LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS l8l 



planting. After the plants are well established they 

 are thinned by hand, leaving the plants from one to 

 two inches apart in the drills. Thinning is extremely 

 tedious and an expensive process, and most of the 

 successful growers eliminate this matter by thor- 

 ough testing of the seed before planting and adjust- 

 ing the amount of the seed sown in order that no 

 thinning may be necessary. From four to six 

 pounds of seed are usually required to plant an 

 acre at the ordinary distances. Cultivation is done 

 almost entirely by means of the wheel hoes. The 

 ideal attachments in muck soils are the scrapers or 

 knives which cut just beneath the surface of the 

 soil. In the heavier soils some of the tooth attach- 

 ments will probably give better satisfaction. 

 In some cases a small-footed horse or mule may 

 be trained to satisfactorily follow the rows when 

 i8 inches wide. Some hand weeding will always- 

 be necessary, and it is highly important that this 

 work be done before the weeds become of any con- 

 siderable size. Otherwise a large amount of 

 injury will result by loosening and lifting the onion 

 plants as the weeds are removed. The onion crop 

 usually matures from the middle to latter part of 

 August and is ready for harvesting when the tops 

 begin to brown and three-fourths or more have 

 fallen over on the ground. Harvesting is done by 

 attaching a U-shaped knife to the ordinary two- 

 wheeled hand hoe, straddling the row and allowing 

 the knife to run underneath the plants, cutting off 

 the roots and at the same time slightly lifting the 

 bulbs. The onions are then gathered by hand and 

 thrown into windrows containing from four to six 

 rows. They should be left exposed to the sun and 



