LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS 



183 



in flavor and requires a longer season for its de- 

 velopment than the ordinary field onions grown in 

 the North. This type is successfully grown in the 

 North, however, by sowing the seed under glass 

 from four to six weeks before it would be possible 

 to sow out of doors. The seed is sown in drills 

 three to four inches apart and quite thickly in the 

 rows. When the 

 plants become five 

 or six inches high 

 they are sheared 

 back to about four 

 inches. This shear- 

 ing is repeated two 

 or three times in 

 order to produce 

 stocky plants and 

 facilitate transplant- 

 ing. When danger 

 of frost has passed 

 and the soil has 

 been properly prepared, these plants are lifted, 

 the roots trimmed, and transplanted to the 

 field in rows 12 to 15 inches wide and from three to 

 four inches in the rows. These distances require 

 approximately 170,000 plants per acre. While the 

 cost of growing the plants and transplanting is, of 

 course, considerable, the work of thinning is en- 

 tirely eliminated and a much more uniform set of 

 plants will be secured, resulting in much heavier 

 yields than are common from direct seed sowing. 

 Authentic reports are on record of 1,000 bushels 

 per acre being produced in this way. 



These onions are harvested in much the same way 

 as already described for the common type, but they 



BERMUDA ONIONS AND CRATE COM- 

 MONLY USED 



