180 GARDENING FQR PROFIT. 



to sell, taking cost of sets, labor, manure, etc., probably 

 not less than $400 per acre, for the past five years ; but 

 the receipts have been correspondingly high, averaging in 

 that time quite $800 per acre. Onions, planted from sets, 

 rarely fail to give a crop on any kind of soil, provided it 

 has been well manured ; and although they are sold by 

 the market gardeners in the green state, they are equally 

 good, ripened and dried, when raised from sets, as from 

 seed. The quantity of sets required per acre, is from six 

 to ten bushels according to size ; at present prices, they 

 cost $10 per bushel. 



The method of raising Onions from seed as a farm or 

 garden crop, differs but little from that we adopt for sets, 

 except that they are sown generally about 1 foot apart in 

 the rows, and manured at the rate of only 25 tons to the 

 acre instead of 75. It is of the utmost importance that the 

 ground for Onions, grown from seed, be as nearly level as 

 possible, so that the seed is not washed away by rains. 

 It also saves considerable labor in hoeing, when it can be 

 got free from stones and seeds of weeds. 



The seed of Onions, when sown as a field crop, is most- 

 ly sown by a machine used solely for that purpose ; this 

 machine sows two rows at once, making the drill and sow- 

 ing as it goes along. The operation of sowing is begun 

 as soon as the ground is fit to work in spring, as we al- 

 ways find, other conditions being the same, that those ear- 

 liest sown produce the heaviest crop. The covering of 

 the seed is best done by rolling the ground with a light 

 roller, drawing it lengthwise of the lines. Rolling is also of 

 great advantage in smoothing the surface, so that hoeing, 

 particularly with the scuffle hoe, is much more easily per- 



