STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 4:41 



ries directly or indirectly, or else have been killed by the planter's 

 own negligence or his not knowing how to properly handle them. 

 Until, instead of trying to improve his methods, he becomes disgust- 

 ed with the business and joins the popular cry. It was the cry in 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and in Iowa. But the successful effort of per- 

 sistent men are silencing the cry there, as they will do ere long in 

 Minnesota. 



NOTES ON O^ION CULTURE. 

 By Wayland Stedman, Rochester. 



An Irish woman once told me that " it was very poor onion seed I 

 was selling her; I had sold her an ounce of seed, last spring, and nev- 

 er an onion was larger than the smallest egg; and it was the best cul- 

 tivation she gave them; for she plowed the ground a foot deep and 

 made it as loose and fine as a pile of ashes and raked the seed in with 

 a garden rake, and kept the soil pulverized all summer with a hoe." 



Now every onion grower knows that her method of culture would 

 have given a fine crop of potatoes, but was a ruinous one for onions. 

 I have found that many farmers think they cannot raise onions; as I 

 have often asked them to buy a few ounces of seed and sell us onions 

 in the fall, and in many cases the answer was: " 0, onions won't 

 grow with me; I tried to raise them some years ago and made a failure 

 of it, and now buy what few we want." 



Of course, onions are not so accommodating as wheat and oats. 

 They are like some men, they must have their own way; but, unlike 

 many men, they are not ungrateful, forgive them the soil and culture 

 that they require and they will return the kindness by yielding elev- 

 en hundred bushels per acre. Every family ought to consume a great 

 many onions, for of all cultivated garden vegetables they are the most 

 nutritious and contain more medicinal properties. 



SOIL. 



Onions must have a well drained soil. If the soil is heavy and al- 

 lows water to stand on its surface, the onion roots will all be very 

 close to the top of the ground, and will not penetrate into the soil 

 and collect sufficient plant food to make a good crop. Black soil, with 

 a sandy subsoil, is good. A slough, underdrained, is a number one 

 place for onions. 



Experience has taught me the necessity of thorough drainage, and 



