I 



BULB CROPS 27 



the seedlings. Care must be taken not to cover the 

 bulbs with soil. Toward the end of summer the leaves 

 should begin to die down as they ripen off. This process 

 is often hastened by rolling a barrel along the rows to 

 break down the tops. When the leaves are all brown, 

 the bulbs are pulled and left exposed a few days to the 

 drying sun to ripen off. Five hundred bushels to the 

 acre is a good yield for Onions. 



While the main Onion crop is grown in the way de- 

 scribed, there is a large demand, in both home and market, 

 for bunch onions in spring and early summer. These 

 are partly grown bulbs either from seeds or "sets." 

 Sets are simply dwarfed Onions grown so thickly on poor 

 soil that they crowd one another and ripen off as httle 

 bulbs, less than an inch in diameter. They are then 

 pulled and stored until next spring. Planted early, 

 they soon start into growth and in a few weeks yield 

 young Onions for pulling. Instead of sets, seedlings are 

 often grown under glass and transplanted when the 

 ground is fairly warm. 



In regions where Onions are grown commercially two 

 fungous diseases are often troublesome — the Mildew 

 and the Smut. The Onion Mildew appears as a grayish 

 velvety mold upon the leaves, many of which soon wilt 

 at the tip in a characteristic way. Millions of spores are 

 soon developed and serve to spread the malady. Damp 

 weather is favorable to the disease. 



Onion Smut is entirely different in appearance. It 

 shows on leaves and bulbs as blackish streaks made up 

 of the spores of the fungus. It is able to live over winter 

 in the soil, so that if Onions are again planted the disease 

 is Hkely to be more destructive. Consequently frequent 



