MAN LA iii OF TORONTO 3 1761 01347554 6 ii NEW ONION CULTURE 1. GREINER ee as cea ace Presented to the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY by the ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY 1980 he Ps Bae ARDS eee 2 ae noe je es tue i * =! 23 ve a y THE STORY of The New Onion Culture Che Net Onion Culture A Complete Guide In Growing Onions for Profit ~ W - By T. GREINER Rewritten and Greatly Enlarged Illustrated New York ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 19il CONTENTS PREFACE THe 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 I Wett 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 Make Your BED, so you will lie Fe " 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 IiIl A Drrricutty Eastry Overcome. How the plants are set in open ground é ‘ ; . 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 : ‘ e ‘ Objects of cultivation—Tools of tillage— Hand weeding—Mulching—Irrigation. 13 21 Vili CONTENTS CHAPTER V A Timety Putt anp Haut. When and how to. har- vest the crop Danger in delay—Signs of maturity—Curing Re crop—Curing sheds—An onion storage ouse. CHAPTER VI THE FRAGRANT BULB ON SALE The Prizetaker a Pricetaker—An "inventory —Crating onions—The crates — Wintering onions. CHAPTER VII Auu’s Wett THAat Enps WELL . Advantages and profits of the new way—Five advantages of the new method— Estimate of. cost and profits. CHAPTER VIII THE OLp ONION CULTURE Sowing seed in the open ground—Drilling in the seed—After culture—Buying seed— Onions for pickling—Growing sets. CHAPTER IX Sorts AND MANuRES FoR ONIONS 5 a Z ; CHAPTER X ONION VARIETIES . i ‘ bs ; ; CHAPTER XI INSECTS AND DISEASES AFFECTING THE ONION CROP CHAPTER XII ONION GROWING IN THE SOUTH . - athe . BIBLIOGRAPHY A ni 4 F - é FA Ss CoNcLUSION . ‘ a ‘ He ; ‘ . : 51 55 75 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece—The Author The Story of the New Onion —— ‘ Yellow Prizetaker Onion ‘ ae Plants Ready for bet ag Hotbed in Sunken Pit . Hotbed on Level Ground Forcing Pit Covered with Hotbed Sash- Small Greenhouse—Elevation Small Greenhouse—Cross Section . A Well-Prepared Seed Bed . A Perfect Crop of Gibraltar Onions Row of Scallions ; Onions in the New Strawberry Bed Disk Harrow Acme Harrow Meeker Smoothing Harrow Old Style Garden Marker : ; Single Tooth Attachment ; ete i Three-Tooth Marker : Tracing Wheel Marker . Setting the Plants with Dibber Old Kitchen Knife as Dibber . ' jee, So eg lake ENE Seat Dibber . 4 ; Trimming the Plants. : : ° Wrong Way . ‘ . . ‘ Right Way j ‘ Plant Set Right Depth rare art Plant Set Too Deep Fi = Iron Age Hand Wheel Hoe . Wheel Hoe in Operation in the Onion Field Single Wheel Hoe . s Lang’s Hand Weeder : ue Se Homemade Onion Hoe . . . . Onion Curing Shed . ! ‘ An Onion Curing Crib . Michigan Onion Storage House Bunch of Prizetaker Onions “ee © #® © © @ Wy > a w © CON UB wD J 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 F Beauliew’s Hardy White Onion The Onion Maggot . Plant Attacked by Thrips 6.2 -e "6" @7- 6 8 es in oe Te Scot ae Re PREFACE 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- ai xii 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 I 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:— ee On Sa eee ee eT See oe : ie | itty es Ao pei epi Sure Me Oi ak Seattle ede PREFACE xiii “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.’ xiv PREFACE “Another man in the same neighborhood raised a wagon load in the same way, and brought them to Medina, and sold them at once for eighty 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 growing 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 early 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 trarisplanted, 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 vi 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 standard varieties for fall and winter market, the Yellow Danvers, Yellow or White Globes, etc, I 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 feeder PREFACE Xvii 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 twice 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: I. 