160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1.5. 



think they are almost invaluable in a large fam- 

 ily. The red are the same in every respect, but 

 do not grow as large as the white. 



Shallots are very hardy. Pile them up in an 

 out-building on the ground, and throw any 

 coarse litter over them, and they will keep till 

 spring perfectly. I suppose they would do well 

 in the gi'eenhouse through the winter. 



Rail, Mo., Jan. 8. N. A. E. Ellis. 



From the above it would seem that these 

 shallots bear top-sets like our old-fashioned on- 

 ions. But this statemiMit contradicts what we 

 said in Gleanings— see page 863, last year. 

 The Cleveland Nursery Co., Rio Vista. O.. told 

 us they do not run to top-sets. Well, here is 

 something more in regard to chives, shallots, 

 multipliers, etc. The letter looks as though it 

 ought to be authority in regard to the matter: 



Friend Root: — The shallot, or eschalot (Alli- 

 um Ascalonicum) , is a native of Palestine. It 

 was first introduced into England in 1.548. It Is 

 quite extensively cultivated, and used in the 

 same manner as the onion. It can be increased 

 only by division. In this latitude the bulbs 

 should be planted during the month of October, 

 in rows about 18 inches apart, and 6 to 8 inches 

 apart in the rows. They require rich soil and 

 thorough cultivation to secure the best develop- 

 ment of the bulbs. With Southern gardeners, 

 shallots are one of the earliest and most profita- 

 ble crops, their shipping season being from the 

 first of December until March. 



Chives (Allium Scluenoprasuni) is a native 

 of Siberia. It is the smallest of the onion fam- 

 ily, and one of the finest-flavored, of very easy 

 culture, propagated by division. 



Garlic (Allium saUvmn) belongs to the same 

 genus as the onion and leek. It is a perennial, 

 and grows wild in the southern parts of Euroi)e. 

 It is more esteemed as a medicine than as an 

 article of food. The plant, especially the root, 

 has a pungent taste, and the odor, which is very 

 otfensive, is far more penetrating and diffusive 

 than that of the onion. It is said that, when 

 garlic is applied externally, the smell can be ob- 

 served in the breath and perspiration. 



There are also the common field garlic (Alli- 

 um vineale), supposed to have been brought to 

 this country from Wales, and Allium^ Cana- 

 den.se, or wild garlic, which is indigenotis, and 

 commonly found in moist meadows. Th(> two 

 last kinds are quite a nuisance in some local- 

 ities. S. W. Pike. 



St. Charles. 111., Nov. 34, 1893. 



Now, then, it is bad enough to have onion- 

 sets, both to]) and bottom, quoted in all our 

 seed-catalogues, year after year, at from '*5.0() 

 to $10.00 a bushel, let alone having shallots, 

 multipliers, and potato onions, quoted at the 

 same i)rice. Why, I wonder what these cata- 

 logue men are thinking about. Have they got 

 the idea that the world in general— I mean the 

 gardening world — are so lazy that, instead of 

 raising their own onion-sets, or, rather, instead 

 of saving some over for seed, the great garden- 

 ing world is going to buy of them, and pay 

 them $3.00 a peck? It is positively ridiculous. 

 If the readers of Gleanings alone can not fill 

 this " long-felt want," and bring down the price 

 of these garden commodities, then I am asham- 

 ed of them — that is all. 



In order to give you something of an idea of 

 how it is to be done, I am going to copy quite 

 considerably from an article that appeared in 

 that excellent home paper. The Country Gen- 

 tleman. al)out a year ago. It gives us a glim r)se 

 of a plac(Mn York State whei'e they raise po- 

 tato onions by the carload; and out there they 

 are glad to get even .$3.00 a (fK/rrcI instead of 

 $3.00 a peek. I do not know wh(!ther they have 

 got any this year or not. I5y the way, if any of 



the readers of Gleanings know where we can 

 get potato onions, multipliers, and shallots, say 

 for $3.00 or $3.00 a barrel, I wish they would 

 write and tell Gleanings, and I will give them 

 a free advertisemcait for a little time, and see 

 if we can not find where we can buy these 

 things at reasonable prices. Now, then, for the 

 " how to do it." 



