ONIONS. 381 



They will bear about as much frost as apples, without injury; in fact, when intended for 

 spring sales it is quite a common practice to freeze them, and then cover with hay or other 

 material to prevent their thawing, keeping them well covered and frozen until a few days 

 before selling. Once freezing them does no injury, but repeated freezing and thawing is 

 ruinous. 



Some farmers who cultivate this crop extensively, have a cold, airy building constructed, 

 especially adapted to the purpose of storage, with bins of lattice work where they are stored, 

 about three feet deep, and covered well to keep them from thawing until spring, or where 

 they are spread in piles and covered with hay and other material for the same purpose. 

 When wanted for sale, they should be uncovered and allowed to thaw, and then spread a few 

 days to dry; they are then ready for market. Much labor could be saved in the spring, if, 

 as soon as the crop is taken off the field in the fall, all the decayed onions and tops, as well as 

 weeds, are cleared off, and the ground be well harrowed. The harrowing should be repeated 

 in a few weeks. This will cause the germination and subsequent destruction of any weed 

 seeds that may remain in the soil. Just before winter sets in, the field should be plowed, in 

 order that the frost may assist in mellowing and pulverizing the soil for the next year s crop, 

 which plowing also causes the destruction of worms and insect eggs by freezing. From four 

 to six hundred bushels per acre is considered a fair crop of onions, but we have known of 

 authenticated cases where a thousand and even twelve hundred bushels per acre have, in rare 

 instances of peculiarly favorable soil, season, and culture, been grown from an acre. 



