ONIONS 315 



A common practice is to use a roller marker with check marks 

 on it to give lines at proper distances for the onions. A boy inserts 

 a dibble at each one of these check marks, a second boy drops a 

 plant at each of the dibble holes, and a third boy follows to put the 

 plant in position and firm it by a thrust of the dibble. The plant 

 should stand about as deep as it stood in the seed bed. The advan- 

 tages claimed for this method by its advocates are that the plants 

 can be started very early in the season, that more tender varieties 

 can be grown at the North than is possible under the method of 

 sowing the seed in the open, and that the bulbs mature earlier in 

 the season, thus placing the product on the market when there is 

 less competition. The first crop of weeds can be killed by cultiva- 

 tion before the plants are set in the field. The work of thinning, 

 which constitutes a large part of the labor of growing a crop when 

 the seeds are sown in the open, is entirely overcome, and cultivation 

 is no more exacting with the transplanted crop than with the seed- 

 sown crop. Another advantage is that none but first-class plants 

 find their way into the field. There is an unconscious selection of 

 good plants at the time of removing them from the seed bed, as 

 well as at the time of planting them in the field, so that a more uni- 

 form stand is secured than would be possible by the other method. 

 Choice between these two methods, however, must depend largely 

 upon the individual grower and the facilities which he has at his 

 command. It is undoubtedly true that a large percentage of the 

 onions produced in the Northern states will always be grown by 

 sowing the seed in the open where the crop is to mature ; at 

 least until some satisfactory machine is made which will reduce 

 the labor and cost of transplanting. The cost of the sash for start- 

 ing the seedlings in hotbeds is an item to be considered and one 

 that few extensive growers will wish to incur. 



Cultivation. The after cultivation of the onion consists in keep- 

 ing the ground well stirred at all times so that a slight mulch, about 

 I inch deep, will be preserved over the surface and thus prevent rapid 

 drying out and a weed growth that will compete with the onions. 

 As has already been suggested, the crop which is grown from seed 

 sown in the open must be thinned, for the seedling plants are 

 often too thick to give room for the development of marketable 

 bulbs. Thinning should usually be done as soon as the young 



