ONION 



1461 



Cow peas may be of great service in 

 bringing new land into shape for planting 

 to onions. 



Crop Rotation 

 Onions should not be planted on the 

 same piece of land year after year, and 

 some system of crop rotation should be 

 maintained. Care should be taken, how- 

 ever, to use crops in the rotation that 

 will not be exhaustive of the high fertil- 

 ity necessary in the onion land. During 

 the years when the land is not devoted 

 to onions it can be planted to some truck 

 crop that will give a return that will 

 justify the application of large quanti- 

 ties of fertilizers, or, better, to a legum- 

 inous crop to be turned under as green 

 manure. Continuous cropping with on- 

 ions will cause the land to become infest- 

 ed with both disease and insect enemies 

 that will sooner or later injure the crop 

 to such an extent as to render it un- 

 profitable. 



Preparation of the Soil 



Assuming that the land intended for 

 planting to onions is capable of being 

 brought to a good mechanical condition, 

 fertile, well drained, and reasonably free 

 from weed seeds, the first step in the pro- 

 duction of the crop will be to plow mod- 

 erately deep, then harrow, disk, roll, and 

 drag until the soil is smooth and mellow 

 to a depth of four or five inches. The 

 method of preparing the soil will depend 

 somewhat upon its character, the manner 

 of planting to be followed, and the re- 

 quirements for irrigation. There are few 

 truck or other crops that require so care- 

 ful fitting of the soil as do onions, and 

 it is essential that the fertilizers be well 

 mixed with the soil. 



On soils that are naturally well drain- 

 ed and where surface water can not ac- 

 cumulate, the plowing may be done in 

 large blocks, but where the opposite con- 

 ditions are found or irrigation is prac- 

 ticed it may be necessary to plow the land 

 in narrow beds. In the case of insuf- 

 ficient drainage it will be desirable to 

 throw the soil together into beds, leav- 

 ing a double furrow between each bed to 

 carry off surplus water. Where the flood- 

 ing system of irrigation is practiced the 



beds must be leveled and a system of 

 ditches and ridges provided for distribut- 

 ing and controlling the water. Where it 

 is merely desired to secure surface drain- 

 age the beds may be from 75 to 150 feet 

 in width, but for irrigation purposes the 

 beds are generally but 12 or 15 feet in 

 width. If spring plowing is practiced the 

 soil should be harrowed closely behind 

 the plow in order to prevent drying out. 



For cutting and pulverizing the soil 

 there is perhaps no tool as serviceable as 

 the disk harrow. There is a type of disk 

 having four gangs, in two sets, one com- 

 bination in front of the other and so ar- 

 ranged that the soil is first turned to the 

 center and then turned outward again 

 by means of the rear combination. This 

 tool turns the soil twice and leaves it in 

 a level condition. 



For imparting the final smoothing 

 touch to the soil before planting there is 

 a device consisting of a large number 

 of small disks set in a wooden frame 

 which does about the same work as a 

 steel rake, but in a rapid manner. A 

 drag or float made from several pieces of 

 scantling nailed together may be used for 

 this purpose, or if the soil is very loose 

 a roller should be run over it. The final 

 leveling should be performed with a tool 

 that will fill and obliterate all tracks or 

 other depressions in the soil, leaving a 

 smooth, even seed bed for either seed sow- 

 ing or transplanting. 



Fertilizers 



As the onion is an intensive crop and 

 yields great quantities of marketable 

 bulbs for the area planted, the grower is 

 justified in manuring heavily. It would 

 be difficult indeed to make the soil too 

 rich for onions provided the manures are 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil. A 

 heavy application of fresh raw manure 

 just before planting would have an in- 

 jurious effect, but where the manure is 

 well rotted and uniformly applied there is 

 nothing to be feared. 



Commercial fertilizers should not be 

 applied until shortly before sowing the 

 seed and should be uniformly distributed 

 and thoroughly worked into the soil. 

 There are one-horse fertilizer distribu- 



