Ontons 1395 
Good results are often obtained from sowing nitrate of soda in 
the middle of the summer if there happens to be a wet period. 
If a second application of fertilizer is to be made it is a good 
plan to use a dise just before sowing the fertilizer, which will 
leave a little trench on each side of the row; then, with the hand 
fertilizer machine, sow the fertilizer in the trench. If this is 
followed by a mulcher (a machine that looks like a small lawn 
mower) the ground will be leveled and the fertilizer will be deep 
enough for the moisture to make it quickly available. 
FITTING THE SOIL AND CULTIVATION 
As. soon as ground can be worked in the spring is the time to 
begin fitting for onions. It is a good plan to have the plowing 
done in the fall. Some fit the land on which late celery was grown 
the previous year, without plowing at all. 
A spring-tooth harrow followed by an acme and that in turn 
by a float will make a bed of muck land in splendid condition and 
ready for the seed. With a Planet, Jr., or Iron King drill there 
should be little trouble in getting the seed on evenly. 
The drill should be set so as to sow about one inch deep with 
rows fourteen inches apart. There is a great tempation to make 
the rows closer but they are much harder to work. As soon as the 
little onions begin to show above the ground, work should begin. 
Several makes of weeders have been put upon the market in the 
last two or three years that have been a great help. Some growers 
still look askance at the manufacturers claiming that any machine 
that will destroy a weed will not tear out a tender little onion. 
It is true that they will destroy some, but the difference in cost in 
going over a field with a weeder and of weeding by hand will 
more than compensate for the onions that are killed. 
Hand weeding is what makes onion growing so costly. Hand 
weeding has to be done three or four times, but with the judicious 
use of a weeder this can be reduced to once or twice. Weeding 
should be followed by almost constant work with the cultivator 
until the onions are quite large. 
The onion is a surface crop and care must be exercised not to 
cut the roots when the plant has grown large enough to send them 
out of the row. For this reason a shove hoe is probably the best 