ONION-GROWING IN NIAGABA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 

 [An address on Onion Culture delivered before the Ne%v Yorlf 

 State Ag-'l Society Farmers' Institute, Middleport. N. Y., Jan. ■>, 

 1S98, by Win. Batnrielv.] 



About tliiity years ago Mr. Zadoc Stewart, living 

 on ttie Ridge road three miles nortli of Middleport, 

 bought and planted a half-bushel of English Multi- 

 plier onions, the first ever grown in our locality. 

 He saved all Ids crop from year to year, and planted 

 them all until lie had what seed he desired, believ- 

 ing that onion-growing on a large scale would be 

 a profitable business. Although he did not live to 

 see the full development of his plans, the events of 

 years liave proved how well liis predictions were 

 founded. Twenty years ago Mr. H. H. Bickford, 

 who bought the farm after the death of Mr. SteM'art, 

 barreled and shipped the first onions ever sent from 

 Middlei)i)rt in carloads. He sliipped .567 barrels at 

 $4.13>^ l)er V)arrel, which amounted to the handsome 

 sum of $3339.87. From that time forward others 

 have engaged in tlie business, and their numbers 

 and the quantity raised have steadily increased, 

 until at piesent tliere are about thirty men who 

 grow from .50 to tiOO to 800 barrels each, besides 

 many more who grow them in smaller quantities. 

 There were shipped frinn Middleport and Gasport 

 last season about 8()(KI biiriels at an average price of 

 $1.87 per barrel, aiiKiunling to $14,960; and Niagara 

 County onions are (luntcd in the New York markets, 

 and are siiipped to Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, 

 Milwaukee, and many otlier of our large cities. It 

 is estimated that there are at present stored in 

 cellars for next year's planting. 5.350 bu.shels of 

 seed, and, so far as can be learned, every bushel of 

 this seed, and all the onions of this locality ever 

 sold— which is not less than 80.000 barrels, and 

 amounting to not le.ss than $175,000— is the direct in- 

 crease from the half-bu.shel of .seed planted by Mr. 

 Stewart thirty years ago. The territory devoted to 

 this business at present is confined almost exclu- 

 sivel.v to land along the Ridge road, in tlie town of 

 Hartland and western edge of Ridgeway— about 75 

 acres in all. 



The questions which probably interest you most 

 are— " How is it done?" and, "Does it pay?" I 

 know of no better way to answer the first than to 

 give my own experience, which covers a period of 

 13 years, and being, perliaps, about an average as. 

 toquantity grown, and also as to success, it would be 

 a fail' basis from whicli to draw conclusions. I have 

 stored in my cellar at jiresi'iii i:.'5 bushels of seed. 

 which I shall commence triniming by cutting off 

 the t()](s and roots, breaking apart the clusters and 

 sorting into three sizes. As soon as the frost is out 

 and the ground in condition to wmk, it will be fitted 

 by hairowing and rolling until the soil is well pack- 

 ed and pulverized, and made fine to a depth of 

 about 3 inches. Having been plowed in the fall it 

 will not be necessary to plow again in the spring, 

 unless I should want to plow under manure, and 

 that had best be done in the fall. I mark out the 

 ground with a marker drawn t)y hand in straiglit 

 rows 18 inches apart, and about 1 inch deep. I am 

 now ready to plant, which is done by pressing the 

 seed firmly in the row, roots downward, about 2i4 or 

 3 inches apart. The seed is covered by throwing a 

 light furrow on the rows with the plow attachment 

 to the Planet Jr. handcidtivator. The rows are 

 then rolled down with a hand-roller. The different 

 sizes of seed are planted by tiiemselves. The large 

 seed, which grow the clusters, ripen earlier than the 

 smaller sizes, and, by being planted each size by 

 itself, I can begin harv» sting ten days earlier than 

 though they were mixed. Besides, the universal 

 rule that "the strong prey upon the weak" asserts 

 itself with special force in the growth of the onion 

 —in other words, plant a small, weak onion between 

 two large ones, and the large ones will at once 

 reach out and api>ropriate to their own private use 

 all the availalile plaiU-l'oMd within reach, and grow 

 and thrive. utterl,\- I'egardless of the needs of their 

 hungry little neiglil)or. who, for want of its share 

 of plant-food, matures at best otdy into a little 

 dwarf. I do ni>t know whether the onion learned 

 this trait of the human species or i' ire rersa; they 



