178 



THE ONION GROUP 



used to spread the seed out in a wide row, so that the individual 

 seedUngs will have a little more space at the start. 



Onion sets are cultivated with wheel hoes the same as large 

 onions, and require as careful weeding. If sown at the same time 

 as other onions, they ripen earlier, and can thus be harvested and 

 out of the way before the large onions are ready to harvest. 



Harvesting and Curing. — Under modern methods of handUng 

 onion sets, they are harvested as soon as the necks begin to lose 

 their sap and while the tops are still green and erect. If the soil 



Fig. 112. — Harvesting onion sets, near Chicago. 



is compact, an onion harvester may be run under the rows or 

 each workman may be furnished an iron hook with which to 

 loosen the soil on each side of the row. The sets are pulled by the 

 handful, the tops immediately twisted off, and the bulbs dropped 

 into a half-bushel basket or measure (Fig. 112). When filled, the 

 measures are emptied into crates similar to those used in curing 

 large onions except that the slats forming the bottom are closer 

 together. The crates of onion sets are left in the field exposed to 

 the sun for a few hours; then hauled to a curing shed or more often 

 stacked up in tiers in the field, each tier being covered with a 



