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ONION-RAISING:

WHAT KINDS TO RAISE, AND THE
WAY TO RAISE THEM.

NINETEENTH EDITION (REVISED).

a
JAMES} Et ere

SEED-GROWER, MARBLEHEAD, MASS.

BOSTON:

RAND AVERY COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1888.

28

3Y |
Care
) 888

Aas 7H G

Copyright by James J. H. Grecory, 1888.

ONION-RAISING.

WHY I WRITE THIS TREATISE.

N common with my fellow-seedsmen, I frequently receive

letters from my farmer-friends, in different parts of the
United States, asking for information on onion-raising. It
is impossible in a letter-sheet to give sufficient minuteness
of detail. I therefore send out this little treatise, in which I
have endeavored to cover very minutely the whole ground
of inquiry. I trust that it will prove acceptable.

SELECTING THE SOIL.

NTIL wirnin the last score of years, onions were an
exception to the general rule, and did better on land
on which they had been raised for successive years,

I once examined an acre of land which had been planted
continuously with onions for three generations, without per-
ceptible decrease in the quantity or quality of the crop.

Of late we find, that, with the cultivation of about half a
dozen years on the same piece of land, come the disease
known as “smut,” or “rust,” or attacks from the onion-
maggot, to such a degree as to make the continuous culti-

4 ONION-RAISING.

vation of the crop on the same piece of land unprofitable ;
and this leads the prudent cultivator to transfer it to some
other portion of his farm.

“ Onions are sometimes raised by ploughing up old pasture-
land in September, thoroughly harrowing it before frost sets
in, and in the spring working in fine manure very thor-
oughly with the harrow and cultivator. The’ result of such
planting is to get a crop very free from weeds, with onions
usually coarse, and more or less of scallions.

Onions can be raised on a variety of soils, but yield the
most satisfactory returns on a sandy loam, a gravelly soil,
or, to state a general rule, on those soils which are light in
structure. As onions are brought on the heavier soils, the
first effect will be a deterioration in their appearance ; the
outer skin of the_yellow varieties losing its fine, clear, trans-
lucent yellow, and becoming thicker, duller, and less attrac-
tive in appearance. On a large, reclaimed, mucky meadow,
located in Chester and Goshen, in Orange County, N.Y., I
have seen over five hundred acres growing on one continu-
ous piece of land, with the exception that here and there a
few acres of potatoes were scattered among them. Intend-
ing to reclaim a meadow of a dozen acres, and bring it into
onions, I made a journey of between two and three hundred
miles, specially to learn what was possible from so extensive
an experience. Two facts covered all there was to be learned :
first, they aimed to keep the water at about two and a half
feet below the surface ; second, they carted on to each acre
of this black, mucky soil one hundred two-horse carloads
of a very fine sandy and gravelly loam, made by the decom-

- position of a slaty rock, and this they spread on the surface,
and aimed in all their cultivation to keep as near there as
possible. If planted on a wet or very heavy soil, the crop

PREPARING THE SOIL. 5

will mature late, if it matures at all, giving a large proportion
of that dread of the onion-grower, scallions, or “scullions,”
as farmers term them, meaning those whose growth runs
mostly to the neck, forming little or no bulb, or bottom.
With plenty of manure, onions will thrive well on soil that
is very gravelly. I have seen very large crops grown on
Marblehead Neck, on land so stony, that, after a rain, on an
area of many square yards, not a particle of soil could be
seen, nothing but small angular fragments of porphyry, with
thrifty onions springing, as it were, out of the very rocks.
Let it be understood, however, that this soil was not of a
leachy nature, but rested on a hard-pan bottom. The area
of land selected should be free of all large stones, as such
interfere seriously with the straightness of the rows, the
planting, hoeing, and general cultivation of so small-sized
a product. Ultimately, good cultivators clear their onion-
grounds of large, loose rocks by blasting or sinking them:
obviously, the sooner this is done the larger are the returns
received from such judicious investments. The land should
be laid out in as nearly a square as practicable, as this facil-
itates estimates of manure, seed, and crops, gives greater
regularity to the work, and economizes in the cultivation
of a crop which requires a great deal of passing over. To
protect the crop from the washing of heavy showers, the
land should be level, or very nearly so, otherwise a rush of
water will bare the roots of some, and heap the earth around
the necks of others, to the injury of each.

PREPARING THE SOIL.

ON’T pLant a weedy svil to onions, or land which
abounds in witch or couch grass, or chickweed; if
you do, you will repent it on your hands and knees all

6 ONION—RAISING.

summer long, for such soil will usually require two more
weedings than that on which weeds have not been allowed
to ripen their seed. To have to keep down witch-grass
with your fingers in an onion-bed, is a miserable business,
tearing up the onions and your patience at the same time:
better delay a year, and meanwhile clear the land thoroughly
by a diligent use of the cultivator and hoe, finishing in the
fall by throwing the land into ridges, that the freezings and
thawings of winter may act destructively on the roots of the
witch-grass. Should any scattered shoot of this grass show
itself in the spring, let the roots be carefully removed with
a fork or spade before the land is ploughed.

It is not always necessary that the land should be turned
over ; take a five or six tined fork, drive it slanting into the
ground, and give a bit of a pry to loosen the hold of the
twitch. Keep rapidly repeating this all over the spot infested
with twitch-grass ; then, dropping the fork, you will find that
all, or nearly all, the long roots will come up easily by gently
pulling with the hand. If any break off, be sure and dig
them out.

When onions are planted on land full of the seed of
weeds, it is well, if the season is an early one, to give suffi-
cient time for the first crop of weed-seed to start before
planting the onions.

In the Eastern States it is found, as a general rule, that
success with the first crop of onions is affected by the crop
which grew in the land the previous year, and that onions
will follow carrots better than any other crop; next to car-
rots, corn and potatoes are ranked as good preparers of the
ground ; while to succeed well with onions where cabbage
or beets were raised the previous year, is comparatively
rare. Cabbage, mangolds, and beets draw heavily on the

THE MANURE. 7

potash in the land: if, therefore, you will give it an extra
feed of this mineral when manuring for onions, by applying
either five hundred pounds of muriate of potash, or eighty
bushels of unleached wood-ashes, you can follow these as
well as any other crop with onions. Were there no other
reason, the clean tilth which carrots insure makes it an ex-
cellent crop to precede onions. In the fertile lands of the
West, the method of procedure is briefly this: Land on
which grows the bush-hazel is selected, if accessible, the
bushes cut down, and the turf surface but little more than
pared in spring with the plough. In this condition it is
usually allowed to remain a season exposed to the drying
effects of the sun, when it is most thoroughly harrowed and
raked, and all the numerous roots and waste are burned, the
land ploughed to a moderate depth, and the seed sown
either broadcast or in drills. Should the early part of the
season prove very wet, the crop sowed broadcast is at times
smothered under a rapid growth of weeds; while with a
favoring season, as high as eight hundred bushels to the
acre have been harvested.

After the harvesting of the crop which is to precede
onions, let the land have a fall-ploughing, and be thrown
up into ridges, which will not only help destroy noxious
weeds and witch-grass, as above stated, but will leave the
land light, in a condition to be worked successfully early in
the spring, —a great desideratum for a crop that usually
requires the entire season to mature it.

THE MANURE.
NIONS require the very best of manure, in the most
tempting condition, and plenty of it at that. Peruvian
guano, fish-guano, pig-manure, barn-manure, night-soil, kelp,

8 ONION-RAISING.

muscle-mud, wood-ashes, and muck, are, either alone or in
compost, all excellent food for the onion. Old ground, to
maintain it in first-rate condition, should receive from eight
to ten cords of manure to the acre ; while new onion-ground,
to get it in first-rate condition, should receive from ten to
twelve cords of manure. When Peruvian guano was held
at about sixty dollars per ton, experienced farmers believed
that no purchased manure paid as well as this on old beds,
provided two applications were made, —one of about five
hundred pounds to the acre, to be raked in at the time of
planting ; and the other, of like amount, to be applied broad-
cast when the onions began to bottom. Those who used
but one application at the time of sowing, were apt to see
surprising effects in a fine growth up to’ the period of half
maturity of the crop, and an equally surprising effect in but
little growth from this time through the remainder of the
season. Those who have used guano freely on their onion-
lands, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, assert that one singular
result is, that, after applying it for three years in succession,
the seed-onions, for the most part, fail to sprout in such soil,
and, when seed is planted, it makes but little growth after
vegetating. Pig-manure is held in high esteem by many
successful growers of onions in Southern New England.
Fish-guano, applied at the rate of a ton to the acre, has
given very fine crops.

