62 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 169. 



times, and in 1842 the first premium of $10 was offered by the Essex 

 Agricultural Society for their production. We have evidence that one 

 town raised onions on certain lands for eighty successive years prior to 

 1849. A history of the town of Danvers, — ■ the most important onion- 

 producing town in Essex County, — written in 1848, says that approxi- 

 mately 120,000 bushels of onions were raised yearly, and that "probably 

 no town in the world raises as many onions as Danvers." 



It was not until 1850 that the cultivation of onions began in the Connect- 

 icut Valley, in the town of Sunderland. From that date the acreage 

 steadily increased, and by 1875 had spread along the river through Frank- 

 lin, Hampshire and Hampden counties. By the year 1885 the supremacy 

 of Essex County in the onion industry was seriously challenged, and from 

 1895 the Connecticut Valley became indisputably the onion area of Mas- 

 sachusetts. Until the census year 1905 the town of Sunderland main- 

 tained first position both in acreage and in production, but since that time 

 it has been outstripped by Hatfield. 



The nationality of western Massachusetts farmers has changed con- 

 siderably, particularly in the onion and tobacco industries. In 1853 in the 

 four western counties — Berksliire, Hampsliire, Hampden and Franklin 

 — foreign laborers constituted less than one-fifth of the total, and those 

 were mostly Irish and French. In the eastern part of the State by far 

 the larger number of hired farm laborers were foreign. In the counties of 

 Norfolk, Middlesex and Essex more than three-fourths were foreign. 

 The influx of Poles, Lithuanians and Slovaks, which had fairly set in by 

 1890, has had a direct effect on the growth of the onion and tobacco 

 industries in the Connecticut Valley. Since that date the proportion of 

 these races has been steadily increasing and the onion industry, which 

 calls for a large amount of hand labor which the foreigners are willing 

 and able to give, has grown steadily. In 1895, 16 per cent, of the foreign 

 population in Deerfield, Sunderland, Montague, Whately, Amherst, 

 Hadley and Hatfield were born in Poland, Austria and Rusgia. In 1905 

 the proportion had grown to 44 per cent. A seed firm doing a large busi- 

 ness in the valley reports that its list of customers in 1895 contained the 

 names of only two foreigners: in 1915 the total number of customers in 

 the same territory was 198, of whom 145 were foreign born. 



There has been no striking change in the methods of growing onions. 

 In early times the seed was planted by hand; but since the introduction 

 of onion culture along the Connecticut River the hand seeder and hand 

 cultivator have come into use. Adaptations and improvements of these 

 two implements have been practically the only change worth noting 

 in the culture of the onion. 



In 1916 the eight-row horse seeder made its appearance. These gang 

 seeders are proving very satisfactory. They make possible at least eight 

 rows that are sown alike and spaced evenly, and with the tank attach- 

 ment for carrying formaldehyde solution an effective treatment for smut 

 may be applied directly when the seed is sown. 



