38 ONIONS FOR PROFIT. 



all large foreign sorts, and the trouble is only that we find 

 so i^w long-keepers among them. The Prizetaker, however, 

 keeps fairly well, and when properly grown and cured can 

 be wintered over successfully. I often grow them to weigh 

 a pound and a half apiece, and find no difficulty to sell 

 them at a good price. 



Selection and preparation of the land are the same, 

 whether onions are to be grown after the one or the other 

 plan, and earliness also is a chief point of importance in 

 either case. The plants should be ready for setting out in 

 the open ground just as soon as the latter can be prepared 

 according to directions given in preceding chapter. 



Growing the Plants. 



The first and chief thing — and really the only difficulty 

 to be met in practicing the new way — is to grow the plants. 

 Perhaps we might buy them. Mr. A. J. Root, of Ohio, 

 one of the first men who saw the advantages of the new 

 system and helped to develop it, was also the person who 

 first hit upon the idea of growing onion plants for sale. 

 Quite a business was done in this line the past season. 

 Probably it will not be long before Prizetaker and White 

 Victoria onion seedlings will be quoted by the thousand and 

 hundred thousand in all seed catalogues. 



Most growers, however, will prefer to raise their own 

 plants. I do, because I save money by so doing. Of 

 course, they must be grown under glass and in artificial 

 heat. In this locality the plants should be ready to go out 

 into the open air not much later than first week of May, 

 and consequently seed should be sown from middle of 

 February to middle of March at the latest. This is a very 

 important point if we grow Prizetaker or other large, late 

 sorts. Poor plants, set late, I find, are more liable to 

 produce worthless, thick-necked romps than to produce 



