Food for 

 Plants 



52 



Profitable Onion Cultivation. 



.^ ,.,. „ There is no crop that can be grown so 

 Adaptabihty of ^^.^^^^f^^Hy on a large scale, on such a 

 11 Sm'^" ^^ variety of soils, under such varied climatic 

 ^ ^^ ^* conditions, and that will respond more pro- 



fitably to intelligent cultivation and fertilizing, than the 

 onion; and while in the past the American farmer has 

 usually been willing to leave the growing of this savory 

 vegetable almost entirely to the enterprising foreigner who 

 has emigrated to this country, he has at the same time very 

 often seen that thrifty cultivator make more net profit at 

 the end of the season from his five or six acres of onions 

 than the average farmer makes at general farming on his 

 lOO-acre farm. And now that the advent of the weeder 

 and the improved wheel hoe, together with a more intelli- 

 gent understanding of their use, has made it comparatively 

 easy to care for the crop there is no reason why the pro- 

 gressive farmer who is looking about for a New Money 

 Crop, i. e., one that will give handsome returns for any 

 extra care and study given it should not raise onions with 

 ease and profit. 



We will consider here the growing of onions only as a 

 field crop for the fall and winter market, with a few notes 

 on their culture as practiced successfully throughout New 

 York, Ohio and Michigan, although the onion can be 

 successfully grown anywhere in the United States where 

 other vegetables thrive. 



The reason that onions have not been more generally 

 grown by farmers is in the mistaken idea that it is impossible 

 to grow them without the application of vast quantities of 

 stable manure, but we have learned that onion growing with 

 the aid of chemical fertilizers is not only much cheaper, but 

 the average crop grown is much larger ; the excessive 

 quantity of stable manure required to grow a maximum 

 crop militating against the chance of a good crop by tending 

 to make the land open, when the great secret of onion 

 culture is to get the land solidified. 



Besides, the ploughing under of so much bulky manure 

 tends to cut off the moisture supply from below, which is 

 so important in the quick growth of crops of this nature and 



