THE OLD ONION CULTURE 57 



watch of the seed in the hopper, and also note how it is 

 deposited. Before sowing seed, it may be advisable to 

 test the machine, and its delivery of the seed. Place a 

 bed sheet or a row of sheets of paper on a barn floor ; 

 put some seed into the drill, set the drill as you think 

 it should be and sow along upon the sheet or papers. 

 Of course you want seeds deposited perhaps twice as 

 thickly in the row as you will want the plants to 

 stand. Some seeds will not grow, or the young plants 

 may die. It will be better to be compelled to thin the 

 plants a little than to have large spaces in the rows 

 without plants. Thinning is easier than rilling in with 

 plants, although both operations are only too often 

 neglected to the great injury of the crop or yield. 



When sowing seed with the drill, I begin by 

 stretching a garden line along one side of the patch, 

 a few inches frcm where I want the first row. This 

 serves as a guide, and I take great pains to have this 

 row and all the following ones perfectly straight. 

 Sow as early in the spring as soil and season will 

 permit. 



The opening marked for onion seed in the Planet 

 Jr drill lets the seed run out pretty freely, perhaps at 

 the rate of eight pounds to the acre, and when the soil 

 is in first rate order, and the seed fresh and good, as 

 this always should be, I usually let the seed run 

 through the next smaller opening, which sows five or 

 six pounds per acre. 



The Iron Age drill, when the indicator is set to 

 point to the onion mark, sows from five to seven 

 pounds of onion seed per acre. I now make the rows 

 fourteen inches apart, and when sure of the freshness 

 "of the seed, try to sow about five pounds to the acre. 

 Consequently I usually set the indicator just a trifle 

 short of the onion mark, thus making the discharge 

 opening a little bit smaller. The small roller attached 