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. XVili 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. GREINEk. La Salle, N Y, 1903. Tea eee eee 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 th 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 XXii 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, em 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 open 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 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 XXiii “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 ground 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 in a 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 identical 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, “Jy suis, jy reste’ (here I am and here I stay) than live in a 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 selected 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.” ee ae ee THE NEW ONION CULTURE CHAPTER I 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 well 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. 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 fermentirg 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 —s . 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 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 FORCING 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 ean be had for little money. Anybody of ordinary intelligence and mechanical skill can put up the frame. 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 a 5 Ce eu os ee ee er eee Sa ee 5 ew 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 ‘sili ht AE RS a Fe eS Cy, a ee oe eet en ee Ba 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, who 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 2 2 <5 ? poe Cee lL ee ong) . Fessee RES a Site " neel| Vf Up . | L[ec0e Fig 9Q—SMALL GREENHOUSE—CROSS SECTION ; annually 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 Fe ea ae ee 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 ef 8 Ksjerer sy Ske - LAN = TAOS Fig I0—A WELL-PREPARED SEED BED wateririg 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 II As You Make Your Bed, So You'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, wéll underdrained. “That is the exact spot you want,” said I. “Why not plant it on that deep, rich muck?” came the next query. “It 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 drainage 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 I4 THE NEW ONION CULTURE be hard to find better onion soil than a well-drained, well-subdued sandy muck. With good plants, and an burly 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. VET IVT TY yyy } } OOOO Ke We cy) Tl Mi) 4 Fig 1I—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 Fig 12—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 —— crop of onions, 76 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 I3—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 17 - 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 2 a Fig I4—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. FOB CTD 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 Fig I16—MEEKER SMOOTHING HARROW the manure applied is in the least coarse. Manure that will not work up perfectly fine, and mixed with the soil will not make a perfect seed bed, should be plowed under. On our own soils we have to use the disk har- row or pulverizer (Fig 14) in order to get the land in best condition. This cuts deep and works the ground over very thoroughly. I prefer to use this first, then follow with the Acme (Fig 15), which smooths the surface that the disk has left somewhat ridged. In the absence of an Acme, a common smoothing harrow or drag will do very well. Should neither disk nor Acme be at command, I would use a narrow-bladed cultivator, such as the Planet Jr or Iron Age horse hoe, or a spike-tooth cultiyator, stirring up the whole 20 THE NEW ONION CULTURE surface, and thus mixing the compost with the soil in a thorough manner. The rich, fine sandy loams, or soils which, like sandy muck, contain a large amount of organic matter or humus, will not usually need so much manipulation. The free use of an ordinary “drag” or smoothing harrow after plowing will be all that is required to get the surface reasonably smooth and fine. Chemical manures, if to be used, may now be applied broadcast or with a drill. Nitrate of soda only is to be with- held for a while and for application later on. To put the finishing touches on the land, I inva- riably use the Meeker smoothing harrow (Fig 16). In fact, I would hardly know how to get along without it. This makes the surface about as even as could be done by hand raking, and in one-tenth or one-twentieth the work or time required for the latter operation. The Meeker harrow costs twenty dollars or more, but it is a great labor saver, and almost indispensable in the market or farm garden. The ordinary steel rake, however, is good enough for smaller patches. What- ever tools you use, the surface should be