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it : 



ONION CULTURE. 



PRIZE ESSAYS AND OTHER PAPERS. 



PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



Seventeen of the following articles, as numbered in order, were written in response to a PREMIUM of- 

 fered by the American Agriculturist, (New York,) " for the best plain practical directions on raising onions; 

 to be written by an experienced Onion Grower; not to exceed twelve pages of manuscript; to embrace the 

 various items, from the selection of the seed to marketing the crop all written out so plainly as to be use- 

 ful to those who have had little or no experience in the cultivation of the crop." Many articles were received 

 from various parts of the country, all of which were of more or less value. As but one or two only could 

 ven in the American Agriculturist, a selection was made of the Essays giving the greatest variety of ex- 

 perience, and published in the present form. The work at once became the standard authority on Onion 

 Culture, and edition after edition was called for. In revising the work and bringing it fully down to date, it 

 has been essentially enlarged by the addition of valuable matter. Wherever the prices of onions are 

 mentioned in the following pages, they are those which prevailed at the time when the Essay was written. 

 The current market rates are given in the daily papers of large cities. 



No. I. 



[THE writer of the following has, we believe, had an experience of some thirty years in growing onion* 

 for market ED.} 



BY WM. J. JENNINGS, OF WESTPOET, CT. 



SELECTION OF GROUND. A deep loamy soil is con- 

 sidered the best for onions, though they will grow on 

 soil a large proportion of which is clay. A light 

 porous soil with a gravelly subsoil should be avoided. 

 The surface of the ground should be nearly level, as 

 hilly ground is liable to wash from heavy rains. In 

 electing a piece of ground for onions, there are sev- 

 eral things that should be considered. 



1st. Ground that is stony should be avoided, unless 

 the cost of removing the stones is first considered. 



2d. Ground that is overrun by weeds and trouble- 

 some grasses, should not be chosen until they are first 

 ubdued. 



3d. Ground that is shaded will not do ; neither that 

 which is too wet to be worked early in the spring. 



Having attended to the foregoing hints, it is also 

 important to select with reference to cultivating the 

 same ground for onions for an indefinite length of time, 

 lor in so doing, the labor of first preparation is avoided ; 

 idea, each succeeding crop is more easily cultivated, 

 orovided the previous work has been thoroughly ione . 



PREPARATION OP GROUND FOR SOWING. - - Having 

 made a suitable selection of ground, the next thing to 

 be considered is its preparation. First gather out the 

 stones pretty thoroughly putting the largest ones into 

 fences, the middling-sized ones into blind ditches, and 

 the smallest ones into the mud-holes of the roads. In 

 this way some good is done. Above all, avoid the 

 heathenish practice of emptying them by the road- 

 side, not only disfiguring the roads, but giving a har- 

 bor for briers, elders, and the ten thousand noxiou* 

 weeds that now infest such places. In the next plact 

 give the ground a heavy coat of the best manure 

 Hog-pen is the best home-made manure; next, stable, 

 if not too coarse; next, common barnyard, well rotted 

 As to the quantity of manure on an acre, that must 

 be determined in part by the condition of the soil 

 From twenty to thirty loads of forty bushels per load, 

 make a very good cx>at to begin with. After this i 

 deeply ploughed in, a top dressing of wood ashes say 

 150 or 200 bushels to the acre, may be given, or fron* 

 300 to 500 Ibs. of guano, or bones around or sawei 



