V. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

 TWO WAYS OF PLANTING. 



THE REGULAR OLD WAY. — TESTING THE SEED VARIETIES. — SOAKING 

 SEED. — GARDEN DRILLS. — QUANTITY OF SEED PER ACRE. — SOWING. 



— SOWING BY HAND. — THE NEW WAY. ITS ADVANTAGES. — 



VARIETIES SUITED FOR IT.— GROWING THE PLANTS. — HOTBEDS. 

 — GREENHOUSES. — HARDENING THE PLANTS. — TRANSPLANTING. — 

 COST OF SETTING PLANTS. — THE OLD AND THE NEW. — MARKERS. 

 DIBBER. — TRIMMING THE PLANTS. 



Until 1889, when I accidentally stumbled on the method 

 now appropriately called ''The new onion culture," the 

 plan of sowing seed directly in open ground where the crop 

 is to come to maturity was the regular method, and sup- 

 posed to be the only one practicable and profitable. I 

 have now almost entirely abandoned it, except in growing 

 small pickling onions and sets, simply because I can do 

 better when growing them in the new way. Still, the 

 old one often gives excellent results, and is yet generally 

 practiced. Last year I saw a crop of Danvers Yellow 

 onions on rich, sandy muck that yielded nearly a thousand 

 bushels per acre. Under especially favorable conditions 

 the bulbs often grov/ in great heaps or rolls, we might say 

 in tiers, along in the rows, crowding each other sideways 

 and up and down, and when pulled nearly cover the 

 ground. 



This system requires no extra preparation in the way of 

 raising plants under glass, and will undoubtedly remain in 

 favor with the rank and file of truckers for producing the 

 main crop of the ordinary long-keeping onion varieties, 



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