In the vicinity of large towns, where night-soil can be
readily obtained, no more efficient manure can be applied
than a compost of this and muck that has been exposed to
a winter’s frost, or good loam, in the proportion of three
parts muck or loam to one part night-soil. If, with this
compost, barn-manure and sea-manure are mixed, so much
the better ; for it is a rule for this as for other crops, that a

THE MANURE. 9

combination of manures in an arithmetical ratio will produce
results approaching a geometrical ratio. To make a com-
post of loam or muck and night-soil, select a spot very near
the piece to be planted, and cover the ground with either to
the depth of a foot or eighteen inches; then raise a bank
of the same material surrounding this floor to the height of
three or four feet, with a thickness of from four to six feet.
The carts containing night-soil are backed up against this
receptacle, and, the door being unscrewed, the contents
shoot out. If barn-manure is used, it usually forms part of
the sides of the receptacle. During the winter the frosts act
on the heap to the further sweetness and disintegrating of it ;
and towards spring the mass is pitched most thoroughly
over, being mixed and made as fine as possible, — sand,
when obtainable, having been either previously, or being
subsequently, liberally mixed with it, which so “cuts” or
separates it that it remains light and fine. After an interval
of about a fortnight, allowing time for fermentation, the heap
is again pitched over for fining and mixing; and, occasion-
ally, three mixings are made. It would be well for tourists
to avoid the onion-districts at this season of the year, as a
little experience will amply satisfy them.

These composts should not be made on the ground where
the onions are to be planted, for neither onions nor any
other crop will grow on such spots the same season.

Muscle-mud, obtained from the seacoast, is rarely used
alone, though large crops are sometimes raised on old onion-
ground by the application of this alone, at the rate of eight
cords to the acre. It appears to give the best results a few
miles inland. The strength, and consequent value, of this
manure varies considerably: and here let me add that the
value of all animal manures will be found to vary greatly ;

10 ONION—-RATSING,

other things being equal, the higher feeding the animal
receives, the better the manure.

Wood-ashes are generally used in connection with other
manures at the rate of about two hundred bushels to the
acre. Wood-ashes should never be combined with other
manures, as it will set the ammonia free, and thus deteriorate
their quality. Use ashes either by scattering it on the sur-
face at the time of planting, or when the crop is about
half grown.

In the vicinity of large towns, of all manures obtained out-
side the barnyard, night-soil is the cheapest. The first farmer
who used it in this locality, comparatively but a few years
ago, was universally jeered at by his comrades; but now
nearly all the various crops raised in the vicinity of the large
towns and cities of the North are fed largely on this manure.

The effect of kelp (by this I mean the sea-manure which
is thrown up by the storms on very bold shores), when used
as the principal manure, is to give a coarse onion and a late
crop, — so late as oftentimes to be in quite a green state at the
close of the season, requiring extra labor and care to get it
in market condition. In seasons of great drought, however,
kelp serves an excellent end, in so retarding the crop that it
is not prematurely ripened. In the excessively dry season of
1864, crops along the sea-coast manured with kelp, in many
instances yielded double those manured with barnyard and
other manures.

The manure is managed most conveniently by dropping it
on the land in quite small heaps, at regular intervals, at con-
venient distance for spreading, which should be done at
‘once. On all land that has not a sharp slope, it is the best
plan to apply stable-manure or wood-ashes in the fall. When
for onions, apply it after ploughing, and work it into the

FERTILIZERS. Il

surface with a harrow. I close this paragraph on manures
by emphasizing the utility of @ chorough fining of it. I find
the Kemp Manure Spreader an excellent means for fining up
the manure, and distributing it evenly.

FERTILIZERS.

bee A FEW YEARS onions have been raised on many

farms, especially in New England, in part or wholly
by the use of fertilizers. These, as a safe rule, should contain
about the same quantity and proportion of phosphoric acid,
ammonia, and potash as exist in the composition of a large
crop of onions. This would require their application in the
order just given in the proportion of five, five and nine ; that
is, with every five pounds of soluble phosphoric acid we
should use five pounds of ammonia, and nine pounds of
potash.

The quantity of the mixture to be applied will vary with
the condition of the soil, but a safe general rule is to use
from a thousand to two thousand pounds to the acre. In
applying this, I find it best to scatter about three-fourths of
it broadcast as soon as the land is ploughed, and harrow it
in, reserving the other quarter to apply just before the crop
begins to bottom, when I scatter it over the surface, and mix
it by going over the ground with the slide-hoe. Mixed fer-
tilizers especially prepared for onions can be purchased from
several reliable firms, such as The Bowker Fertilizer Com-
pany of Boston, or Mapes or Baker Fertilizer Company of
New York.

Some of my neighbors have raised several crops of onions
years in succession on the same piece of ground with suc-
cess, without using fertilizers specially adapted to the crop.
Mr. Ernest Longfellow of Newbury has raised a good crop

12 ONION-RAISING.

for five years by the use annually of from half a ton to 4
ton of those fertilizers, which go under the name ‘of “ phos-
phates,” the analyses of which give about four per cent of
ammonia, three of potash, and seven of phosphoric acid.
Mr. Procter of Beverly has raised his crop for three years in
succession off the same piece of ground by the use of from
one to two hundred bushels of unleached wood-ashes, which
he applies in the fall. His land has considerable of clay in
its composition: that of Mr. Longfellow is somewhat the
same in character. Such examples of success in getting
good crops without the use of fertilizers whose composition
is founded on the analysis of the onion, proves, I believe,
that their soil was already well supplied, either in its natural
state or by the accumulations from former manuring, (for
phosphoric acid and potash in fairly good soils leach out to
but a trifling degree) with what the crop needed in addition
to what the fertilizers supplied.

In my own practice I have raised my crop of from fifteen
to twenty acres annually for the past five years either on fer-
tilizers alone, or by applying half barn-manure and half fer-
tilizers. I consider it a good plan, where manure is used, to
apply it on the surface in the fall, running over once or twice
with the harrow. From a comparison of the crops grown
on the Bermuda Islands, (from whence most of our early
onions are brought) between those that are raised on ma-
nure and those on fertilizers, where the latter has been the
dependence for several years, there appears to be good
ground for the belief that the continual use of fertilizers is
there apt to produce some of the diseases to which the onion
is subject, which will be described farther on. Last season
(1887) a large proportion of the crop in Eastern New Eng-
land was badly injured by the form of blight known as

PLOUGHING AND PREPARING THE LAND. 13

“mildew.” As far as I observed; those crops raised on fer-
tilizers alone appeared to.be more injured than those raised
on barn-manure. For the future, I shall use part barn-
manure and part fertilizers on each of my acres of onions.

PLOUGHING AND PREPARING THE LAND.

ee FARMER who brings up the sub-soil on his onion-bed,

will find he has made a mistake. Onions do not
require deep ploughing: four or five inches is sufficient
depth to insure a good crop. One of the finest pieces I
ever saw was managed by carting on the manure in the fall,
and simply giving it a thorough working into the soil with an
ordinary one-horse cultivator in the spring, after which the
land was raked and planted, no plough or any implement
other than the cultivator having been used. In this instance
the soil was naturally quite light. I have found the wheel-
harrow very useful for this end. In the West, the ground
having been ploughed in the fall, it frequently receives only
a cultivating or harrowing in the spring.

As the great object is to get the land in a thoroughly fine
condition, to facilitate the covering of the seed with fine earth,
and to-leave the land in good working condition for after-
culture, no labor should be spared to attain thisend. On
most soils the ground should be ploughed, cross-ploughed,
and thoroughly cultivated. If, from the backwardness of the
spring and the consequent wet state of the land, the soil
should still be lumpy, it should be thoroughly rolled before
raking for planting, and it may be well to brush-harrow it. In
raking my own beds, I use the Meeker Harrow (see illustra-
tion), which, by going over the ground once each way (the
last going-over should be at right angles with the way the
seed-rows are to run), leaves the bed in as fine a condition

14 ONION-RAISING.

as though it had been raked by hand, with the advantage of
being uniform, which is not apt to be the result when there
are several persons raking. I find by actual trial that the
Meeker Harrow, with a single man, the driver, on a bed six
hundred and forty feet long, can do the work of eighteen
men with hand-rakes. Where the land abounds with stones
as large or larger than half a hen’s egg, this harrow will not
press them far enough into the ground to keep them below

the reach of the slide-hoes. As onions grown from the seed
usually require in the North the whole season to ripen, the
onion-grower breaks ground first of all in his onion-bed,
springing to this as early in the season as is possible to
work the land into fine condition.

THE SEED.

