296 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



mulch of fine manure, covered with boards until the 

 shoots appear, or covered with a single thickness of old 

 sacking until the shoots begin to pierce it. Any device 

 which keeps the surface moist and loose is applicable. 

 The plants usually reach a height of six or eight inches at 

 time of transplanting. 



Transplanting. Transplanted onions are usually grown 

 on lighter soils than those from seed because the crop is to 

 mature earlier and is not so dependent upon moisture re- 

 tention. Again the lighter, warmer soils give the most 

 rapid winter growth, as already stated. Preparation of 

 the land is the same as for seed sowing and the transplant- 

 ing is done at about the same time of the year from 

 February onward, according to local climate and soil con- 

 ditions. The plants are pulled, if the seed-bed is sandy, 

 and they lift easily, or lifted with a shovel and separated. 

 The top and roots are shortened about half the length of 

 each, and the plants, dropped along the rows by boys, are 

 set, with the finger or dibble, three inches apart in rows 

 12 inches distant, pressing the soil firmly around the plant. 

 Planting can be done by line or with a roller encircled by 

 rope at proper distance or by marking out shallow fur- 

 rows with the hand wheel hoe, etc. The lines must be 

 straight for ease and efficiency of subsequent cultivation, 

 which must be clean and thorough. 



The cost of growing seedlings and transplanting is more 

 than field seed-sowing, but the weeding, and cultivation 

 of the former is less. If there is no particular rush about 

 earliness, transplanting can be done after the most of the 

 season's weed-starting is over. Some growers count this 

 quite a gain. 



Growing from Sets. There are at least three kinds of 

 onion sets: "top setif" or buttons which form on the seed 

 stem in the place of the seed, according to variety; "bot- 

 tom sets, ' ' which are either small bulbs from thickly sown 

 seed, prematurely ripened, or small bulbs which form be- 

 side the old bulbs in some varieties. In California the 

 varieties which habitually produce top or bottom sets in 



