72 THE NEW ONION CULTURE 



constituents. Next to this manure, that from the 

 pigsty is considered most valuable, although rotten 

 barnyard manure of any kind gives good results. It 

 is customary to deposit the manure in large piles where 

 it can undergo fermentation, or to compost it with 

 other materials. From forty to seventy-five loads per 

 acre should be applied if a large yield is expected. 

 It should be spread evenly over the surface just before 

 plowing in the fall or early spring, a manure spreader 

 being valuable for this purpose. 



"Hen manure will produce the best results when 

 applied as a top-dressing before planting. Poultry 

 droppings should be dried and pulverized before broad- 

 casting. Specially prepared composts should also be 

 spread after plowing and thoroughly mixed with the 

 surface soil by harrowing. A common practice near 

 large cities is to secure night soil and compost it with 

 barnyard manure, muck or loam. This makes a val- 

 uable top-dressing. Care should be exercised that all 

 the manures used are free from weed seeds. 



"We may learn something on the question of 

 fertilizing by studying the composition of the onion. 

 An analysis made by the Connecticut experiment 

 station of White Globe onions showed that 2000 pounds 

 of mature bulbs contain 2.70 pounds of nitrogen, 0.92 

 pound of phosphoric acid, and 2.09 pounds of potash. 

 The average legal weight per bushel in different parts 

 of the Union is about fifty-six pounds. A yield of 

 800 bushels per acre is frequently reported. A crop 

 of this size (44,800 pounds), therefore, would remove 

 from an acre of soil 60.48 pounds of nitrogen, 20.61 

 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 46.82 pounds of potash. 



"This shows that the onion removes the three 

 essential fertilizing constituents from the soil in large 

 quantities, and these must be supplied to the soil if it 

 does not already contain them. Soils which have been 



