84 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Makch 14, 191i. 



VEGETABLE GROWING. 



HINTS TO ONION GROWERS. 



Copies have just been received of a circular contaiDing 

 a series of hints to onion growers, prepared at the suggestion 

 and request of the Superintendent of Agriculture for the 

 Leeward Islands, by the Curator of the Botanic Station, 

 Antigua. The hints are concise and practical, and should 

 prove of considerable value, particularly to the small growers. 

 The following is a summary of the points dwelt upon in 

 the circular. 



As regards seeds, these should not be kept in paper 

 parcels, though they may be stored in air-tight receptacles for 

 a period of a few months. In connexion with the nursery 

 ■work, beds should be prepared before the arrival of seed in 

 order that the soil may 'cool out': to keep ants away from 

 seed, kerosene should be applied to the bed before germina- 

 tion, not after. As regards watering, a good soaking every 

 three or four days gives better results than daily sprinkling, 

 and the water should not be applied after 8 a.m. In trans- 

 planting, the labonrei.: must be carefully watched to prevent 

 their damaging the young plants by careless handling. 



Onions are liable to the attacks of caterpillars. To 

 check this, dusting with Paris green and lime should be 

 resorted to. but the grower must not dust with any insecti- 

 cide when the bulbs are nearing maturity. 



Coming to the establishment of the crop in the field, the 

 planter should remember that sowing seed in sita will give 

 a crop from three to five weeks earlier in maturing than when 

 the transplanting method is adopted; but it appears that 

 a large proportion of the onions raised in this way may be of 

 indifferent shape. In collecting the crop, the bulbs must 

 not be left in the field for any length of time after pulling, 

 though a fevp hours in the sun is a good thing. The bulbs 

 must not receive the slightest injury, nor must the necks of 

 the bulbs be twisted to hasten ripening if it is the intention 

 to ship. Onions deep in the soil often rot before they are 

 thoroughly ripe; these should be used to meet local demands; 

 they are unfit for export. 



Turning to the subject of shipment, it may be stated that 

 the New York and Canadian markets disapprove of onions 

 with thick necks, though so far, there is no such objection on 

 the intercolonial markets. The bulbs must be shipped in 

 standard crates in a well dried condition and packed tight. 

 On the crate should be put 'keep from frost and boiler', in 

 the case of produce going to the North; and 'keep from 

 boiler', in the case of bulbs bound for the neighbouring 

 colonies. 



Lastly, growers in Antigua are requested to bear in mind 

 the existence of the Onion Growers' Association whose 

 object it is to standardize Antigua onions, and of the 

 Officers of the Agricultural Department whose aim it is to 

 assist by giving advice in regard to cultivation and allied 

 matters. 



Official information has been received from Antigua to 

 the eflect that the Onion Growers' Association is now actively 

 at work handling produce, and the first trial shipment of 10 

 crates was sent on February 14 to Barbados, each crate 

 shipped by the Association containing a printed handbill with 

 the following notice inscribed: — 



'These onions have been graded, packed and exported by 

 the Antigua Onion Growers' Association. 



'Addre.ss enquiries to the Secretary, St. Johns, Antigua, 

 B.W.L' 



A few notes are given in the Queensland AgricuUxiral 

 Journal (New Series, January 1914) on the keeping of 

 onions. It is pointed out that onions when pulled .should 

 not be stored away at once but should be left on the ground 

 for a few hours to dry. The}' require constant looking over 

 to sort out any bad ones for, as in the case of fruit, a single 

 rotting onion will infect all those in its immediate neighbour- 

 hood. Reference is made, in continuation, to a very interest- 

 ing manurial experiment in connexion with the effect of 

 chemical fertilizers upon the tendency to [sprout. It was 

 found that the produce from plots deprived of sulphate of 

 potash were exhausted by a too hurried vegetation, whilst 

 that which had received the potash manure was perfectly 

 preserved. The writer advocates the application of 1 cwt. 

 of sulphate of potash per acre. 



PLANTING SWEET POTATOES FROM 

 SPROUTED TUBEKS AND VINES. 



The Curator of the Botanic Station, Montserrat, has 

 sent in the results of an experiment carried out to test the 

 value of sweet potato cuttings taken from sprouted tubers 

 as compared with cuttings taken from the vines in the 

 ordinary way. It may be mentioned that similar experiments 

 were conducted in Cuba some few years ago and reported 

 on in the Aijrkultural Neu-s, Vol. VII, p. 120, where it will 

 be found that the plots planted with slips returned a crop 

 three and a half time.s as great as those planted with 

 cuttings. In this experiment the gain of 350 per cent, fully 

 repaid the extra expense and trouble involved. 



In the recent Montserrat trials there has been no such 

 phenomenal difference noticed, though the figures show there 

 was, in the case of some varieties, quite a considerable increase 

 in yield from the tuber cuttings compared with the vine 

 cuttings. It is interesting to observe that no difference in 

 vigour was noticed in the rows planted with the two kinds of 

 material. 



The following are a few of the yields which seem to be 

 the most striking: Red Bourbon (ordinary vines) 114 lb., 

 (tuber cuttings) 145 fti.; White Gilkes (ordinary vines) 8;j ft)., 

 (tuber cuttings) 111 ft). In no case did the tuber cuttings 

 give a lower yield than the ordinary vines, but it is not 

 established that the average increase is sufficiently large to 

 warrant the systematic planting of tuber cuttings instead of 

 ordinary vines. At the same time the matter is worth serious 

 consideration in the case of one or two special varieties. 



It should be stated that as regards the size of the plots 

 utilized in the experiments, the length of the row was 81 feet, 

 the rows were 4 feet apart and the plants 2 feet. Each plot 

 was therefore approximately j^.^-acre in area. 



The AijricuUivral Journal of the Union of South Africa 

 (December 191-3) contains an interesting account of the 

 history of the wattle industry in Natal. It appears that 

 seeds of the black wattle tree were imported by private 

 enterprise as early as ISGi from Australia. The industry at 

 that time received the full support of the Dutch Government. 

 It is interesting to quote the following figures showing the 

 progress which has been made since 1886: In 1886, thirty- 

 nine packages value £11 were exported; in 1896, 3,378 tons 

 worth £16,4-50 was shipped; in 1906, 14,820 tons, value 

 £89,443 was exported; and in 1912, 59,103 tons worth 

 £283,010 was exported. 



