ONIONS 191 



One of the best practices now in force in 

 certain sections is to sow the fertilizer broad- 

 cast after the plants have grown to some 

 size, probably 3 inches in height. At that 

 time the fertilizer is broadcasted by a mach- 

 ine or by hand. Where a drill fertilizer dis- 

 tributor is used, it would be necessary to 

 apply the fertilizer previous to the planting 

 of the seed, even previous to planking. 



Cultivation. Cultivation begins as soon 

 as possible; that means before the plants 

 have broken through the ground. By the 

 use of a shove hoe or anyone of the wheeled 

 hoes, set so the wheels can work very close 

 to the plants in the row, the desired results 

 will be attained. As the onions permit of 

 culture only early in the season, it is neces- 

 sary to do this work very thoroughly and 

 very often. 



Weeding. Weeding can be accomplished 

 in two ways. The older practice is by hiring 

 Italian boys and women and sending them 

 through the patch on their hands and knees, 

 extracting the weeds with the fingers. 

 This is an expensive operation and calls for 

 much labor where large acreages are grown. 

 There have been one or two machines devel- 

 oped which are slowly doing away with this 



