ONIONS. 83 



rake, but I have never yet had sufficient courage to rako 

 my crop of onions hard enough to kill the weeds. If you 

 do the work yourself, I think it is very likely that there 

 are times when a steel rake would destroy millions of 

 weeds without injuring the onions. On the whole, how- 

 ever, I think we had better depend on a sharp, bright 

 hoe, skillfully used on each side of the rows, pulling out 

 with the fingers any weeds that may be left in the row. 

 If you have a large crop, and there is danger that the 

 weeds may get the start of you, it is better not to stop to 

 pull out the weeds at the first hoeing; go through the 

 patch with a hoe, and then, when the whole piece is once 

 hoed, go over it again, hoeing and hand-weeding at the 

 same time. It is generally necessary to weed onions twice. 

 The only safe rule is, to hoe and weed as often as is 

 necessary to kill every weed, and even if there are no 

 weeds visible, it pays to run a cultivator or hoe between 

 the rows once a week until the onions are five or six inches 

 high. Success in raising onions depends largely on three 

 things: rich land, early sowing, and clean cultivation. 



The best varieties are the Yellow Danvers, Early Red 

 Globe, White Globe, and the Large Red Wethersfield. 

 The Early Red Globe can be grown successfully where the 

 later varieties, like the Large Wethersfield, are apt to run 

 up to scallions. Scallions are the dread of the onion 

 grower. A scallion is an onion with a thick neck. In- 

 stead of forming a bulb early in the season, the top then 

 withering down, the onion keeps on growing, throwing 

 out a great mass of roots, forming a long, thick neck, 

 with a comparatively immature bulb. Sometimes scal- 

 lions are the result of poor seed. I do not mean seed that 

 will not grow, but that which is raised from late, imma- 

 ture onions, not good enough to send to market. But no 

 respectable seed-grower ever raises such seed, and we must 

 look for other causes to learn why onions so frequently 

 turn to scallions. Late sowing is the most frequent cause; 