as smooth as a board, and the land is then ready for planting. CHAPTER III A Difficulty Easily Overcome HOW THE PLANTS ARE SET IN THE GROUND To transplant a few hundred onion plants is not a formidable task, but when you set 120,000, covering an acre, you have a big job on hand, and no mistake. Indeed it is the work connected with my new onion culture; all the rest of it is easy—mere child’s play, I might say. It takes about 120,000 plants to set an acre of onions. I can get boys, that, with some practice, will set 2000 to 3000 plants a day, and nimble-fingered per- sons, used to garden work, will easily set 4000 or 5000. The job of planting an acre is therefore equivalent to probably not less than twenty-five days’ work, and in some cases this estimate may be considerably exceeded ; but the amount of thirty dollars should certainly be enough to pay for the whole job, when we pay boys fifty cents, and more experienced persons one dollar or one dollar and a quarter for a good day’s work. Transplanting so many onions may be a costly operation, but it relieves us of much, if not all, hand weeding, and entirely of the job of thinning. Old onion growers know something about the tediousness and costliness of these operations. The saving, in these respects, more than pays for the labor of trans- planting. “How far apart shall I set the plants?” That is the next thing the novice wants to know. I have for years made the rows an even foot apart, and crowded 22 THE NEW ONION CULTURE the plants as much as I dared to in the row, in the attempt to secure the largest possible rate of yield. My motto was: “No use wasting space and oppor- tunity.” But I got over that notion. I find that I can give the patch better attention, more thorough and continued after-culture, if I make the rows fourteen inches apart, and set Gibraltars four inches, and Prize- takers not less than three inches apart in the rows. It is only when I plant onion seedlings to be pulled up early for green or bunching onions (and they are admirable for that purpose) that I crowd them to two inches in the row. Fig 17—OLD STYLE GARDEN MARKER For garden markers, we have almost up to this time relied chiefly on homemade affairs, such as the one shown in Fig 17. This has the one great disad- vantage of compelling the operator to walk backward or sideways. A set of handles might be attached at the rear by which one person can do the steering while another pulls it along horse-fashion. I now have dis- carded this implement altogether. For marking out the rows for onions in smaller patches, up to one-eighth or even one-fourth acre, I commonly use an Iron Age hand wheel hoe, fitting it for that particular purpose by removing the side hoes, and adjusting the single-tooth attachment shown in Fig 18. With this I can make lighter or heavier furrows, by bearing more or less heavily on the han- MARKING THE ROWS 23 dles. It is especially useful for loosening up the soil in the furrows when it has become somewhat hard or packed. When simply marking out for setting the plants, I take the regular marking attachment from the drill, and put it on this tool. During the earlier part of the season, or during the entire period of setting onion plants, I keep one wheel-hoe fixed in this manner right along, as then the time for using it as a hoe has not yet arrived, and the marker is needed about every day. Gardeners who work with the Planet Jr combined wheel-hoe and drill, may transform it into a three- Fig 18—SINGLE TOOTH : ATTACHMENT Fig IQ—THREE-TOOTH MARKER tooth marker as suggested in Fig 19. If properly made, it will give good service. I suggest still another plan—simply an idea of my own. How would you like a marker devised on the principle of the dress- maker’s tracing wheel? I believe it can be pushed and managed more easily than any other marker we have yet mentioned. The little wheels may be turned from hard wood. The construction is easy and so simple that it will be unnecessary to give details. See Fig 20. Straight and uniform rows add largely to the attractiveness of the patch, even if they were not of practical usefulness in facilitating the work of culti- vating, and perhaps otherwise. Whatever marker we 24 THE NEW ONION CULTURE use, therefore, we take the utmost pains to get the rows perfectly straight. When we start in right once, the rest is easy enough. Usually I get the first row in straight line, if it is a rather long one, by setting three stakes as a guide. We begin straight and try to keep straight. It eases our conscience, and avoids offense to the eye. I