EXPERIENCE OP PRAOTICAL GBOWERS. 



21 



and press them all gently down with a rake-head, or 

 something of that sort, and as soon as the roots let go 

 of the soil, I use a wooden-toothed rake and turn them 

 over, if it is likely to be fine a day or two, and then 

 pick them up and carry them to a shed or barn-floor, 

 and lay them out thin, till perfectly dry. After this, a 

 good dry cellar I believe is the best place to keep them. 



They told me in Illinois when I left, that I could not 

 grow onions in Iowa as I did there, but I find I can ; 

 and I oelieve better ; but I have not begun to grow 

 them in the field yet, as we have no market for them. 

 They pay well if you have a market, if you manure 

 well, and care for them as you should. 



No. XII. 



BY J. B. WAKEMAN, FAIRFIELD CO,, CT. 



IT is over twenty-five years since I raised my first 

 crop of onions. I commenced with two rods of ground, 

 and have increased to eight acres. There is but one 

 place in the United States where more onions are 

 raised than here ; that is in Danvers, Mass., where it 

 has been stated they raise more than 200,000 bushels 

 a year. But New- York market is mostly supplied 

 from this section. It would be rather a low estimate 

 to place the yield of this town at 140,000 bushels a 

 vear. Great crops were formerly raised in "Wethers- 

 field, but of au inferior quality, rather small, and sent 

 to market in bunches. 



I think I can say, from the time that I first com- 

 menced raising onions, up to the present time, I 

 have raised more bushels to the acre than any other 

 person about here. The first and most important item 

 is the seed. It is very important to know what kind 

 of onions it was raised from. In other crops we can 

 generally tell by the looks of the seed, whether it is 

 good or not. Not so with onions. It is impossible to 

 tell by the looks of the seed whether it will raise 

 scallions, or the flat onion, or the round deep onion, 

 which is mostly raised in this section. There was a 

 great deal of seed bought in New- York last year, by 

 the farmers near here, which raised mostly scallions 

 without bottoms. It has been estimated by many that 

 it was a loss to them of from ten to twelve thousand 

 dollars. It would be some satisfaction to know from 

 what kind of onions it was raised. I think it must be 

 onions that were grown on a poor soil, and were not fit 

 for market, but left until the next year for seed. 



I raised the flat onion when I first commenced the 

 business. They will not yield one third as much as 

 the round onion ; so we can not judge what the result 

 will be if we do not know what kind of onions our 

 seed was raised from. We have, by selecting the 

 large round deep onion from year to year, improved 

 o\ir quality and quantity, so that we raise six to nine 

 hundred bushels where we once raised not more than 

 three to five hundred bushels. "We select the most 

 solid, largest, deepest, and brightest for seed. Seed- 

 onions should be kept from freezing. A light freezing 

 will sometimes injure the chit or germ. 



The best ground for raising them is level land with 



a deep soil, free from stones. But I have raised them 

 successfully on gravelly soil and quite stony. I pre- 

 fer, however, a deep loamy soil. I would plant the 

 ground with corn or potatoes I prefer corn one or 

 two years. It should be highly manured, and not a 

 single weed allowed to go to seed. "When the corn- 

 crop is gathered, prepare the ground in the fall for the 

 next year's crop of onions, by putting on twenty cart- 

 loads of well-rotted manure, fifty bushels to the load, per 

 acre. It should be free from weed-seed, and ploughed 

 in deep, and not harrowed in the fall. I have 

 ploughed my ground both spring and fall, manuring at 

 the same time. It is not more than half the work to 

 prepare ground for the seed, that was ploughed in the 

 .fall, and the yield is as good, if not better Hog- 

 manure is the best, but any kind of strong manure 

 will do. All manure should be free from seed. 

 Manure, either fine or coarse, should be ploughed 

 in deep. If ashes are to be had, put on one to 

 two hundred bushels to the acre. The crop of onions 

 will pay for them the first year, and they will last from 

 five to eight years. Bone dust is a fine manure. The 

 ground in the spring should be prepared for the seed 

 as soon as it is dry, by harrowing with tooth and brush, 

 until the ground is level. It will not do to have the 

 ground too mellow. It should be rather hard to have 

 the onions bottom well. It needs to be very mellow, 

 about an inch deep, and raked off" level. It requires 

 from three to four pounds of seed to the acre. I sow 

 them by a machine made very simple, and costing from 

 two to four dollars. It sows two rows at once, twelve 

 inches apart, the wheels being six inches from the 

 hoppers that drop the seed. The first row must bo 

 perfectly straight, which will be a guide to the second, 

 and so on. To cover them up, I take a hoe that stands 

 in well, and push it along over the line where the seed 

 is. "When they get up so that I can see the rows, I 

 commence hoeing them, and as soon as there are any 

 weeds to be seen, weed them ; and continue to hoe 

 and weed as long as there is a weed to be seen. It 

 will not pay to sow a piece of onions if they are not 

 taken care of, and no crop pays better if well tended. 

 There are some farmers that lose one third or more of 

 their crop by not taking proper care of them, and let* 



