HOW TO RAISE ONIONS. 



are good, or any well-pulverized manure that will 

 not be in the way of the harrow and rake may be 

 oe used. But take care not to use seedy manure if 

 you wish to save much labor and patience. Manure 

 may be carted on and ploughed under in the fall, or 

 in the spring just before sowing. If the ground is 

 ploughed in the fall, it will not be necessary to re- 

 plough in the spring. Fall ploughing should be put 

 off as long as possible say to the middle of November. 



Having manured and ploughed your ground, it is 

 now to be harrowed and raked, until it is as even and 

 smooth as a beet-bed. Harrows of either iron or 

 wooden teeth are first used to bring the ground to a 

 general level, and the stones to the surface; the brush 

 or bush-harrows are then used until the lumps are 

 pulverized, and the surface of the ground made 

 smooth, then wooden hand-rakes, of twelve teeth 

 each, are applied to take off the small stones and fin- 

 ish for sowing. 



Manure for top-dressing may be harrowed or raked 

 in, and if guano is used, it is well to make a second 

 application during the growth of the crop, which may 

 be scuffled in by the hoe. All manure used should be 

 ploughed under or mixed with the soil immediately 

 after it is spread. 



SOWING. Now then the seed is to be committed to 

 the ground. And here a word or two of caution is 

 necessary. Be careful what seed is sown. If you are 

 under the necessity of buying seed, procure it of some 

 reliable man, a regular, honest onion-grower. It 

 should not be over one year old, and should sink when 

 placed in water. Better not trust to seed-merchants, 

 unless actually obliged to. Rather pay $5 per pound 

 for reliable seed, than get doubtful seed for nothing. 

 Having obtained your seed, say from three to four Ibs. 

 per acre, you now proceed to deposit it in the ground, 

 which is done, where onions are raised to much ex- 

 tent, by a simple machine, (costing $5,) drawn by 

 hand, making two drills twelve inches apart, aiid 

 dropping the seed in them at the same time. Next 

 comes the covering process, which consists in drawing 

 a hand-roller over the ground lengthwise the rows; 

 or, which is the mosc common way, pushing a clean 

 Dright hoe over the drills. This may be done by uoys, 

 as they make smaller and lighter tracks than men. 

 Commence the work straight, ani then be careful to 

 keep it so ; not but that crooked rows make straight 

 onions, but for the beauty and neatness of the thing. 

 A man accustomed to it will sow three acres a day. 

 The time for sowing is the month of April, earlier or 

 later, according to the state of the ground. It is gen- 

 erally found that the earliest-sowed onions, pther 

 things being equal, do the best. 



CULTIVATION. About four weeks from the time of 

 sowing, cultivation commences in earnest. The first 

 ihing to be done in this department is to go through 

 them with an onion hoe, as soon as the rows can be 



distinctly seen, when the dew is on in the morning. 

 The hoeing this time must be light -just skimming the 

 top of the ground the hoe being put forward and 

 drawn toward the hoer. In the course of a few days 

 weeding must be commenced ; removing all the weeds 

 from among the onions. This part of the work is usu- 

 ally performed by boys, for various reasons : 1st. Be- 

 cause they 'can be hired for about half the price of 

 men. 2d. A good active boy, fifteen or sixteen years 

 old, can do as much, or more work than a man ; and 

 also because it is less tiresome for boys than full-grown 

 men : for it must be remembered that the stooping or 

 crawling posture must be assumed in weeding onion?. 

 In other words, whoever does this work must get 

 down to them, eyes, fingers, and all, and not be 

 ashamed of bis occupation, or of soiling his clothes. 

 The tools needed for hoeing and weeding onions are 

 few and simple. The most approved hoe in use, is 

 usually made from a buck-saw plate, either new or 

 worn, cut about eight inches in length, and from one 

 to two inches in width, with a goose-neck riveted or. 

 the inside of it; or to make the hoe stiffer, two goose- 

 necks are used, riveted as before, but about one and a 

 half inches from the ends of the plate, and uniting in 

 one shank in the handle, which may be about five feet 

 long. This hoe should be kept clean and bright, so 

 that the dirt will slide over it without being much dis- 

 placed. A push or scuffle-hoe is sometimes used iti 

 the advanced growth of the crop. The tools used for 

 weeding, aside from whaj nature has provided, are a 

 crooked knife, (common case or shoe-knife with the 

 lower end bent up,) and a weeder made of thin steel 

 plate, about two inches long and one wide, riveted 

 with a goose-neck, like the hoes, and fixed in a handle 

 about eight inches long. Later in the season, a largei 

 weeder is used, about four inches in length, and set in 

 a handle about two feet long. This is used, when the 

 onion-tops have become large, for the purpose of tak- 

 ng out single weeds, and when hoeing the ground 

 would iojure the onions. 



After this description of tools, we will return to 

 hoeing and weeding. As no definite rule can be giv- 

 en for the number of hoeings or weedings, this must 

 be left to the discretion of the owner, or the person in 

 charge. Suffice it to say, the oftener the ground is 

 stirred, the better for the crop. Ground should usu- 

 ally be hoed about once in two weeks during the 

 earlier part of the season, and the weeding must be 

 governed by numbers and growth of the weeds. It is 

 all-important that the weeds be not suffered to get the 

 advantage. Keep them down keep them out be 

 vigilant. Think of the old adage about the stitch in 

 time, and apply it here. 



This same vigilance must be exercised during the 

 growth of the crop. Some persons, owing to extra 

 work during harvest, are apt to neglect their onions. 

 This should never be. July is an important month tc 