now mark only one way, leaving it to the eye, to practice, and to good judgment, to maintain the proper distance between the plants in the row. Fig 20—TRACING WHEEL MARKER How is the planting done? In the first place it should be remembered that plant setting, like seed sowing, is always done most easily and most con- veniently when the ground is freshly prepared. We can then set nearly or fully twice as many plants in the same length of time, as a few days later after the ground has again become hard or packed down by rains. If the ground is freshly prepared, and as loose and mellow as we should expect it under the circum- stances, I prefer to set the plants with the fingers alone, and without the use of a dibber. It is a simple SETTING THE PLANTS 25 and quick operation, too, and for myself, I could, if I wanted to keep at it, easily set 6000 plants in ten working hours. I take hold of the plant with the lef hand, place it with the root end just a trifle to the right of the place where I wish to have it planted, and then with the thumb or index finger of the right hand press the bulb or lower end of the plant down into the soft earth until it stands just where I want it. This is the work of a very few seconds, and all Fig 2I—SETTING THE PLANTS WITH DIBBER I have to do afterward is to run the fingers over the ground near the plant to fill up the hole left by the manipulation, smoothing the surface. My plan is to have a patch planted as quickly as possible after the ground has been put in shape, and it will usually pay well to get extra help to do it, rather than string the work along by keeping only a small force at it. If by any chance we have to quit and let the soil become hard and packed, I always try to refit it anew by harrowing and marking, before going at the plant setting business once more. If plants have to be set into hard soil, a small dibber will be needed. This may be made of a piece 26 THE NEW ONION CULTURE of seasoned hardwood, six inches long, one inch in diameter at large end, and tapering to a point at the other. The operation of setting the plants with the dibber is made so plain by the accompanying illustra- tion (Fig 21), that little explanation by words wiil be needed. Open the hole with the dibber and insert the plant an inch or so deep. Then strike the dibber into the ground an inch or so back of the plant, and, Fig 22—OLD KITCHEN KNIFE AS DIBBER Fig 23—DIBBER using the lower end as a pivotal point, draw the upper end toward you, thus pressing the soil firmly against the underground part of the little plant. This, of course, leaves another little opening a little back of the plant. This may be closed, and the surface somewhat smoothed by another light stab or so with the dibber, or a simple manipulation of the fingers. A broken kitchen knife ground to a point (see Fig 22), or a little flat steel dibber with handle, such as shown in Fig 23, and as may be made by any black- SETTING THE PLANTS 27 smith at small-cost, will always do good service. In opening the hole have the flat side of knife or dibber facing you. Then insert the plant back of the dibber, withdraw the latter and strike in again back of the } , i j YIN Pail NNN Fig 24—TRIMMING THE PLANTS plant, pressing the soil against the roots in the same manner as was done with the wooden dibber. A good way of managing the whole operation is as follows: Take up a lot of plants from the seed bed, which may be done by running the point of a small trowel under them, and lifting them out. Care- fully separate and straighten them out. Next trim 28 THE NEW ONION CULTURE off a part of the tops, if long and slender, and the ends of the roots, as shown in Fig 24. The work of setting out the plants is more conveniently done, and will proceed much faster when the plants are short and stiff than when they are left encumbered with an excess of flimsy growth at each end. Besides, the untrimmed plants are liable to bend or fall over, and be in the way of the wheel-hoe and in danger of being torn out; while the trimmed plants stand up straight Fig 25—WRONG WAY Fig 26—RIGHT WAY and stiff from the very start, and allow the use of the wheel-hoe immediately after they are set out. In short, I believe in shortening the plants at both ends very thoroughly. It will do no harm, and may do some good to trim the roots away to within almost a half inch of the bulb or stem. With long roots left on, some of the boys are bound to set the plants in the manner shown in Fig 25, while the plants with short roots are more likely to be properly planted as shown in