66 THE SEED-GROWER. 
ble. After a good harrowing, the soil is made even 
with a drag. 
Seed for the production of onion sets is generally 
raised by the onion-set growers themselves, by planting 
in the fall for that purpose bulbs above the size of a 
walnut, which were produced by them in a previous 
crop of sets. See preceding chapter on onion seed. 
Thirty-five to forty-five pounds of seed are usually 
sown to the acre, in rows three and a half inches or five 
inches wide, according to drill used, five inches’ space 
being left between rows for cultivation with a wheel 
hoe. The crop must be cultivated and kept free from 
weeds; it generally being gone over five or six times up 
to about 20th of June, when cultivation is discontinued, 
otherwise sets will be injured. Harvest takes place, 
according to latitude, from July 4th to August ist. 
Harvesting.—When the sets show signs of ripening, 
indicated by the tops getting soft, they are lifted by a 
wheel-hoe fitted with a lifter, which is a piece of steel 
six and a half to seven inches wide, made sharp at the 
bottom and bolted on. After a number of rows have 
been lifted, the bulbs and tops intact are pulled and laid 
in small piles or windrows, five to six rows being made 
into one pile at a time. The position in the windrow is 
upright, bulbs touching the ground, tops up; the bulbs 
being thereby protected from sunburn. In this man- 
ner, in windrows, bulbs are left to mature and cure, ex- 
posed to the sun or rain, for two or three weeks after 
pulling. 
In California it is the fashion, immediately after sets 
are lifted, while tops are somewhat green yet, to stack 
the tops and bulbs, packed closely, in upright position 
(as in windrows), in shallow boxes, which are then 
placed under shelter inashed orabarn. In this manner, 