- SOME LOCALITIES three pounds of seed were thought
sufficient for’ an acre; afterward this was increased to
three and a half, and then to four; and now, when raised
for tracing, five and six pounds are sometimes planted. As
a general rule, four pounds will be found sufficient for an
acre ; and, when land is very heavily manured, five pounds
may be planted with profit. Land that is planted to onions
the first time requires more seed than old land. If it is
designed to pull the onions when small for bunching for the

16 ONION-RAISING.

seed that was sown, though sown by farmers who had them-
selves raised it, failed to vegetate.
Nevertheless, some seasons’ seed that is two years old is
more reliable than that one year old. This happens when
the new seed is unusually light, and the old seed was unusu-
ally heavy. My careful test, made in various ways, of the
seed grown by me in 1886, and that raised the past season
(1887), has demonstrated in every instance, under the same
sinking and winnowing, that the old seed is from ten to
twenty per cent better than the new. There are two special
risks incidental to the sinking-test : first, the danger that the
seed will not be thoroughly dried, as onion-seed, when con-
taining sufficient moisture to cause it to sprout if stored in
bulk, appears dry to the eye; again, the vitality of onion-
seed is very apt to be hurt in the drying of it, particularly
so as it is usually deferred until just previous to planting,
when matters are greatly hurried (as the risk of injury
through this process is considered too great to permit it to
be sunk earlier in the season) ; and then it is likely to be
exposed too near the kitchen-stove. The best way to deter-
mine whether or not the sunk seed is thoroughly dry, is to
keep testing a given measure by weighing it: when it ceases
to lose weight, it is dry. The only reliable test for the vital-
ity of any variety of seed is that which includes all the usual
conditions of growth. Testing by planting in a hot-house
or in a box in a common house is not fully reliable, because
the seed are not surrounded by the conditions of natural
growth; they then have a temperature very mild and very
nearly constant, with no excess of moisture or dryness:
whereas the natural condition of vegetation includes the very
varying temperature of early spring, usually a great excess of
moisture and a low degree of heat, all of which causes,

WHAT KINDS OF ONIONS TO PLANT. 17

either single or combined in their effects, draw largely on:
the vital power of the seed. Hence, seed that under the
favoring influences of the hot-house or kitchen may vege-
tate, may not have sufficient vitality to overcome the exces-
sive cold or moisture of the garden. The result, therefore,
of the usual experimental tests can be relied upon as giving
only an approximation to the truth.

Among these approximate tests is the simple one of par-
tially filling a tumbler with cotton-wool, pouring in a little
water, not sufficient to cover the cotton, then sprinkling a
certain number of seed on the cotton, covering it with a
little additional cotton to keep the moisture in. Another
simple test is to sprinkle the seed to be tested on a moist
woollen cloth ; fold the cloth together, and put it in a place
moderately warm. ‘The proportion of seed that is good will
be known by the proportion that sprout. Experienced eyes
can learn something by the appearance and feel of the seed.
Old seed require several days longer to vegetate than new.

WHAT KINDS OF ONIONS TO PLANT.

OREIGN caratocuss describe a score and more varieties

of onion which are raised in Europe ; but, as far as ex-
periments have been made with them in this country, it has
been found that European-grown onion-seed cannot be relied
upon to give as good bulbs as American-grown of the ‘same
varieties ; while many sorts are not adapted to our climate.
A measure of the dubious quality of this foreign seed is well
indicated by the lower price at which it is generally cata-
logued. The past season (1887), I tested on my experi-
mental grounds about all the varieties of onions to ke found
in foreign seed-catalogues. Out of them all I found but two
or three that did not give decidedly more scallions than

18 ONION-—RAISING.

-onions. Even when they catalogued our American varieties,
the crops were miserable ones when compared with home-
grown varieties of the same kind raised side by side with
them.

Of those grown from seed, the Large Red, Yellow, and
White are the three standard varieties in the United States.

The Large Red is commonly known as the Wethersfield
onion, it having been extensively cultivated in that locality
at an early day in onion culture. This is commonly divided
into four varieties ; viz., —

Late Larce Rep (see illustration) is a very lange, thick,
late onion, attaining a diameter of from
three to six inches, and on the fertile
prairies of the West sometimes eight ff
inches.

SECOND Ear ty, which differs only in PN
size and time of ripening, being rather flatter than the large
sort, not so large, and coming to maturity earlier.

The Earty Fiat Rep is still flatter in form, smaller in
size, rather light-colored, and matures earliest of the three
sorts, — as early as the last of July.

There is also a fine GLoBeE variety of Earty RED onion
(see illustration) in cultivation, which comes to maturity
about the same time as the Danvers
Early, is of good size and flavor, and in
color usually of a very bright, handsome
red. The seed of this variety is much
sought after by onion-growers, but is dif-
ficult to procure in a pure state.

There is a very handsome late variety
of onion known as Southport Red Globe, which originated
in Southport, Conn. It is quite late, and therefore not safe
to plant north of Connecticut.

WHAT KINDS OF ONIONS TO PLANT. 19

There are four varieties of the Yellow onion in cultivation,
of which the Yellow Flat, called also Yellow Dutch, and
Strasburg, and in the Eastern States the “ Silverskin,” is the
parent. These varieties are the Common Flat onion, the
Early Cracker onion, the Danvers onion, and the Interme-
diate onion.

The Srraspure (incorrectly called Silverskin in the East-
ern States, a name which properly belongs to the White
Portugal) is not so generally cultivated since the Early
Danvers was introduced, as formerly. It grows to a diame-
ter of about three inches, is compact in its structure, and
of good flavor. It is a good keeper.

The Earty CRACKER (see illustration) is flat in shape,
of a beautiful honey color, quite compact, and oftentimes
hollows a little at the bulb around the
neck. It matures’about a week or ten
days earlier than the Early Danvers, and
in fineness of structure and delicacy of |
flavor is unsurpassed.

This and the Early Flat Red are ex-
cellent varieties for raising where the seasons are short.
These varieties are becoming very popular in Nova Scotia,
and the more northern portions of the United States. They
grow to a diameter of from two and a half to four inches.

The Earty Rounp Danvers YELLOW onion was origi-
nated by Mr. Daniel Buxton and brother of South Dan-
vers, by careful selections of the roundest and earliest
specimens from the Strasburg onion. The degree of thick-
ness to which this onion grows, depends not only on a
good strain of seed, but also on the quantity of manure
used: the higher the manuting, the thicker or rounder the
onion grows. The Danvers is an early onion, maturing

20 ONION-RAISING.

within about a week or ten days of the Early Red and
Cracker onions. It is very prolific, and, like the Red Globe
onion, gives larger crops by about one-third than the flat
varieties. When each are seen just before pulling, the differ-
ence in the bulk of the crop is not very apparent ; but when
measured, the globular form of the Danvers “tells.” When
overgrown by too thin planting of seed, this onion is at
times rather coarse in structure; but ordinarily it is very
compact, fine of structure, heavy, and a good keeper.
When well ripened, I find it keeps equally well under the
same circumstances as the Strasburg. The earliness of
the Danvers is a great gain in short seasons, or very wet
ones ; and as this onion begins to form its bulb quite early
in its growth (‘bottoms down” is the farmer’s phrase), it
presents marked advantages over the Strasburg for early mar-
keting. Inthe Boston market the Danvers sells for some-
what more a barrelthan the Red. In the South and West the
Red varieties are generally preferred.

Having had considerable experience in selecting onions
for seed purposes, I find that I can obtain a much greater
proportion of handsome, well-developed seed-onions from
those that have been raised from seed-stock that has been
carefully selected through a long series of years: I am
therefore led to believe that there can be “ pedigree” onions
as well as pedigree cattle, and that seed raised from them
can be relied on under the same conditions to give a hand-
somer onion than can the average of seed.

WHITE PORTUGAL.

HE cuttivation of this early onion is mostly confined to
the raising and planting of what are known as “Sets ”
or Button onions, or onions for early family use, as it is a

QUEEN, SOUTHPORT WHITE GLOBE, 21

poor keeper. It is a sweet, mild onion of good size for
family use, though averaging considerably smaller than the
varieties that have been described. Here let me say, that, for
* family use, except for frying, the common onions of the
market are much too large to be economical : the two
outer layers of an onion four inches and upwards in diam-
eter, though making up about half the bulk, are usually
coarse and tough, and slough off when boiled. The
sweetest, tenderest, and most economical onions for this
purpose of the yellow sort are those that are from two to
three inches in diameter.

THE QUEEN.

F THE NEWER SoRTS, the ‘‘ Queen,”

a white English variety grow- {
ing from two to two and one-half # =
inches in diameter, is doubtless the (7
earliest at present known, — so
early that under favorable circum-
stances it may grow from seed to
a market size about as soon as
those raised from Philadelphia sets.

SOUTHPORT WHITE GLOBE.

HIS 1s a large, globular, white variety, that is about as

round, and, when cured in the shade, about as white,
as a snow-ball, being the handsomest of all onions. It
is a very profitable variety where it can be matured, and is
too late to be planted with safety in latitude north of
Southern Connecticut.

22 ONION-RAISING,

MARZAJOLE, MAMMOTH TRIPOLI, NASBEY’S MAM-
MOTH AND GIANT ROCCA,

RE EUROPEAN VARIETIES that grow to a mammoth size in
Southern Europe, where for their mild flavor they are
held in high esteem. Raised in this country they are of a
milder flavor than our common sorts, but, though they grow
larger, do not attain to the size they acquire in Europe, and,
though excellent for use in a green state, are not good as
keepers.

There are usually the distinctions I have here stated be-
tween the late and early varieties; but sometimes drought
and other causes will almost destroy these distinctions, ripen-
ing the very early and medium early sorts at the same time.

WHAT ONIONS SHALL I RAISE?

AVING bescriBeD the standard varieties, a beginner may
query in his mind as to what variety would be most
profitable and most reliable for him to cultivate.

