ONIONS 171 



while if the plants are too thick they must be thinned out, 

 or the onions will be small and inferior. 



The work of thinning onions on a large scale is a very 

 expensive operation, and every precaution should be taken 

 to avoid having to do it. If the seed is sown only a. little 

 thicker than the plants ought to stand, it is sometimes a 

 good plan, instead of thinning them out, to put on an extra 

 dressing of some quick-acting, easily-applied manure, such 

 as hen manure, which will probably make it possible for 

 the land to mature the whole crop in good shape. Onions 

 have the quality of crowding out to the sides of the rows and 

 on top of one another, so that they may grow pretty thick 

 and still be of good size, providing other conditions are 

 favorable to their development. 



It is important to have the seed sown in straight rows. 

 If the first row is laid off with a line or otherwise made 

 straight, the subsequent rows are easily made parallel to it 

 by means of the marker on the seed sower. If some 

 vacancies are found in the rows after the onions appear, 

 they may be filled by sowing onion seed in them by hand; 

 late in the season such vacancies may be sown with carrot 

 seed. 



Cultivation. As soon as the plants commence to break 

 the surface soil, cultivation should be commenced with a 

 hand cultivator that will work both sides of the row at one 

 time and throw a little earth from the plant; hand weeding 

 shculd follow at once. At the second hoeing, the plants 

 being now pretty strong, the soil should be cultivated some- 

 what deeper. This will enable a careful man to work the 

 soil very close to the plants. Onions grow naturally in the 

 surface of the land and not below it, and should never be 

 hilled up. The onion crop should be hoed and weeded as 

 often as the weeds appear or whenever the ground packs 



