10 ONIOiVS FOR PROFIT. 



desire to make this onion business pay — I mean, make it 

 pay anywhere near the profits that it can be made to pay — 

 you will have to leave the old ruts, and adjust your methods 

 to fit modern conditions. If you are plodding along, and 

 just manage to get poor pay, or even a moderate one, for the 

 actual work done in the onion field, I do not concede 

 that the business pays you. The onion grower has to 

 invest money, — in land, in manures, in seed, in labor. 

 He ought to get some dividends over and above his out- 

 lay. He ought to get big pay for his experience and skill, 

 if he brings any to bear on his enterprise, and something 

 for his thought and study. Of course, if he does only 

 mechanical work, and has neither experience nor skill ; if 

 he follows the same methods that his father did many years 

 ago, and makes no effort whatever to improve his ways, — he 

 is not entitled to any reward save the ordinary price of 

 unskilled labor, and is not likely to get more. 



The premium — and a big one at that — is always on supe- 

 rior skill. Thought and study pay a hundred per cent, 

 where mechanical labor pays ten. If you would be an 

 onion grower, by all means be a good one. Study the 

 business as you would a trade. By reading all the good 

 books written on onion growing in America (there are not 

 many such treatises, and they cost but little) you can make 

 the experience of others your own at a much smaller 

 expense than if you gathered it in the field yourself. 



On the other hand, I am going to lay particular stress 

 upon it that you must verify this experience of others in 

 your own field practice. Only don't attempt to reap prac- 

 tical experience by the acre or acres. This is the most 

 expensive method of getting experience. Glean it in a 

 little patch at first, and as you get strong in knowledge 

 and skill and confidence, enlarge your area as you deem 

 safe. 