The Danvers onion is the handsomest shaped, yields as
much as any other sort, and more than any of the flat va-
rieties, per acre. It is an onion very popular in the Eastern
market, and in Eastern Massachusetts is raised to almost the
exclusion of any other variety. The Large Red onion is
quite a favorite in the West, and is considered by some deal-
ers to be the best variety for shipping purposes ; though the
Danvers is also shipped largely. Those who live in the lati-
tude where the onion is difficult to mature from the seed in
one year, affirm that the Red onion will mature farther south
than any other variety.

After all, whatever suggestions may be offered, the local

ONION SETS OR BUTTON ONIONS. 23

demand will do most for settling this point. Aside from this,
I would recommend the Early Yellow and the Red Globe
Danvers, as, on the whole, the most desirable sort. The Red
Globe is somewhat hardier than the Danvers.

ONION SETS OR BUTTON ONIONS.

T IS GENERALLY BELIEVED that in that portion of the

United States south of the vicinity of New-York City,
onions from seed raised as far south as the Middle States
cannot be relied on to mature the first year, owing to the
extreme heat of the climate forcing the formation of the bulb,
and drying down the top quite early.in the season. But if
the seed was grown in the Northern States from carefully
- selected stock, it will mature onions the first season when
planted in the Southern States, as I learn from several of
my correspondents, some of whom have grown them of
market size the first season as far south as Texas. As a
rule, such onions are hardly as large as those grown farther
north, but yet amply large enough for market. To give the
rule, concisely, if gardeners in the South wish to raise onions
from the black seed so that they will grow to market size the
first season, they should procure seed grown as far north as
possible ; and vice versa, gardeners in the North who wish to
grow their own sets should procure Southern-grown seed.
If, in these southern latitudes, two years are given to the
maturing of the crop, the first year, the ground is prepared as
already directed, excepting that it is but lightly manured ;
broad, shallow drills, from one to two inches in width, are
made about ten inches apart, and these are sown early in
spring, very thickly, on rather poor land, at the rate of from
thirty to sixty pounds to the acre; the crop becomes ma-
ture in July, when it is pulled, and stored in cool, airy lofts,

24 ONION—RAISING.

being spread very thinly over the floor,— those raised from
the White Portugal onion to a depth of about two inches,
and those from the yellow sorts to a depth of about four
inches. A gentle raking occasionally is of advantage to pro-
mote dryness, and to prevent sprouting. The yellow variety
is the best for keeping, and hence will bear the confinement
incident to transportation with less injury; but the clean,
white appearance of the onion raised from the white sets
gives them the preference in the market. The true set is an
onion that has been checked in its annual growth, and dried
down before it has matured; hence it has an additional
growth to make before its annual growth is matured, and
before this there can be no seed-shoot pushed ; for the onion
is a biennial plant, and the seed-shoot belongs to the second
year of its growth.

WHEN PLANTED TO RAISE EARLY ONIONS.

ETS ARE PLANTED in rows about ten inches apart, and
two or three inches distant in the row. As the ground-
worms are very apt to remove them when first planted, the
bed should be occasionally examined. Some roll them im-
mediately after planting: others hold to dropping them in
shallow drills, not covering them at all with earth. By the
last of June these are ready to sell as green-bunch onions,
and come into market as dry onions before those mature
that are raised from seed.

Onion-sets vary in size from a pea to a hazel-nut. The
smaller the size of the sets, the greater the number of onions
contained in a given quantity; but many find it for their
interest to purchase sets of a good size, as they yield larger
onions. Among the market-gardeners in the vicinity of the.
large cities, onion-sets are very extensively planted, some

RARERIPES. 25

planting as high as one hundred and fifty bushels annually.
The quantity planted per acre varies with the size, from six
to ten bushels. To get mature onions of good size, the land
must be very rich, requiring fifteen or more cords of stable-
manure to the acre.

RARERIPES.

ARERIPES are onions raised by planting out bulbs of
the growth of the previous season. The Rareripe often-
times differs from the onion-set only in being a matured
onion, as frequently they are about as small as the sets.
The method of raising them is the same as that of raising
early onions from sets, with the difference of planting them
at times at greater distance apart in the row proportionate
with their greater size. The raising of Rareripes is a very
profitable way of disposing of such onions as are badly
sprouted, are very small, or in any way unprofitable for
marketing, A seed-shoot may be uniformly expected from
each onion; but as this greatly deteriorates the quality of
the Rareripe, making it tough and woody in structure, it
should always be cut off. If cut off before the swelled
growth appears (a striking characteristic of the onion-family,
and a proof of the skill of the Divine Architect, in strength-
ening by so simple a process the tall, thin stalk designed to
support the heavy seed-head), it will again shoot up; wait,
therefore, until this swelling begins to show itself, and then
cut below it, and no mofe trouble from this source will ensue.
The smaller the onions planted as Rareripes, the handsomer
will be the crop, —the very small ones producing each one
handsome round onion, while the large ones produce two or
more which are irregular in form.

26 ONION-RALSING.

EGYPTIAN ONION.

be ONION (see engraving) is the name given to a
variety of onion that has some exceptional characteristics.
It is decidedly the hardiest of all varieties: remaining in
the ground all winter perfectly sound, and starting in the
spring, before any other vegetable, it makes a rapid growth,
and is ready for
the market about
as soon as the
{.4 onions from seed
“have received
their second slid-
ing. It does not
make a _ round
bulb, but one
that more nearly
resembles the
common Rare-
ripe; though, as
it gets older, the
bulb increases in
size. The seed
of this variety is the little bulblets that grow on the top
of the stalks. These should be planted soon after they are
ripe in the fall, as they are rather difficult to keep until

spring.
POTATO ONIONS, TOP ONIONS, AND SHALLOTS,

OTATO owntons (see engraving), Top onions, and Shal-
lots, are thought by some to have originated from the
common onion. It is certain that at times all three of

POTATO ONIONS, TOP ONIONS, AND SHALLOTS. 247

these varieties are sported by the common onion. In a
large field of seed-onions, occasionally small onions will be
found, growing in place of seed; and these onions, when
set out the ensuing spring, will vegetate and develop
readily, but they will not always in turn yield the like; ie.,
Top onions.

Potato onions, or multiplying onions as they are some-
times called, are a thick, hard-fleshed variety, very mild and
pleasant to the taste, and tender if eaten soon after gathering,
but they grow to be tough as the season advances. They
are poor keepers, unless spread very thinly in some dry
apartment. They are propagated
by planting the bulbs in drills, four-
teen inches apart, the largest ones
six, the smaller four, inches apart
in the row, and the smallest ones
two inches. The small ones rapidly
increase, and make onions from
two to three inches in diameter; while the larger ones
divide, and make from four to a dozen or even sixteen
(usually from five to eight) small, irregularly shaped onions.
It will be seen that the larger bulbs answer the same purpose
as the seed in the common onion ; hence to have onions for
sale, and yet maintain the stock, it is necessary that both
sizes should be planted.

The Potato onion should be indulged for its best develop-
ment in a soil rather moister than the varieties from seed.
The advantage of the Potato onion is its earliness, and the
fact that it is not as liable to injury from the onion-maggot,
when that abounds, as the common sort. I have seen an
instance where, on half an acre of each growing side by side,
the common onion (that raised from seed) was almost wholly
destroyed, while the Potato onion was nearly uninjured.

28 ONION-RATISING.

Shallots differ from Potato onions principally in their
characteristics of a/ways multiplying: a Shallot ever grows
into a large round onion, but always multiplies itself, forming
bulbs that average more oblong and are usually smaller than
those of the Potato onion. I find them occasionally pushing
a seed-shoot, which I have never seen in the Potato onion.
Their habit of growth is finer, making a longer and more
slender leaf than the Potato onion. They are mild of flavor,
and greatly excel every other variety of the onion-family in
their keeping properties: with little care they may be kept
the year round. All seedsmen do not know the difference
between the Potato onion and the Shallot. Within a few
years, I have twice had Shallots sent me under the name
“ Potato onion.”

Top onions are propagated from little bulbs, which grow
in this variety where the seeds grow in the common sorts.
They grow to a large size, are pleasant, mild-flavored, rather
coarsely and loosely made up, and have the reputation of
being poor keepers. Raised like the Potato onion.

SEED-SOWING MACHINES.

HERE are A varieTy of machines in the market for

sowing onion and other seed, but most or all of them
can be arranged in three classes; viz., Brush Sowers, Snap
Sowers, and Agitators.

Brush-machines are those in which the seed is forced out
by a brush contained in the seed-box. The characteristic
feature in this class of seed-planters is of English origin. It
has passed through various modifications in this country.

The Brush-machine (an engraving of which is here pre-
sented) makes the drills, drops the seed, covers and rolls it :
it is adapted for planting all the common root-crops.

SZED-SOWING MACHINES. 29

The rows in this machine are marked out by a chain, two
of which hang near the handles and drag on the ground,
being used alter-
nately. The wheel
is pushed along the
mark made by the
chain.

