292 Fertilizers 



early onion crops, immediate rapid growth after setting 

 is not so essential as in the case of many other market- 

 garden crops, and in the growing of onion sets, when the 

 soil is richly provided with food, great care in manage- 

 ment is necessary in order to secure a development of bulb 

 that shall not be too large, in which case the salable 

 quality of sets will be reduced. Hence, to avoid this, 

 the seed should be spread thickly, in rows about 3 inches 

 wide, and the cultivable portion between the rows about 

 8 inches wide. With so large a portion of the surface area 

 occupied with the crop, the danger of too large develop- 

 ment from heavy fertilization is greatly reduced. 



In growing scallions, the soil should not only be richly 

 provided with minerals and organic forms of nitrogen, as 

 in the case of the other, but should be supplied early with 

 soluble nitrate, in order to meet the demands for this ele- 

 ment before it is available from soil sources. In the grow- 

 ing of crops which require so much hand labor as onions, 

 fertilizers are also preferable to yard manures, because 

 they are free from weed seed. Further, fertilizers do not 

 contribute toward the development of insects or diseases, 

 as is sometimes the case with manures, particularly with 

 the product derived from city stables. 



A good general fertilizer for onion sets for soils of fair 

 fertility may consist of about 50 pounds to the acre of 

 nitrogen in organic forms, as dried blood, cotton-seed meal 

 or tankage, 60 of phosphoric acid, which may be partly 

 in organic forms, as bone or tankage, and 100 of actual 

 potash, derived from a muriate. The application of a 

 formula containing 



Nitrogen 5% 



Phosphoric acid 6% 



Potash 10% 



