ONIONS IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 



By A. B. Beaumont, Professor of Agronomy, M. E. Snell, Technical Assistant 



in Agronomy, W. L. Doran, Research Professor of Botany, and A. I. Bourne, 



Research Professor of Entomology 1 



FOREWORD 



Massachusetts has been one of the leading states in production of onions for 

 a hundred years or more. Until 1885 the center of production in this State was 

 in Essex County, from which came the well-known Danvers Yellow Globe variety 

 still important in the Connecticut Valley. Arthur L. Dacy of the Essex County 

 Agricultural School has furnished information which appears to establish the 

 place of origin of the Danvers Yellow Globe onion as the town of Danvers, Mass- 

 a chusetts, and the time prior to or about 1850. It was apparently a selection 

 from the common yellow variety, made by Daniel Buxton. Although production 

 of onions in the Connecticut Valley began some years earlier, it was not until 

 1885, when 111 acres were grown, that it became a commercial enterprise of 

 importance. From then on the acreage expanded steadily, and from 1895 the 

 Valley has been the leading center of production in the State. Thus, within half a 

 century a new and important agricultural industry has been developed in the 

 Connecticut Valley. 



Onion culture in the Connecticut Valley developed on an extensive scale first 

 in the town of Sunderland, which is still one of the leading towns in the produc- 

 tion of onions. The onion acreage of the Valley is almost wholly confined to 

 five contiguous towns in southern Franklin and northern Hampshire Counties: 

 Sunderland, Deerfield, Whately, Hatfield, and Hadley. The fertile, level to gently 

 rolling alluvial soils common in this area are well adapted to the intensive culture 

 required in onion growing. 



An important factor which contributed to the development of the onion in- 

 dustry in the Connecticut Valley was the influx of Polish and Lithuanian immi- 

 grants. Onion farming, requiring much hand labor, particularly laborious weeding, 

 and little capital investment, was especially suited to the habits, temperament, 

 and experience of these people. Now that immigration has been highly restricted 

 and second and third generations of Poles and other recent immigrants are dis- 

 placing the first generation, it will be interesting to see what the future trend 

 of the onion industry in this Valley will be. 



The peak of the onion acreage in the Connecticut Valley was reached in 1920 

 when 4850 acres were grown. Since that time, due to a number of poor years for 

 the grower caused by low yields or low prices or both, the acreage has fluctuated 

 widely between the high ooint of 1920 and a low point of 2520 acres in 1931. 

 Owing to the small capital investment required for growing this crop, it is one 

 whose acreage fluctuates widely in response to natural and economic factors. 

 Prior to 1920 about 90 per cent of the onions of the Valley were grown from seed. 



Appreciation is expressed to the Onion Advisory Committee, composed of onion farmers, C. F. 

 Clark, Chairman, Arthur Hubbard, W. W. Sanderson, Harry Welles, and Oscar Belden; and to 

 G. B. Snyder, J. P. Jones and members of the Experiment Station Staff, for valuable advice given 

 mi the conducting of these experiments. 



