XVI PREFACE 



as great as those not transplanted. This enormous 

 increase in North Dakota is due to the abundance of 

 rain during the early spring." 



In practice, the large growers of fall and winter 

 onions in the great onion growing sections of the New 

 England states, New York, Ohio, Michigan, etc, have 

 been reluctant to make the change in their methods. 

 For myself, I will confess, that if I had an ideal onion 

 soil, and were growing standard varieties for fall and 

 winter market, the Yellow Danvers, Yellow or White 

 Globes, etc, I am not even now prepared to say that I 

 would not grow them by the old plan, and I am dis- 

 posed to leave the choice between the old and the new 

 to each individual grower according to his particular 

 circumstances and surroundings, and possibly personal 

 notions and preferences. 



My own soil is not particularly suited to the ordi- 

 nary onion crop. Try as I may, I am unable to grow 

 a respectable crop of Yellow Danvers or Southport 

 Globes, the leading varieties of that class, in the old 

 way. The yield, 200 or 250 bushels per acre, is below 

 the profit limit. For this reason I had to devise or 

 adapt a system of my own to make onion growing 

 profitable. I found it in the new onion culture. 



Its chief purpose is to enable me to grow very 

 large specimens, and a very large yield, of the very 

 mild onions of the sweet Spanish type. Americans 

 may not think much of the Spaniards, as a nation ; but 

 they like the mild flavor of their onions. Hundreds of 

 thousands of bushels of onions are annually imported 

 into the United States from Bermuda (the old crop 

 during January), from Cuba (new crop during Febru- 

 ary), from France and Spain (during February, 

 March, and up to midsummer). Various portions of 

 our country have the right climate and soil to raise 



