38 



foreign trade, during the summer. The varieties usually grown are 

 the Large White Globe and White Strasburg, There is little market 

 for these radishes outside the big cities. 



Onions. 



While onions are not a root crop, properly speaking, they are 

 treated somewhat similarly, and may well be considered in such an 

 article as the present. As grown by market gardeners they are logi- 

 cally classed with the crops just considered, and are handled in a 

 very similar manner. The market gardener finds a sale for onions 

 when the size of a pencil, as bunched onions or rareripes. He also 

 grows them for bushel onions, more often producing the ripe onions 

 from sets than from seed. Sets are small onions, about the size of a 

 marble, which are put into the ground the last of March or the first 

 of April, and which give one of the first crops from the garden. 



Growing onions from seed is most often practiced when they can 

 be handled as a companion crop. One of the most profitable com- 

 binations is that of celery and onions. Celery seed is sown in rows 

 4 to 5 feet apart and three or four rows of onions are sown between. 

 In order to make this cropping successful the land must be filled 

 with plant food and plenty of moisture. The seed for both these 

 crops is sown early in April, before the 15th if the ground can be 

 made ready. The rows are spaced about 12 inches apart. Where 

 late celery is so grown the rows must be farther apart. The onions 

 from this seeding are ready to harvest in late August or early Sep- 

 tember, and the room given to celery when it is making its most 

 rajoid growth. It is often the custom to use onion sets instead of 

 seed between the celery rows. The onions grown from sets are har- 

 vested in July. 



The best soil for onions is a medium, heavy loam, well filled with 

 humus. It is best to use a large amount of manure for the crop 

 preceding the onions and not apply much fresh manure for this 

 crop. A commercial fertilizer analyzing 4 per cent nitrogen, 8 per 

 cent phosphoric acid and 10 per cent potash is suitable. The appli- 

 cation should be 1,000 pounds to the acre. Growing transplanted 

 onions has become a common practice among market gardeners. The 

 advantages are earlier maturity and the possibility of producing 

 long-season varieties of greater size and better quality than can be 

 grown from seed in New England. Prizetaker is the variety most 

 commonly so grown. The seed of this variety is sown about Febru- 

 ary 15, under glass, either in the greenhouse or hotbed. A single 

 hotbed sash 3 by 6 feet should cover from 5,000 to 8,000 plants. 

 About twenty sashes are required to gTOw plants enough for an acre. 

 The labor in setting these plants is great, but market gardeners find 

 this method of growing onions profitahle. The plants are set in rows 