The principle on g
which the “Snap” #@
machine is founded, | a .
s the securing the S@iés y
flow of seed through the aperture by a jerking motion,
which is usually effected by a spring which makes a snap-
ping noise when set free.

One of the machines built on this principle is known as
the Danvers Onion Sower. (See engraving.)

The structure is exceedingly simple; and as it involves
but
few
parts, and
Hence is but little
liable to get out of order, and
=-y when out of order can readily

be repaired by any blacksmith
it was quite a favorite with onion-raisers: but improved im-
plements have to a large degree taken the place of it.

The Danvers machine opens the furrows, drops the seed,
_ covers it, but does not roll it. Farmers usually attach an
old horseshoe to the end of the seed-coverer, which gives
sufficient weight to make it answer pretty well the purposes
of a roller.

Matthews’s Garden Seed Drill is a fine example of the seed-

30 ONION-RAISING,

planters on the “agitator” principle. This agitator is a
=. finger of iron in the
~ seed-box which projects
just over the orifice from
which the seed drops,
and, by a motion given
it by the revolving of
the wheel, keeps the
seed continually stirred,
and thus prevents its
clogging, —a trouble to every gardener when planting such
seed as beet and parsnip. Were I called upon to recom-
mend a seed-sower for general work, it would be the Mat-
thews : all in the market have more or less of good qualities,
but I have found that the Matthews combines as many as
any other one.

In these machines, the seed falls through holes of various
sizes, made either in little slides of tin, or in a movable circu-
lar plate of iron ; different slides being substituted as the seed
to be sown is larger or smaller, or the quantity to be planted
is greater or less. Farmers will often find it for their interest
to enlarge or diminish the size of these holes. The holes in
the tin of the Danvers Sower, to give a liberal sowing of
about four and a half pounds to the acre, should be large
enough to drop ten to fourteen onion-seed to each snap.
By putting the hand under, and counting the seed which
falls in a dozen snappings of the machine, a reliable average
can be ascertained. As the size of onion-seed often varies,
no particular size of hole can be relied upon: it must be
tested for each season. Another convenient test is to
trundle the machine over the barn-floor, or a newspaper
spread and secured in the field, and observe how thickly

PLANTING THE SEED, ETC. 31

the seed fall. For a beginner, the first test is the better
one.

Of the sower which drops the seed in hills, I will treat
presently under the head of “ Onions with Carrots.”

PLANTING THE SEED AND HOEING THE ONIONS.

AVING SELECTED our seed-sower and regulated it, the
next step is to plant the seed. It is exceedingly ne-
cessary that the first row planted should be straight, as this
becomes a measure of straightness for all the others. A
steady hand and a good eye are of great value here; but
with but a little practice, a degree of accuracy can be ob-
tained by most persons, though a few will always find it for
their profit to hire some experienced hand. Three or more
stakes may serve to mark out the first row, and, by keeping
these bearing on each other as the machine is pushed along,
the first line must be a straight line. In some machines the
chains which drag from the handle, and in others the wheels,
serve to mark
out the rows.
As the Scuffle
Hoes (see en-
graving) and
Wheel Hoes (see engraving) to be used will be of a con-
stant width, it is important that the distance between the
rows should be kept constant, particularly that they should
not be brought nearer together than the distance fixed upon.
The distance between the rows varies in different sections
from twelve to fourteen inches: when seed are planted for
sets, ten inches is the usual distance between the drills.
The various hoes used in weeding are pushed before the
operator, and again drawn quickly back, the operator taking

32 ONION-RAISING.

short steps, and making the hoe cut in both the forward and
backward slides. The great aim of the hoeing being to save
all hand-weed-
ing possible,
the hoe should
be slid as near
as possible to
the side of one
of the rows,
Hf) and then, hav-
ing been drawn
back, should next be slid as near as practicable to the
other row.

All the various weeding-hoes can be divided into those
whose blades are parallel with the ground, and those whose
blades are vertical to it. In a test I made a couple of years
ago with twelve different hoes, I found that those whose
blades worked hori-
zontally were de-
cidedly the better
when the onions
were young, they
being less liable to
throw dirt over the
plants. The Ruhl-
man Hoe (see en-
graving) is a good
variety of the Wheel Hoe, to be used with profit when the
weeds are large, or the ground is hard.

Within comparatively a few years, there has been invented
a new class of weed-hoes called “Straddlers,” from the fact
that they straddle the rows, and so weed both sides at the

PLANTING THE SEED, ETC. 33

same time. In some of these, the hoes are adjustable by
screws, so that they can be arranged to go as near the
row as may be desired. The Southport Hoe, and one of
the Planet series, are illustrations of these. In my judg-
ment, decidedly the best of this class (and some of my
fellow-farmers who have used it think likewise), is the
“Finger Weeder” (see engraving), to which I have con-
sented to have my name attached.
This ‘implement is the only one where
the hoes are continually
under the control of the
operator, which admits
of their being instanta-

neously adjusted to
any irregularity, to
knock stones or clods of
earth aside, or to pick out
any single weed. Being
able to be run nearer the
crop than can the hoes of
any other implement, they
leave fewer weeds to be pulled by hand, and thus save ex-
pense in what is the most costly department of onion-
raising.

After the tops get so far grewn as to bend over into the
rows, they are apt to be caught between the wheel and axle
of the wheel-hoe; hence from thence forward, either the
single wheel or the scuffle hoe should be used.

' Farmers sometimes make their own scuffle-hoes out of a
piece of an old saw, the teeth answering a good purpose in
cutting off the weeds.

In Eastern Massachusetts fourteen inches is the usual.

34 ONION-RAISING.

distance between the rows ; while in Southern New England
and parts of the West, twelve inches is preferred.

Before planting the seed, it should be carefully examined
to see that it is free from small stones, or any substance that
can possibly clog the hole of exit. Stones or fragments
of seed-heads, when so small as readily to pass through the
holes, will do no harm. Let it be remembered, when regu-
lating the machine, that the seed will not be likely to fall so
fast from a full hopper as they will when it is nearly empty.
The seed should be sown from half an inch to an inch under
the surface, from twelve to fifteen to the foot when four
pounds are planted to the acre. Deep sowing has the advan-
tage of getting the plants so deeply rooted that they will bear
having the earth slightly pulled away from them in the first.
weeding, without so much injury as sometimes results when
they are planted shallow. While planting, as well as when
using the hoe, our farmers will find the advantage of having
a finely pulverized surface to work on, free of all clods,
sticks, and stones ; as such will continually vary the straight-
ness of the rows, interfere with the planting and covering of
the seed, and, when the hoe is used, glance it out of its
course in among the tender plants.

WEEDING.

N FROM TWO TO THREE WEEKé, if the weather is an average
+ for the season, the young plants by a close examination
may be seen pushing their green arches above the surface,
bearing a close resemblance to a curve of grass. As soon
as sufficiently up to enable a sharp eye to determine the
course of the rows, without delaying a day or an hour, if
the weather permits, the prudent cultivator will slide through
his scuffle-hoe ; as at this season of the year the weather is

WEEDING. 35

very uncertain, and the land may become too wet to be
worked soon after the young plants appear, and yet not too
wet to hinder a rapid growth of weeds. Sowing a few radish
with the onion seed is sometimes practised. As the radish-
seed vegetates in a few days, the rows are thereby marked
out, and the wheel-hoe can be used earlier. Care need be
taken that the radish-seed are not larger than the onion, and
so clog the hole. To obtain very choice cabbage-plants,
which grow fine and stocky, farmers sometimes drop a few
seeds into the hopper with the onion-seed. On so rich a
seed-bed, prompt action is very necessary, or a miserably dis-
couraging tangle will soon be the result of negligence. In
their comparative freedom from weeds the cultivators in the
West, on their new land, have a great advantage over their
brethren in the East. By selecting pasture-land, and avoid
ing the use of barn-manure, the work of weeding may be
greatly reduced. I have raised a crop on such land, when
the entire expense from after the crop was planted until it
was gathered and got into the barn was but thirty-five dollars
to the acre. It was so free of weeds that one man slid
through, hand-weeded, and partly thinned, an acre and a
quarter inside of a day. Within a day or two after the hoe
has passed through the rows, the young plants will need
their first weeding with. the fingers. Though when the
young onions first appear above the surface, scarcely a weed
can be seen, a dear-bought experience has proved to me
that a disturbing of the surface at that time close to the
plants (it may be done by the fingers, or by some form of
weeding implement) destroys the first crop of weeds just
as the seed has sprouted, at which stage they are most
easily destroyed. This is hand and knee work ; and pur-
sued, as it has to be, in this position at intervals throughout

36 ONION-RATSING.

the heat of summer, it is to many the most wearying work
of the farm. Boys being more nimble-fingered than men,
besides working for lower wages, there is a great saving in
employing them, provided they can be relied on to pull up
the roots of the weeds. When several are at work, it will
be wise to have a man with them.

