The Bulletin. 27 



Onions do best on liglit, loamy soils liberally supplied witb humus. 

 Heavy soils make smaller bulbs, and as they are longer in growing, 

 they are apt to be very pungent. Of late, onion growing has become 

 developed to a considerable industry in some parts by the use of peat 

 or muck lands. 



The method to be employed in growing onions will depend on the 

 latitude north or south. In the north, good crops of dry onions can 

 be raised in the summer season by planting seed, sets, or plants in the 

 spring and harvesting them in the fall. In the far south, where the 

 winters are mild, this can be done in the fall, winter, and early spring 

 months. The summer season in the South is too hot for the production 

 of this crop. In North Carolina we are somewhat between seasons in 

 the production of onions. In the higher and consequently cooler 

 region of the western part of the State the onion crop is grown in the 

 summer season as is done in the North. In the southeastern portion of 

 the State only the winter culture is practicable, for as soon as the plants 

 get into hot weather they stop growing and begin to mature before the 

 bulbs are of marketable size. In this warm region the summer onion 

 is usually so injured by the onion thrips that the bulbs scarcely grow to 

 be larger than sets. In the east the best method of raising onions is 

 by planting sets in the fall and winter months. The most economical 

 way is to put the rows 12 to 15 inches apart and give cultivation by the 

 wheel-hoe. The sets will grow in the cool but bright days of winter and 

 may be marketed as bunch or green onions in February and March. If 

 the market is not good for bunch onions at that time, they may be 

 allowed to remain in the ground, when they will mature a crop of large 

 onions in May and early June before the hot weather and thrips can 

 injure them. These mature onions produced from sets must be mar- 

 keted soon, because they do not keep long in hot weather. 



A method of raising onions that is becoming more common, espe- 

 cially where there is plenty of labor, is the raising of onion plants m 

 a bed or frame and transplanting them into the field wheir they are 

 about half the thickness of a lead pencil. This method gives a larger 

 crop than the seed or set method, but as there is a good deal of hand 

 labor about it, it is not practicable except in localities where labor is 

 abundant. For the transplanting method in the eastern part of the 

 State the seed should be sown in December and the plants set out in 

 February. In the mountain regions the seed is sown in the beds in 

 February and the plants set in April. 



No crop needs more thorough preparation of the land than onions. 

 The plants are shallow-rooted and require the cleanest and most inten- 

 sive tillage. It is for this reason that it is generally believed that 

 onions should not be rotated, but should follow year after year on the 

 same land, for there is no cleaner crop for onions to follow than an 

 onion crop. The earth should not be hilled up over the bulbs, but 

 they should be on top of the ground so that nothing impedes their 



