| American ........-++++++-++ 77 Manure ........+ee-ee essere ra e7tie American: Pearl... cer « s.cl* » ie 81 PAGTUEMb all istaes axcrovetet etal ovate: ci sse%ete rote Sigs Australian Brown... oo-6 26 79 Barnyard ..... sete eee cece eee Fiit| <<] RRA TS nc ee Srna rE Be Ree COIS 81 Cheniicaleeocre ss orate aioe 17| Beaulieu’s Hardy White...... 85 Hen ........--- betes eee a ai Bermuda Red... 6. 6%. wa wles sive 81 How to prepare it........... APOE aE EO. oo .s\nie ss senna Seale 77 Pint. a cote ntelocercietct ers yene gore oe Hee) aT VERS Us. 1s 5 Ls iele ale ieYaleieterseant Cia Marker, old style.............-. Srl Biatly, OL CAtl 2 c:cnacs-recsloronl toilets 81 Tracing wheel. teeter cece ~< 24) Early Yellow Cracker........ 79 Muck land for onions.........- 14) Early White Queen.......... 82 Nitrogenous commercial fertiliz- Pi SCAMAT vents i toc ois oe ee 76 ee eee =|) “all 0) Nall £22 10) em eI eit Nett ie a 83 Old onion culture, The......... 55) Extra Ba Gly; REG reeberese teeter heh GIG: SIEGES sco ceed gs wee os 62] Foreign varieties...........-- 81 114 INDEX PAGE PAGE Varieties Varieties Giant Gibraltar........+.--22+-0++ Bgl leap eae aualete = eos eae rie A Goldene Seals «Noe ane ie) nig Se ee PRA ROTI he OE 76 Ttalian’: (May izes sees ae oe eee 82) ‘Wethersfield © 222 Poe fore cee 78 iuarge») Méexican:..ossiesjs eases $3) + Wethersfield. Red... eaes 79 Mammoth Pompeii........... Sa) 2 Whites Garganuss.. 2 v0.02 Sv.ccame 83 Minzaialace sit) 5 54 biel eter Sait Whate AGloper i... u..%. seta sicciele 79 iy, Ged hirko) (2: gees PMP corteton nay 75\ White dtalian “Tripoli... 2. se 83 Wie wi OO MCEH ath.s c/o ccc nas nto ences So)“ Wihite ‘Pantusdl..%. tanec ce eee 77 Pearitaesn cece as ee ria hee Sa) > Witte lOtCan yi iac oie ees ate 82 Pink@Prizetaker. os. 20-15 S| eeVVihite se Victorian) 5.0% 20s oeleitele 84 Potatom Onion! inter ee eter 7 Oto NVA egal erga YS aba eras Shs ok Cea 76 Prizetalkcens wictec c\cieke a. otorsene sone Solieey cllow pulubchiencikaceee eee ieee 79 Prizewinner ny - sscls ceseos eet are 81| Yellow Globe Danvers........ a9 Red Mammoth Tripoli........ Si o Yellow (Prizetaker. +}. 23k Se 2 Red is GeCayd ci,tens eee nee 2) Fellow - Rocca ts 4.0.80 s, sates 82 Red@: Victoriay 205 sy. ces tee pier 83) Yellow® jstrasbures-.)-t2n aoe er 79 Rhode: Island Yellow Gracker.@7ollt Zittausesccsepece eee nee eres 80 FROCCA as cine Sada oulee en eee 82|Waste steam in greenhouse heat- Shallots tate ihs.kc sleet 76 LENG s Sale fo Vavralc tate a cvlake tn emarereneeets Silver... King... ../.ciece sea ae cater SsiWieeding: Pesciee caste se 'o/staee ees ere Silvery co Klint see oi eects coe erate PANG tread = roles tahaho, st sl aka aiwtereokate a etepese 35 Silver ~Wihite “Aetna. .oc.. sae Sz Wheel thoes 2 4 0 SS- oe oe ome 22: °2 Southport ‘White Globe....... VOW interine. (Onions). ye. s/o iae 64 STANDARD BOOKS. Forest Planting. By H. Nicuotas JarcHow, LL. D. A treatise on the care of woodlands and the restoration of the denuded timberlands on plains and mountains. 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This booklet is concisely written, well and profusely illus- trated, and should be in the hands of all who expect to grow this drug to supply the export trade, and to add a new and profitable industry to their farms and gardens, without inter- fering with the regular work. New edition. Revised and en- larged. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. Cloth . . 6 $0.50 Truck Farming at the South. By A. Oremirr. A work giving the experience of a suc- cessful grower of vegetables or “garden truck” for northern markets. Essential to anyone who contemplates entering this profitable field of agriculture. Illustrated. 274 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. : : s E ‘ : . - $100 i 0091674808