To protect the knees from sharp stones, “ pads” are used,
which consist of squares of about eight inches, of several
thicknesses of woollen, usually covered with leather, strapped
to the knees. In ordinary seasons, onions require three or
four hand-and-knee weedings, and from four to six slidings
with the hoe. A man’s judgment must be his guide. As
onions shade the ground but slightly, weeds grow rapidly in
onion-beds ; and, if they are once allowed to get the start,
the labor of cultivation is immensely increased. Some cul-
tivators practise scratching the soil away from the onions
when weeding, with an old knife curved at a right angle
near the point, or by a piece of iron hoop curved, the end
being nailed to a small piece of wood conveniently held in
the hand. Noyes’s (see engraving) or Lang’s hand-weeder
will be found «very
handy little imple-
) ments for removing
weeds, particularly
when the surface of
the ground is somewhat hard. The strap in Lang’s (see
engraving) enables :
the person weeding
to retain it while
not in use, and yet
have full command -
of his fingers. When the onions have begun to “bottom

WEEDING. 37

down,” i.e., form their bulbs, it is the general practice to re-
move as far as practicable any surplus earth that has
accumulated around them. In weeding, two or three rows
are sometimes taken together. Just before the crop ripens
down, larger weeds will show themselves here and there
over the beds: these are generally gathered in baskets, and
dropped at the end of the rows. If the seeds of such
weeds get ripe before they are pulled, the weeds should be
carefully deposited in a pile in some by-place, where they
can be burned when dry. Growers who practise throwing
such weeds to their hogs because they are large and suc-
culent, make an annual seeding of their beds with weeds.
Particularly is this-true of purslane, one of the greatest
plagues in the heat of the season. This pest propagates
itself by cuttings as well as from seed, every little portion of
the plant readily rooting, as I have proved by experiment ;
hence, all portions of the plant should be removed from the
bed. The habit of this plant is to ripen the seed well down
on the stock, while the main body of the plant is in its
full vigor ; hence it usually happens that much seed drops

. into the land some time before it is pulled, while the farmer

never mistrusts it has ripened. I have seen purslane com-
pletely eradicated from garden-plots where it formerly was
a pest, by a little care in this matter of letting it go to seed.
The same remarks apply to the weed known as chickweed,
which on rich and moist soil will spread appallingly fast, if
not destroyed when so young as barely to be detected. It
is apt to get the start of gardeners, because at the same time
ripe seed and buds and blossoms are to be found on it. I
consider it the most troublesome of all weeds. When blank
spots occur from poor seed, poor planting, or the ravages of
the onion-maggot, bush-beans, cabbages, or tomatoes may
be planted.

38 ONION-RATISING.

When the plants are too thick, they should be thinned ;
but the beginner had better pull with a sparing hand, for, if
the ground has been manured very liberally, the crop will
do well when the plants are very thickly together ; and they
will oftentimes grow as large, and usually bottom better, when
very thick, as they will with three times the room. Onion-
growers like to see their onions piled two or three deep as
they grow, the upper layer being entirely out of the ground
with the exception of the roots. When the tops begin to
fall over, the onion is rapidly maturing, and the bulbs will
now grow very fast. Farmers will tell you that “the top is
going down into the bottom.” The Strasburg onion begins
to bottom late in the season, while the Danvers makes a very
encouraging show of bulb quite early. Should the land
have been but poorly manured, in seasons of drought, the
crop will be apt to be ripened prematurely, forming a small-
sized onion; while (divided, it may be, by merely a wall)
those that have been more liberally manured stand the
drought, and keep green sufficiently long to receive advan-
tage from the later rains, — an ‘investment of twenty dollars
in manure thus making a difference sometimes of a hundred |
dollars in the crop. If the crop is quite backward, late in
the season the necks of the onions are sometimes bent over
to hasten the formation of the bulb. This is done by hand,
or by rolling a barrel over two rows at a time.

STORING THE CROP.

Vy THE NECKS have fallen over, and the great pro-

portion of them are dry, the crop should be pulled by
hand, and be laid in windrows, about three rows being put in
one. At this time all weeds remaining should be pulled and
piled, preparatory to the final clearing of the bed. The

STORING THE CROP. 39

pulling of the crop should not be delayed after the tops are
well dry ; for, if rain should now fall, the onions will be apt
to re-root, to their injury. On soil comparatively free from
stones, a wheel-hoe, with the blade of a circular form, is used
to run under the onions, and loosen them from the ground.
A stout iron scraper to be attached to the end of the culti-
vator, from two to three feet in length, makes a very handy
implement to use after the onions are pulled, to cut up the
weeds between the rows; after which they, with the small
stones, can be raked into heaps, to be carted off. Should
the backwardness of the season make it necessary to pull the
crop in rather a green state, it will be well to allow it to
remain untouched, after pulling, for about a week, before
turning or stirring, which will tend to hasten the decay of
the greener tops; otherwise they should be carefully stirred
every pleasant day with a wooden-toothed rake. This should
be very carefully done, as the onions are very easily injured,
especially at this stage, and when injured are almost as likely
to rot as a bruised apple. See that they are not injured in
the raking or by the treading by a careless hand. The white
varieties need peculiar handling, as they, being more deli-
cate, are more apt to decay ; and, besides, a direct exposure
to the sun’s rays will cause them to turn ,green. These
should be pulled as soon as the tops begin to fall, be piled”
in small heaps of not over half a dozen bushels, and be cov-
ered with two or three bundles of straw to protect from sun
and rain. When the weather is well below freezing, they
should be housed in a dark place, and be piled not over six
inches deep. When the crop is thoroughly dried, the onions
feeling hard to the handling, it will be ready for topping for
market. If over-dried, the outer layer of skin will peel off,
to the injury of the crop. Let them be carefully collected

40 ONION-RAISING,

in baskets, rejecting all stones, scallions, and rotten onions,
and taken in wagon-loads to the barn, when the tops are to
be cut off clean to the onion with a sharp knife, or what is
decidedly better, as it is less likely to tear the onion, a pair
of small shears or scissors; or, if the necks are small and
quite dry, they may be pulled off by the thumb and finger.
This is usually done by boys or females at from two to four
cents a bushel. While collecting, look sharply on the
bottom of the onions to detect rotten ones. Some growers
prefer to leave such of the crop as they design to keep for
a late market untopped. If it is intended to market the
crop immediately, the onions may be piled to a depth of
three or four feet; otherwise they should not be over two
feet in depth. The floor should not be a tight one: if
it is, then a false open one should be made above it,
with an air-space of six inches underneath. Leave the
barn doors and windows all open every pleasant day. As
the crop is topped, those of the size of a hazel-nut and
smaller aré classed as pickle-onions ; these being marketed
principally for that purpose, usually bringing about half the
price of the full grown ones.

TRACING, OR ROPING, ONIONS.

Noa THE CROP has ripened down but poorly, the

greener onions are at times traced. This is done by
cutting off the neck within about two inches of the bulb;
and binding it to a handful of straw; beginning at the butt
end of the straw, lay the neck against it, give two or three
firm turns with the twine (net or wrapping twine), add
another onion, and thus proceed till the straw is covered, the
larger onions being tied to the bottom and gradually decreas-
ing in size to the top. Onions so slowly ripened that they

MARKETING THE CROP. 41

would soon spoil if stored in a mass, will keep well when
traced, and oftentimes bring a greater profit than the best of
the crop. Rareripes, and such of the earlier onions as are
to be sent long distances, or be kept a while before market-
ing, are sometimes traced. Traced onions keep in good
condition a long while in a dry, cool place. Within a few
years tracing has almost ceased in this vicinity.

MARKETING THE CROP.

ee SET ONIONS, Potato onions, Top onions, and Rareripes,

in some sections, are for the most part sent to market
in a green state in bunches. The Potato onions are also
brought from the South, dry, in large quantities, to supply
the Northern markets, soon after the arrival of the Bermuda
onions, just before the ripening of the Northern crop. After
the Potato onions follows the earliest variety of the Red, and,
immediately after, the Danvers, and, finally, the Large Red
completes the season. The: sales in the Northern markets
early in the season are made mostly for the supply of the
local immediate demand, the great bulk of the crop not
being sent in before the call for shipping purposes has com-
menced. For this reason, farmers find it to be for their in-
terest to do but little more than feel the market until about
the middle of Octdéber ; as large purchases made previous to
this period are mostly as an investment by speculators, with
the exception of such lots as go to supply the immediate
wants of the markets of large towns and cities of the extreme
North beyond the limits of the onion-growing region.

The price of onions varies greatly: they have sold as low
as seventy-five cents a barrel, while the early crop of 1864
sold as high as sixteen dollars a barrel, by the five hundred
barrels. From September to March, in the same season, the

42 ONION-RAISING.

fluctuation is sometimes between two dollars and nine dollars.
_ At this date (April, 1888) good Danvers onions are bringing
in Boston from seven dollars to nine dollars per barrel.
Crops have at times been sold to be delivered in the course
of two months, and in that time have more than doubled in
price. The general truth is, that those brought latest to
market, being kept till spring, bring the best prices. The
great facilities afforded for onion-raising by the fertile soil
and favoring climate of the West, combined with low freight-
rates, have within a few years told powerfully on the Eastern
market.

