214 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



POTATO ONION 



" Last November," writes J. G. Orsburn of Ken- 

 tucky, " I planted 125 acres in potato onions. The 

 land was well manured with chicken and stable 

 manure mixed. It was broken deep and close, and 

 harrowed nicely. The rows were laid off 3J/2 feet 

 with a garden plow, and the onions were covered 

 4 or 5 inches deep to keep them from freezing out 

 of the ground in winter. No more attention was 

 paid to them until the opening of spring, when the 

 ground was dry enough to work. Then I cultivated 

 shallow, and kept it up every ten days, or after 

 every rain, until the onions had matured. The cul- 

 tivation was done with a garden plow and was 

 never more than 3 inches deep, which left the 

 onions a good, firm seed bed. I harvested them in 

 July, and the plat yielded at the rate of 300 bushels 

 an acre. The onions were as large and fine as any I 

 have ever seen. The soil is designated as Miami 

 silt loam." 



GROWING ONION SETS 



According to B. F. Stetzer of Cumberland county, 

 New Jersey, " Onion sets are grown from seed 

 sown about April i. To get the ground in good 

 shape for any kind of an onion, large or small, you 

 should sow the ground in the fall with crimson 

 clover, about the middle of August, and plow it 

 under in the spring just before the time of plant- 

 ing. After you have plowed sow broadcast three- 

 quarters of a ton of fertilizer to the acre, harrow 

 in well and smooth over with a smoothing plank. 

 It will level the ground nicely and smash out 

 all the small lumps of dirt the harrow fails to do. 



