HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 175 



The following paper was read by Mr. G-ray: 

 ONIOKS FEOM SETS. 



By J. 8. Gray, Minneapolis. 



Tlie onion, ranking as it does next in importance to the potato 

 as a market vegetable by reason of its value as a muscle pro- 

 ducer, is destined in the future as in the past to be a staple arti- 

 cle of food so long as men earn their living by honest toil. This 

 fact, coupled with the records of this Society for several years 

 showing the same persons to have received the award at your 

 summer meeting on onions, induces us at this time to state to 

 you in a few words the exact manner of the cultivation of set 

 onions. We are not going to say to you just what quality of soil 

 you must have, just what depth it must be, or any of a number 

 of conditions that are often enumerated for the purpose of mak- 

 ing a simple operation complex and scaring off timid cultivators. 



Land should be manured in the fall at the rate of seventy-five 

 tons of cow manure to the acre. Now the feed of the cows from 

 which we obtain the manure is largely nitrogenous, being bran, 

 shorts and ground cockle from the flour mills. In growing a 

 crop requiring so much nitrogen as does the onion the manure 

 from the cows fed as above stated has always given good results. 

 We prefer to plow in the fall if convenient; if not, as soon as 

 possible in the spring. In spreading the manure should be well 

 broken up. We sometimes do this with a harrow and roller, 

 going over several times if necessary, so that when plowed and 

 harrowed the manure will be in fine particles and well mixed up 

 with the soil, which, you will readily see, is in fine condition for 

 furnishing plant food to the crop just as soon as rootlets are 

 formed. The land being plowed, harrowed and planked down, 

 we mark with a twelve inch marker and stick the sets three 

 inches apart and down a little beneath the surface. After plant- 

 ing we tread the rows with our feet, heel to toe, right on top of 

 the sets; the pressure firms the sets and^ breaks up any little 

 clods of soil that otherwise might in a dry time cause a drying 

 out at the roots. The planting being done, in a few days we 

 take a steel rake and rake lightly over the whole patch, which 

 can easily be done without disturbing any of the sets if the work 

 thus far has been done as before advised. This raking makes 

 an even, mellow surface and destroys all surface sprouting 