PRESERVING THE CROP.

|" Ir 1s the design to keep the crop for a winter market, it

should be stored in a cool, dry place, out of danger from
severe frosts, —if in bulk, then not over two feet in depth;
or they may be put up in barrels, which should be nicked in
three or four places on their sides, and one or two places at
each end, if headed up, and be laid on their bilge. Another
good plan is to store them on a lattice-work of slats at not
over a foot in depth. If it is the design to keep the onions
till spring, in my experience (and the plan is largely prac-
tised in Connecticut) the simplest way is to freeze them.
To do this, select some out-building, undér which the air has
the least circulation, spread the onions about fifteen inches
in depth, leaving a vacant space of about two feet from the
sides of the building, which fill in with fine hay. As soon
as the onions begin to freeze, cover them with any kind of
dry-hay, to the depth of about eighteen inches. Let them
remain subject to as little change of air as possible (the
aim being tc keep them from freezing and thawing) until
spring. When the frost is entirely out, they should at once

SMUT, RUST, AND MAGGOT. 43

be spread abroad, well aired, and turned carefully and often
until thoroughly dried. If they are handled while frozen,
they will be very likely to decay as they thaw out.

SMUT, RUST, AND MAGGOT,

‘pee ONION-CROP is sometimes severely injured bya disease

resembling mildew, which is believed to be caused by
animal parasites. The tops of the leaves die, and the whole
plant is more or less covered by a white blast. From the
effects of it the onions almost cease their growth, and the
crop finally obtained is small in size. It is more frequent in
extraordinary wet seasons, or during a long spell of “dog-
days,” and is more common on old beds than new. The
best remedy yet known for old beds is to carefully remove
from the bed and destroy at the close of the season all
diseased bulbs, as they will be likely to spread the disease by
giving it a lodgement in the soil; then run the plough a
little deeper, and thus mix in a little new soil. A liberal
application of air-slacked lime to the leaves as soon as the
white blast appears, is said to kill the parasites that cause it.
“Smut,” as a black discoloration of the leaves is called, is a
deadly enemy. Whenever this appears, the bed must be
changed to a new location, and the land be cultivated to
other crops for four or more years before it can safely be
replanted to onions.

The onion-maggot is hatched from the eggs of a fly,
which are deposited in the plant (not the seed) very near
the surface of the ground. Its presence may be detected in
the crop when very young by the sudden turning yellow and
falling over of the plant, which, if the attempt is made to
pull it, will usually break off near the surface; and, on
squeezing, several small maggots will present themselves.

44 ONION-RAISING.

Some writers state that the fly deposits its eggs only at an
early period in the growth of the plant. It is true that usu-
ally the injury is most marked previous to the bottoming of
the onion; but I have seen beds injured at every stage of
their growth, and in one season about half of the crop was
destroyed by the maggot at the close of the season after the
onions had been pulled. Sometimes an extra pound or
more of seed is planted with the idea of allowing the mag-
got a share, with the hope that by so doing an average crop
may be raised. But, as the habit of the fly is to deposit its
eggs continuously in every plant until the supply is ex-
hausted, the result is an alternation of blank and extra thick
spaces. Various remedies have been proposed, but of these
it may be said that they are not practical on a large scale.
The idea on which most of these are based, is that of pro-
ducing a scent so disagreeable as to drive away the fly ; but
old experimenters recall the capacity of the canker-worm
moth and the squash-beetle to ignore the most repulsive ob-
structions of this kind, when stimulated by their instinct to
deposit their eggs. Pine sawdust, either clear, soaked in the
urine of cattle, or in the ammoniacal liquor from gas-works,
scattered over tle bed just before the appearance of the
plants, at the rate of a bushel to ten square rods; guano
sprinkled along the rows and on the plants, twice during the
season ; unleached ashes used in the same manner, — these
have given satisfactory results to some growers. Scalding
water poured from a common watering-pot through a hole
the size of a pipe-stem, along the drills near the roots of the
plants, and repeated three or four times during a season, is
said to be efficacious. It is obvious that the practical value
of such a remedy must be confined to a very small area of
land.

RAISING ONION-SEED. 45

The best remedy for the maggot, in my experience, is a
hen and chickens. Allowing a couple of broods to an acre,
confine the hen in a small coop near the middle of the
piece, and give the chickens free exit. They will soon learn
to catch the fly while in the act of laying the egg which
produces the maggot.

In New England the maggot has been slowly making his
way from the North, adding greatly to the uncertainty of the
crop, until his ravages have extended to Southern Massa-
chusetts. Very light soils appear to be most affected by his
ravages. In some seasons the injury done is insignificant.

He will one year confine his ravages mostly to one portion
of a township, and the next season reverse matters: while
some tracts are almost never injured, on others he appears
to settle down as a permanent resident.

RAISING ONION-SEED.

HAT poss all this investment of money, time, labor, and
watchfulness amount to if the seed is worthless, has
no vitality, is not true to name, or was grown from worthless
trash? Onion-seed should be raised from the very best
onions of the very best crop-grown in the vicinity. The
best type should be first selected, which should be a medium-
sized onion of the right form, very hard and compact in
structure, with a close, thin, fine skin, and a very small neck.
Those selected for seed should be the earliest ripened of the
crop, provided such are fully ripened and not blighted. To
select the earliest onions, the seed-grower should visit the
field before the crop is pulled.
Onion-seed is usually grown from the entire crop, be it
good, bad, or indifferent. A great step of improvement on
this is to purchase outright as good a crop as can be found ;

46 ONION—-RAISING.

but the only way to secure and keep the best and most reli-
able seed, is that first given. Poor onion-seed is always very
dear, indeed, as a present ; while first-class seed, at the high-
est price yet paid, is worth a long and careful seeking. I
was once shown a sample of the onions planted out to raise
one of the largest crops grown in California. They were
nothing more than small onions, known in the trade as
“‘ picklers,” and of a miserable, poor quality at that. I
would not be understood as stating that all the seed
raised in California is grown from such trash: I know the
facts of this crop only. Avery large proportion of the
Danvers-onion seed now sold in the United States is
raised in California, though it is often sold as Eastern-
grown. Onions raised from California-grown seed are not
considered to be as good keepers as those raised from seed
raised in the East.

Seed-onions should be kept in a cool, dry place, spread to
about a foot in depth; if kept in barrel (old lime-casks are
best), these should be left unheaded, and two or three pieces
should be chopped off near the bottom to admit a circula-
tion of air. When kept by freezing, then with care they
may be planted out, even before the frost is out of them.
As early in the spring as the ground can be worked, they
should be set out in trenches (the onion, when covered in
trenches, will stand a heavy frost without injury), which
should be from three to four feet apart, and about four
inches below the surface, the land having first been heavily
manured. Some good seed-growers apply their manure
directly in the trench ; while others spread it broadcast, and
plough in. I prefer to plough in a liberal quantity, and then
use ashes, superphosphate of lime or guano, in the rows,
being careful to mix it very thoroughly with the soil. If the

RAISING ONION-SEED. 47

onions are much sprouted, the sprout may be cut off quite
home to the onion, which will insure a straighter and health-
ier growth. Care should be taken to plant right end up;
for, odd as it sounds, in the spring it sometimes requires a
little care to determine which is the right end. After the
seed-shoot is well pushed out, earth should be drawn up to
it; and this should be done three times during the season,
until it’is heaped around them six or eight inches above
the surface of the ground. The first hoeing should be given
them very soon after the sprout starts, to /fudly cover the
onion, as when exposed it is very apt to decay. With this
support, on land that is not too moist, I find that no further
precaution is necessary to keep the seed-tops from the
ground ; though it is the practice of some growers to support
the stalks with light strips of wood, or a line drawn along
about two feet from the ground. After the last hoeing (and
very clean culture should be given then), they should be
gone among as little as possible.

The seed-tops may be safely cut (leaving two or three
inches of the stem on) when the seed-vessels begin to crack,
or, what is a better guide yet (for, after the seed-vessels begin
to crack, much’seed is apt to be lost, especially by heavy
storms), after the turning yellow, near the ground, of the
seed-stalk : when this occurs, the top may be removed im-
mediately, even though it should appear quite green above.

Seed-tops will be often found in which the seed in the
shortest-stemmed receptacles is ripened, and the receptacles
themselves are cracked, while a fresh growth of seed-vessels
in a green state almost conceal them: in such cases I would
advise the cutting of the top. The tops when cut should be
spread to a depth of three inches or less, in a warm place
where heat and air abound, and be turned two or three times

48 ONION-RAISING.

daily, until thoroughly dried, when the seed is ready to be
threshed out. It may be stored in barrels in a dry loft, and
threshed as wanted. If the seed is plump, and has been well
ripened, the frequent turning of the stalks will have shaken
out by far the larger proportion of it, —in some seasons
more than five-sixths. To clear the seed, winnow it. If
the seed are light, it will be best to sink it in water, pouring
off all that floats. After it has been very thoroughly dried,
it will need to be winnowed, and probably more or less
hand-picked, to remove hulls and stones.