Fig 26. The new roots start out directly from the end of the stem, and the plants with closely trimmed roots will usually take hold of the ground more promptly than those with all roots left on. SETTING THE PLANTS 29 When the plants are thus prepared for setting and bunched off, let a boy take a basketful of them and drop them in bunches just ahead of the planters. Of course, the work should be begun just as soon as the ground can be got in proper shape. The soil must be moist and crumbly, but not wet or sticky. Begin Fig 27—PLANT SET RIGHT DEPTH with the plants that were started first, or are largest, and carry the job to completion as speedily as possible. The question is often asked how deep onion plants should be set. An onion plant will live and make a bulb whether you set it a half inch or three inches deep. But we want the bulb to grow pretty well out of the ground. This seems to be the nature of the onion plant. In order to show this in a theoretical 30 THE NEW ONION CULTURE way I have drawn the illustrations which picture the objects in reduced size. Fig 27 shows the plant set one inch deep, the roots reaching further down, and before long probably finding their way clear down to the subsoil. The bulb will spread out to full size as indicated by the dotted lines. This brings it just ‘ YY Ls ly Fig 28—PLANT SET TOO DEEP where we want it, namely, two-thirds or more above the surface of the ground, where it can be easily worked and harvested. In Fig 28 the plant is shown as being set one and one-half inches deep. If planted in a dry time, and in dry soil, the roots may find more moisture and the plant revive more quickly after the transfer, but the bulb is rather too far down in the SETTING THE PLANTS 31 ground. Altogether I believe that one inch in depth is just about right. Efforts have been made by a number of persons, to my knowledge, to construct a machine which will set onion plants expeditiously and in a perfect manner. Thus far I have not seen the machine that will do better and quicker work than a nimble-fingered, active and willing youngster or man. And yet the possibility of finding such a machine, after a while, is by no means excluded. We will welcome it whenever it makes its appearance. . CHAPTER IV A Perseverance That Pays TILLAGE AS MOISTURE PRESERVER AND WEED KILLER Little needs be said to the expert gardener about cultivation and its objects. He knows the importance of keeping the soil well stirred among all garden crops in general, and among onions in particular. “Tillage is manure” is an old saying. In the present case, how- ever, we care little about the manurial effect, for we have provided plant food in great abundance. The great benefit we expect from cultivation is the pres- ervation of moisture, and incidentally, the destruction of weeds. An inch or so of loose soil acts as a mulch, and a most excellent one at that, which prevents the rapid evaporation of the soil water. The moisture rises through the compact soil, by means of capillary action, until it reaches the stirred portion. Here its progress is arrested, and the oniy way to reach the surface, and escape in the air, is by evaporation, which is greatly retarded by the loose layer of soil. The chief tool required for the process of soil stirring is a good hand wheel-hoe, such as the Iron Age shown in Fig 29 or the Planet Jr, or any of a number of others that you find on sale at seed and supply stores. One of these tools you should and must have. It is absolutely indispensable. I never use the vine lifters even when using my Iron Age as a row straddler. Sometimes I can do even more satis- factory work with it, when I use it as a single wheel- hoe and, reversing the hoes, go between the rows. You TILLAGE 33 may try both ways and select the one that seems to work best. We begin running the wheel hoe over the onion patch a few days after the plants are set out, and repeat the operation just as soon as there is the least sign of a crust over the surface. The aim is to keep the mulch of loose soil on the ground all the time. Running a wheel hoe in clean mellow soil is not heavy work. The average boy will rather enjoy it. In real- > A f GEE Fr. Fig 29—IRON AGE HAND WHEEL HOE ity it is probably the least tiresome work in the whole business. An acre can be gone over by one person, even a boy, inside of one day. Fig 30 represents a youngster pushing the wheel-hoe in the onion field. Usually we begin operations with the double wheel-hoe, straddling the rows. As the season ad- vances we change to the single wheel-hoe (Fig 31), running