48 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



set out last fall. Of course, it will be hard to make the ma- 

 jority of my readers in other sections swallow this doctrine 

 just yet, but if they will only give it a fair trial in the South 

 during winter, and in early spring at the North, they will find 

 it true. This whole method of transplanting onions, it must 

 be remembered, is only adapted to winter culture here, our 

 climate being entirely too hot to make a success of it in 

 spring, though it seems to be perfectly successful at that sea- 

 son everywhere at the North. For those who have extra clean 

 ground, however, and are willing to give extra pains and 

 work, I am bound to say the old plan, from seed, will nearly 

 always make much the earliest and largest onions, and sev- 

 eral good growers here are adopting it. By sowing moder- 

 ately thin with a seed drill, on very rich soil, there is no doubt 

 that fully double the number of bushels can be grown on the 

 same area as by the transplanting method, for on such soils 

 I have seen onions develop to full market size, when they 

 were so close as to look as if they were piled upon one an- 

 other. Every one should try a small planting, at least, from 

 seed, as the onion is a sure money crop here. 



For the interior of Texas, where the winters are consider- 

 ably colder than on the coast, I know of several growers who 

 make large crops of fine onions every year by sowing the seed 

 thickly in rows about a foot apart, in March or early in April, 

 in rather poor soil. When the tops die down then pull up 

 and hang in a cool, dry place in sacks, or spread out under a 

 house, but keep dry. Prepare and manure the ground 

 thoroughly in September, and plant the sets in October, as 

 directed above for plants here, and about the first of May the 

 crop will mature fine, large onions. The Silver King thus 

 treated will grow to a very large size, and perhaps the 

 Prize Taker would give equally good results. This method 

 could be practiced with equal success with the Creole variety 

 here, I presume, unless the plants should shoot to seed in. 

 spring more readily. 



