48 THE NEW ONION CULTURE 



circumstances they would represent just so much waste, 

 or at best, we might be able to sell them as "seconds ' 

 for a reduced price to somebody who would want 

 them for immediate culinary use. Such bulbs will 

 often answer very well for mixing with others in the 

 fancy crates, as they are usually sold and used without 

 much delay, and as dealers who' handle imported 

 Spanish onions are used to just that kind of imperfect 

 bulbs, and to their deterioration and decay when kept 

 for some little time. 



To give an idea of the size of these crated Prize- 

 takers, will state that the number of specimens con- 

 tained in each crate ranged from fifty to sixty, only in 

 rare cases reaching the latter figure. The large speci- 

 mens on the table in front of the crate weighed about 

 one and one-fourth pounds apiece. A foot rule ap- 

 pears lying across the two at the right to show their 

 diameter. 



In the following I give the experience of my 

 friend, J. S. Woodward, of Lockport, who has grown 

 Prizetakers quite extensively for a number of years. 

 The soil on which they were planted was a rich, 

 sandy muck, and his crops were immense. Like me, 

 he had crates made in imitation of the imported 

 Spanish onion packages, and of the dimensions already 

 given. A crate of this kind holds something less than 

 a bushel of onions, between three and four pecks, or 

 nearly fifty pounds (the weight of a bushel of onions 

 in this state usually being taken as fifty-six pounds). 

 Mr Woodward would send a sample crate of Prize- 

 takers to some reliable commission house each in 

 Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, etc, and 

 solicit orders for a carload. Thus he has shipped his 

 crops, in carload lots, to dealers offering him best 

 prices, and he has had no trouble in disposing of his 

 large bulbs in this way, receiving for them from 



