264 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



afterwards. All bulbs that will not readily pass through a grain 

 sieve with ^-inch meshes are too large for sets and should be 

 sold or used for pickling onions. 



Another method of harvesting consists of running a large 

 garden trowel lengthwise under the row, lifting up the bulbs, with 

 soil adhering to them, and throwing into a small-meshed sieve 

 to sift out the sand and soil. 



Storing. — In storing for winter the bulbs (sometimes mixed 

 with chaff) are piled up 4 or 5 inches deep in a dry loft, there 

 allowed to freeze, and covered with a foot or so of straw or hay 

 until spring. Or they may be stored in shallow open crates, and 

 protected from alternate freezing and thawing. 



Growing Bunch Onions — The ground should be put in 

 best possible condition. Use 50 or more tons of good compost 

 per acre, besides top-dressings of poultry manure, wood ashes, 

 fertilizers, etc., not to forget of nitrate of soda. The same 

 thorough preparation is required as for growing sets. Then 

 mark out the ground in rows 9 to 12 inches apart, and plant the 

 sets 2 or 3 inches apart in the rows. This is best done by pick- 

 ing up the set between thumb and forefinger, top up, and press 

 firmly down into the soil. Thus they can be planted quite rapidly. 

 Then cover still more soil over them with the feet, firming at 

 the same time, and roll. Afterwards keep the ground loose and 

 free from weeds by the frequent use of wheel and hand hoes, and 

 at earliest date commence to bunch and market. While small, 

 a dozen bulbs may be required for a bunch ; later on 6 or 7 will 

 be sufficient. 



There is still another method of growing early bunch onions, 

 and when successful, is more convenient, and often more profit- 

 able than the one described, as it requires less labor and expense, 

 and gives an earlier crop. Seed is sown during August or Sep- 

 tember (perhaps later at the South), in drills one foot apart, and 

 at the rate of 6 or 8 lbs. of good seed per acre. At the north 

 this method is risky, and the whole crop may winter-kill ; but 

 even in an exposed situtation in Western New York, I have 

 occasionally succeeded in carrying the crop through without any 

 effort at protection, and without loss. Covering with evergreen 

 boughs, or coarse litter may be a wise precaution. In the middle 

 and southern states there is nothing, to my knowledge, that could 

 hinder growing bunch onions on this plan with complete success. 



Growing the Bulb for Market. — This, as a business, 

 sometimes pays, and sometimes it does not. The financial out- 

 come depends on management, and on the season's prices. Onion 

 growing in the farm garden can easily be overdone. Only last 

 year thousands of barrels of as fine onions as were ever grown 

 had to be left to spoil, or were fed to stock, for want of buyers at 

 even 25 or 30 cents per barrel. 



