14 ONIONS FOR PROFIT. 



judgment, not only make enterprises of this kind pay, but 

 make them pay well. 



Is it your idea to plant a big field in onions, to try to 

 make a big haul, and then perhaps turn your attention to 

 something else? If so I say: Don't. Your chances of 

 success are one in a million. But if you intend to start 

 moderately and with deliberation, having chosen onion 

 culture as a legitimate calling, then I say : Go ahead. Try 

 to select the most favorable conditions as to soil and 

 market. Learn, and make use of, the best methods of 

 growing and marketing the crop, and stick to your business 

 without allowing yourself to become discouraged by a fail- 

 ure which is possible even under quite favorable conditions. 

 The chances are that you will succeed in the end. Well- 

 directed efforts are usually crowned with success. 



Study the following pages and profit by the suggestions. 

 I can do little more than give general directions. It re- 

 mains for you to do the right thing at the right time. 



Does onion growing pay ? 



It will pay in exact proportion to your ability to select 

 the most favorable combination of circumstances, to your 

 own good judgment, to the thought and study you bring 

 to bear upon the question of management, to your perse- 

 verance, and to some extent, perhaps, to your luck. Of the 

 last item, however, I seldom take much account. Good 

 management and perseverance will carry you through, even 

 if luck be against you. 



Does onion growing pay? 



I have to touch upon one other aspect of the question, 

 and in this respect feel inclined to give a little special en- 

 couragement to onion growing. Onions are just the crop 

 for intensive farming. The big item in liieir production 

 is well-directed labor, not land. Their culture involves 

 some risk of loss to the unskilled or shiftless grower ; but it 



