290 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



United States, and we have sometimes produced more seed 

 than could be sold with profit to the growers. Though 

 the local consumption of onions, in proportion to the popu- 

 lation, is large, and though there is an export trade in all 

 directions, there is now and then an over-production and a 

 reaction even to scarcity, so that the market price is sub- 

 ject to wide fluctuations. A more trustworthy demand 

 would develop a producing capacity which has thus far 

 hardly been entered upon although during recent years 

 distant shipment of onions has notably increased. The 

 California onion product sometimes exceeds 300,000 sacks 

 per year. 



Though local conditions are favorable, and almost in- 

 credible returns are sometimes secured, onion growing is 

 exacting in its requirements in California, as everywhere, 

 and the crop is one which no one should undertake with- 

 out adequate resources of energy, patience, promptness 

 and elasticity either in his back or in his pocketbook. 

 No matter how well suited his soil, or how good his stand 

 of young plants upon it, a few days' neglect may put 

 them out of sight in a forest of weeds, from which they 

 cannot be profitably rescued. Still, to the diligent grower 

 who can command suitable soil and the labor needed at a 

 certain time, and is prompt and persistent in the use of it, 

 there is always the promise of as fair a crop as man needs 

 to see, for the climate not only favors growth, maturing 

 and harvesting, but it gives the plant freedom from many 

 pests and diseases, which are grievous in other countries. 



Situations and Soils. The onion is profited by a long 

 growing season. It grows most luxuriantly and its bulb 

 expands most freely in a moderate temperature and with 

 a good moisture supply. It endures heat well, if moisture 

 is ample ; it is easily forced into maturity by drought, and 

 though it is fortunate, in some respects, that the bulb has 

 the power to renew its growth and reach full size with the 

 renewal of moisture, this is little consolation to the grower 

 who aimed at a crop of marketable onions, not of onion 

 sets. It is important, then, that the growth of the plant 



