VEGETABLES. 361 



ONION GROWING. 



.T. -J. BASTON, ST. LOUIS PARK. 



For onion growing, I would prefer a piece of land just rolling enough to 

 give it a good drainage, but not enough so that it would wash,by heavy 

 rains. A heavy black loam, I think, is the best. Any newly cleared and 

 broken land will grow good onions, but. If old and badly worn out, it 

 should be well manured and cultivated for two seasons before attempting 

 to grow a crop of onions. 



After the piece of ground has been put in good condition by manuring, 

 the next step is to prepare it for sowing. We plow our onion ground just 

 as soon in the spring as we can possibly do it. After it has been well 

 plowed, we give it a thorough harrowing, and, when the ground has been 

 well prepared by this process, we go over it again with an implement 

 called a "smoother," which is made something like a stone boat, eight 

 feet wide and four deep, and is used to crush the small lumps which 

 are not broken by the harrow. We either stand on this smoother and 

 ride, or else place some heavy weight upon it which will answer the same 

 purpose; and change about with the smoother and harrow until the land 

 is as fine as possible. 



The next work is to mark ready for sowing. We mark out our onion 

 ground in rows fourteen inches apart, and are careful to get them as 

 straight as possible, because then we can work closer to the row and do 

 it easier than we could a crooked one. 



Next comes the seeding, and for this purpose we prefer a Matthew's 

 garden seeder. It is gauged for all kinds of garden seeds, and we have 

 found it to be very accurate, and almost any person can operate one. 

 Now comes the most difficult part of all, that of weeding and cultiva- 

 ting, and too much care cannot be given to this. As soon as we can follow 

 the row we commence to cultivate, and by doing this we keep in check 

 the first growth of weeds. As soon as weeds begin to appear in the row, 

 we commence our hand weeding, and keep at both cultivating and hand 

 weeding until we have a thorough mastery of the weeds. 



For hand cultivator, we use the Planet Jr. double wheel hoe. For one 

 to be successful in onion growing, he must keep the onions clean from 

 weeds. 



We usually gather our onions as soon as most of the tops have broken 

 down, and, soon after pulling and topping, we put them in crates holding 

 two bushels each. 



The crates are made as follows: Sides and bottom of lath four feet long, 

 ends eight by sixteen inches; put a piece of board the size of the ends 

 in the center, the same as in the strawberry crate, and then we have 

 just room enough for a bushel in each end. These crates we can place one 

 upon another. 



We consider the Globe onion the most profitable to grow, for the reason 

 that a given number of Globe onions will measure up better than the same 

 number of any flat variety, while they occupy no more room in the row. 