As the seed-stalks make but little shade, the ground
between the rows can be cultivated to spinach, lettuce,
radishes, turnips, or some early vegetables, but this will make
the hilling of the seed more costly; and, when these are
harvested, the ground may be planted to cucumbers for
pickles. The planting between the rows should be confined
to the middle, and in trenches an inch or so below the sur-
face, unless it be made after the onions have received their
final hoeing ; otherwise the drawing of the earth around the
seed-stalks will seriously interfere with these crops.

Strange as it may seem to those who have not tried it,
such rampant growers as squashes can be raised among
seed-onions, and generally with no material injury to the
seed. I have known five tons of Hubbard squashes grown
on about half an acre of ground planted to seed-onions.
The squashes should be planted towards the close of May,
after the onions have received their final hilling, two or three
seeds being planted close to every other row, and about nine
feet apart in the row: allow but one plant to grow in a hill.»
The vines, thus having plenty of room between the rows to
spread about, do not incline much to climbing on the seed-
stock. Care should be exercised to break off at once the

RAISING CARROTS WITH ONIONS. 49

tendrils of such as attempt to climb. The one-plant-to-a-
hill system will be found to yield as liberal a crop and finer
squashes than the old system of three or four to the hill.

The yield of onion-seed to the barrel of seed-onions varies
greatly: indeed, no investments near the seaboard prove
more speculative. The maggot sometimes proves very
destructive, so much so that the crop will not average half
a pound to the barrel; or the stalks may turn yellow at the
bottom, and the crop blight, and prove a failure within a week
of the time for it to ripen.

When the seed is fully dry (and seed that has been sunk
should have a long exposure to the air, and frequent stirrings :
I have known large lots spoilt from want of care in this), it
should be so stored as to be safe from all injury from cats
and other animals, who are apt to resort to it, to the utter
destruction of its vitality.

RAISING CARROTS WITH ONIONS.

qe PLAN Of raising carrots with onions is considered a
great improvement by many who have adopted it, as the
yield of carrots is thought to be a clear gain, diminishing but
little or none the yield of onions. Carrots are planted in two
ways, — one by sowing them in drills between every other
row of onions; and the other, which is considered an im-
provement, called the Long-Island plan, by planting the
onions in hills from seven to eight inches from centre to
centre, dropping a number of seed in each hill, and from the
first to the twelfth of June planting the carrot-seed, usually
by hand, between these hills in two rows, then skipping one,
and thus on through the piece. The onions as they are
pulled are thrown into every third row, the carrots being left
to mature. By this method, from two hundred to six hun-

50 ONION—-RAISING.

dred bushels of carrots are raised per acre in addition to the
usual crop of onions. More manure is required for the two
crops than for. the onions alone.

The machine used for sowing in drills where carrots are
raised with the crop, has two boxes attached to the axle at
equidistance from the wheels: there are three or four holes
in the axle that communicate with the seed in the boxes,
and as these holes pass under the boxes they are filled with
seed, and, as they turn, the seed are dropped into the earth.
Screws are sunk into the holes, which can be sunk more or
less at pleasure, and the quantity of seed which the holes
will contain is thus graded.

The machine should first be tested and so regulated that
on a barn-floor it will drop from eleven to twelve seed from
each hole. When so regulated, on using in the field it will
drop but from seven to twelve, owing to the more uneven
motion.

This, like all sowing-machines, — and the same may be said.
of the scuffle-hoe and wheel-hoe, —is pushed along before
the operator.

ANALYSIS OF THE ONION.

N ANALysis, under the direction of Professor Goessman
of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, gives the fol-
lowing as the principal constituents of the onion : —
Air-dry onions without leaves were found to consist of —

Water (at 100° to 110°C.) . 89.20 per cent

* Dry vegetable matter : ; . 10.80

and contained the following amounts of —

Nitrogen , ; 5 ‘ 3 .212 per cent
Sulphur . i : ‘ ; 048
Ash i , ‘ ‘ ‘ : 436 =«*

PRICES OF IMPLEMENTS. 51
The percentages of the principal constituents of the ash
were —

Potassium oxide. ; : . 38.51 per cent
Sodium oxide I.go
Calcium oxide 8.20 “
Magnesium oxide 3.65 “
Sesquioxide of iron . 0.58 “
Silicic acid 333.
Phosphoric acid 15.80 “

Sulphuric acid not determined.
“

In the above table, potassium oxide, sodium oxide, calcium
oxide, and magnesium oxide, mean practically pure potash,

soda, lime, and magnesia.

I infer from the table, that of the three grand essentials
in manure,—nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid,— the
onion requires about equal quantities of the two former, and

half as much of the latter.

PRICES OF IMPLEMENTS.

CAN supply most of the implements named in this

book at the following prices: —

The Meeker Harrow

Matthews’s Garden Seed Drill, infest im-
provements

Danvers Onion Sower :

Danvers Onion Sower with latest im-
provements, extra made

Wheel Hoe .

Scuffle Hoe .

Ruhlman’s Hoe

$25.00

10.00
8.00

52 ONION-RAISING.

Gregory’s Finger Weeder. : : $7.00
Noyes’s Weeder . . per mail, .30, 25
Lang’s Weeder . : SE 30, 225

My farmer-friends, I have now given you the result of my
own experience in the raising of onions, Potato onions, Top
onions, Shallots, and onion Sets, combined with the experi-
ence in onion-growing of a neighborhood where a hundred
thousand bushels are raised annually, with the results of per-
sonal observation in other localities, and with facts that I
have collected by corresponding with different sections of
the United States.

I hope this contribution will prove acceptable.

JAMES J. H. GREGORY.

MarBLeHEAD, Mass.

ADDENDA.

| KNOW my readers will enjoy the perusal of the following
able report on the onion maggot by Prof. C. H. Fernald
of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. His sugges-
tion of rolling the ground just after planting is strongly
indorsed by one of my neighbors who has tried the plan : —

THE ONION MAGGOT.

HIS HISTORY: HOW HE OPERATES AND HOW TO FIGHT HIM.

“The onion maggot (Phorbia ceparum, Meig.) has
caused a great amount of injury to the onion crops, both in
this country and in Europe. Its life history is briefly as
follows : —

The eggs, which are laid on the leaves near the ground,
are white, smooth, somewhat oval in outline, and about one-
twenty-fifth of an inch long. Usually not more than half a
dozen are laid on a single plant, and they hatch in about a
week from the time they are laid. The young larva, as soon
as hatched, burrows downward within the sheath, leaving a
streak of a pale-green color to indicate its path, and, making
its way into the root, devours all except the outer skin.
When the bulb of the plant has begun to form, several of
the larvee may be found feeding in company in it; and after
it has been consumed, they desert it for another, and still
others in succession.

54 ADDENDA.

The larve reach their full growth in about two weeks.
The smaller end, which is the head, is armed with a pair of
black, hook-like jaws. The opposite end is cut off obliquely ;
and there is a pair of small, brown tubercules near the
middle, and eight tooth-like projections around the edge.

The larva usually leaves the onion, and transforms to pup
in the ground outside. They remain in the pupa state about
two weeks in the summer, when the perfect flies emerge ;
after pairing, the female deposits her eggs for another gener-
ation. The winter is passed in the pupa state ; and the flies
emerge in the early part of June, or about the time that the
young onions are sufficiently grown to furnish food for the
young maggots.

The following preventives and remedies have been
suggested : —

Instead of sowing onion seed in rows, where the young
seedlings grow in contact, or nearly so, giving every facility
for passing from one to another, they should be grown in
hills, so that the larvae cannot make their way from one hill
to the other.

Scattering dry, unleached wood-ashes over the beds as
soon as the plants are up, while they are wet with dew, and
continuing this as often as once a week through the month
of June, is said to prevent the deposit of eggs on the plants.

Planting the onions in a new place, as remote as possible
from where they were grown the previous year, has been found
useful, as the flies are not supposed to migrate very far.

Pulverized gas-lime scattered along between the rows has
been found useful in keeping the flies away.

Watering with the liquid from pig-pens, collected in a
tank provided for the purpose, was found by Miss Ormerod
to be a better preventive than the gas-lime.

THE ONION MAGGOT, 55

It is recommended to run a roller over the ground a few
times after the seed has been sown, thus compacting the soil,
so that the maggots cannot make their way through it from
one plant to another.

Water raised nearly to the boiling point, and poured along
the rows from a tea-kettle or other convenient vessel, has
proved destructive to the maggots, without injury to the
plants. The water should be applied so as to go directly to
the bulbs and not to the leaves.

Most excellent results have been obtained in England by
growing onions in trenches ; and as the bulbs grew, the earth
was worked down upon them so as to keep them buried
throughout the season. The onion bulbs should be covered
with earth up to the neck, or even higher, so that the fly
‘cannot get at them to lay her eggs.

When the onions have been attacked, and show it by wilt-
ing and changing color, they should either be taken up with
a trowel and burned, or else a little dilute carbolic acid or
kerosene oil should be dropped on the infested plants, to run
down around them and destroy the maggots in the root and
in the soil around them.”