it between the rows. “Ts no hand weeding to be done at all?” you may ask me, aiaId NOINO AHL NI NOIMLVYadO NI JOH TAAHM—OL BLT TILLAGE 35 That depends. —If the soil is of weedy character, or the patch is neglected for any length of time, we may find considerable work—and disagreeable work— Fig 3I—SINGLE WHEEL HOE to do on hands and knees. With timely attention little is needed, and that little can be done very effectively by means of Lang’s hand weeder, or of a kitchen Fig 32—LANG’s HAND WEEDER knife, the blade of which is bent in the shape of a curve, and sharpened on both sides. The way the hand weeder is used is illustrated in Fig 32. There are other styles of hand weeders in the market, and almost any of them answer their purpose first rate. 36 THE NEW ONION CULTURE A most excellent tool for taking out the weeds in the rows from between the plants can be easily made from an old worn-out hoe, leaving the lower part (between the corners) only about two or twu and one-half inches wide, as shown in Fig 33. With this sharp-cornered tool you can strike between the plants, cutting out the weeds, and loosening the soil. This manipulation and the free use of the wheel-hoe will usually be all the cultivation needed. But the hand which wields the sharpened hoe should be a careful one, and be guided by a head possessing a fair degree of intelligence, otherwise the onion plants may have to suffer. Will it be feasible to substitute a mulch of fine manure or other litter for cultivation and weeding? I do not think so, unless it be on sandy soil and in a very dry season. The plan works well in growing celery. It may be tried, cautiously, for onions. In a wet season it will increase the tendency of the plants to make scallions. I have, however, had reports from several intelligent growers who told me that they had used a mulch in the onion patch with excellent results in a dry season. A continuous supply of moisture, furnished by sufficient but not excessive rainfall, makes a large yield IRRIGATION 37 reasonably certain. Whether irrigation can be made to take the place of the natural water supply, is still an unsolved problem, at least with us. An oversupply at any time is liable to produce a large proportion of scallions, and the bulbs will be of inferior quality and prove poor keepers. Even in irrigation countries, in no case is it advised to irrigate oftener than once a week. CHAPTER V, A. Timely Pull and Haul WHEN AND HOW TO HARVEST THE CROP Now we come to an important point in our under- taking. cae 19 Insects and diseases............ 87] ‘What to select......c2ccevces 13 Onion cutworms............. 92\Soils and manures............. 70 Macrosporium ............-- 101|Southern states, Onions in the..... 105 —— Pe swcevecveccess «+++ 87/Storage houses. pc kace tim ne uma aioe 42 PE Nace dcueécevcescone 100| Straw ies and onions........ 8 SMIUE sce cecceseccccccccecs 95|Tillage as moisture preserver... 32 SMTED cc csrecsccccvccssscces 89} As ‘eed BNE aos cceciank 3 $8 Vermicularia .......-.+.+.+. 102|Varieties of onions........+.+++ 75 Irrigation ...........---...02. 37| Adriatic Barletta........ au ee Keeping onions during winter... 49} American ............ ceaueeecan ANUTE see eeeceeececcreeeee 13, 71| American Pearl....... al vas . 81 Animal ............... +ee+e+e 17] Australian Brown.......... ee 99 Barnyard .....ssseeeeseeeeee oti Wagletia 3c sce caserek foes 81 COMNCR s h isi ccccscccccss 27) Beaulien’s Hardy White...... 85 CO SE aa a ieee ae eoseee 72) Bermu D DRRS ES” SEE ie tee 7 Sr How to prepare it........... ESE. RUM oo oak ok oe anwa oe kec ae Sut 3 Ont Chek soos oka... Ot" Danvers: sso ss see ces Preroee t | . Marker, old style........5..... 22| Early Pearl......... idagecsouee Tracing: wheel. - 34. 3.crsceee + 24) Early Yellow Cracker....... - 79 Muck land for onions.......... 4| Early ite een. i eae 82 Nitrogenous commercial fertiliz- E me ae iis anes has sxcie ae ee Fe ee OOS sok sion vice aves page oak Old onion culture, The......... 55 Extra E Early Red. «25 svesusees P ion SGC Sea cd ov akoes tens ve 2 Foreign WAFS s bcc coc acedue 8r 114 PAGE Varieties __ Giant Gibraltar.....cccssccsscseee 84 Golden Seal..ccccccccccccces z9 Italian May....scccescecsece 82 Large Mexican.....cccccreeee 83 Mammoth Pompeii.........+. 82 Mareajola “s3s.ccdeccvesadecvar O2 Multiplier ...... oweacdveee tus. ge New: Queen. i. osacessacesoee Of Peat on. és6s cpebeneeraesesoe Pink Prizetaker....ccccoscecs Of Potato Onion.. Prizewinner ......... Red Mammoth Tripoli. 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