86 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



ONION SETS. 



Onion Sets, so called, are simply small onions. If a 

 small onion is set out in the fall or in the spring, it will 

 grow and produce either one very large onion, or two or 

 three good sized ones. In the Southern States, and in 

 many sections of the South-west, it is not easy to grow 

 onions direct from the seed, or "black seed" as the 

 growers often call it, to distinguish it from the sets. 

 There onions are grown from sets, and there is a large 

 demand for these small onions or sets, the price ranging 

 from five dollars to ten dollars per bushel. The smaller 

 the onions, provided the bulbs are mature and well 

 formed, the more valuable they are, because a given 

 number will not only plant more land, but there is less 

 likelihood of their running up to seed. Onion sets are 

 grown in the same way as ordinary onions, except that 

 they are sown very much thicker. 



Many people have an idea that the way to raise onion 

 sets is to sow the seed late in the spring, and to select 

 rather poor, sandy land. This is a mistake; they need 

 good, warm, dry and rich soil, and the earlier the seeds 

 are sown the better. In this section, the crop should be 

 ripe not later than the first of August. It is a good plan 

 to prepare the ground in the fall, as recommended for 

 onions; then in the spring, mark off the land into rows, 

 thirty inches apart, taking pains to make the rows 

 straight, then drill in six rows of seed from an inch and 

 a half to two inches apart alongside of the mark; set the 

 drill to drop five or six seeds in each inch of row, in each 

 of the six rows. In other words, when the set of rows is 

 sown, you should have from thirty to thirty-six seeds in 

 each lineal inch. The advantage of the plan is, that 

 you can use the horse-hoe or cultivator between the wide 

 rows, and between the narrow rows a sharp pointed 

 onion-hoe can be used to break the crust, and kill the 



