THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES XXI 



where tlie scholar may easily get bigger than his 

 teacher. 



The new trick or "secret" in onion growing elimi- 

 nates almost every element of uncertainty from the 

 whole business, and gives to even the novice such ad- 

 vantages that experienced growers, and may they live 

 in the favored climate of California, would not stand 

 the ghost of a chance in competition against him for 

 the best crop, so long as they practice only the ordinary 

 old method. 



It's mere child's play for me, or anybody that fol- 

 lows my new plan, to grow twice as many onions on an 

 acre as professional growers do under the old method, 

 and to send bulbs to market over which the commis- 

 sion merchants, and the storekeepers, and consumers 

 themselves, can grow enthusiastic; bulbs, too, which 

 are readily selling for seventy-five cents a bushel, when 

 ordinary onions bring fifty cents. 



If I had been shrewd enough to keep the matter 

 to myself, and work it for all it is worth, I might make 

 a nice round sum of money by a discretion which, as 

 usual, is the better part of valor. But it isn't my 

 nature. I have to give the whole thing away, and 

 teach my would-be competitors the w^ays in which they, 

 if their soil conditions are more favorable than mine, 

 can easily beat me. So I shall at least not be open to 

 the charge of taking an unfair advantage over them. 

 But, if I cannot be the best of all growers, I will at 

 least try 



The best of all teachers to be. 



It may be of interest to some of the readers to 

 learn the history of the new onion culture. It was in 

 1888 when a new variety of the large "Spanish" type of 



