308 GARDEN FARMING 



ONIONS 



The onion is a plant of very ancient origin and has been in 

 cultivation from the earliest times. Because of its adaptation to a 

 variety of cultural methods and the great number of uses to which 

 it is put in the economy of the household, it is a vegetable of al- 

 most universal use, and is very widely and, in some localities, very 

 extensively cultivated. It finds favor as a field crop in some sec- 

 tions of the United States and is grown in areas of from one to 

 one hundred acres. With the market gardener it is both an au- 

 tumn and a spring crop. In the spring it furnishes him a profit- 

 able return as bunch onions, which are usually produced from 

 sets or top onions. In the autumn it yields a crop of mature bulbs 

 which are always salable at a fair price. 



As has already been suggested, there are numerous varieties and 

 several types of the onion ; some are adapted to Northern localities 

 and others are best fitted for Southern latitudes ; some are propa- 

 gated from seeds, others reproduce themselves almost entirely 

 by vegetative parts such as the bulblets at the top of the stalks, 

 while still others reproduce themselves by subdivisions of the bulbs. 

 Each of these different methods of propagation adapts the onion 

 for a special use, which the modern market gardeners and culti- 

 vators have learned to take advantage of to meet the special de- 

 mands which have grown up in the market. 



Botany. Structurally the onion, Allium cepa, is a bulb and be- 

 longs to the same general class as the lilies. Notwithstanding the 

 general grouping of all true onions under the name Allium cepa, 

 there are a number of well-marked divisions of the species which 

 are worthy of mention. 



1. There is the general class of onions which produce normal 

 black seed horn which bulbs varying in size, color, shape, and flavor 

 may be produced. This constitutes the great commercial class of 

 onions grown from seed sown in place or sown in seed beds and 

 transplanted to the field. 



2. There is a second class of onions that normally reproduce 

 themselves by segregation of the bulbs, in somewhat the same 

 manner as garlic. This is the multiplier group. The potato 

 onion, which belongs to this class, is quite hardy, requiring only 



