no FACTS AND FIGURES OR THE 



CHAPTER XXR'. 



ONIONS. 



I consider this crop the best one to plant in Florida for 

 shipment to market. Many of the writers in the agricultu- 

 ral books and papers say that it is one of the hardest crops 

 tn raise, but for my o\\'n part, I fail to see it. Of course, it 

 has its drawbacks; if it did not have, everybody would be 

 planting them, and the markets would become overstocked. 

 The principal drawback to this crop is having to weed it 

 \'ery carefully several times, but if you will raise the plants 

 in seed beds, transplanting them when five to six inches 

 high, using only commercial fertilizer on the ground where 

 you set them }ou wui ?-nd that one weeding will suffice. 

 .\ number of the best writers in the country and a great 

 man}- oi the truck growers claim that transplanting is too 

 expensive, but I have found from personal experience that 

 it doc not cost any more to transplant the plants than' it 

 'does t > tliiii them (,)ut and weed them; besides when you 

 "iransijlant }ou can grade them to a uniform size ; and an- 

 other thing I know to be a fact is, that onions and beets 

 v.iiicli aic transplanted will mature from a week to ten 

 days snoner than those which are not transplanted. To 

 pro\-e this 1 will give one instance which occurred on my 

 own farm. 1 planted one-half acre in beets in the field 

 where I wished them to mature. In thinning them out I 

 transfjlanted some of the plants in rows adjoining the half- 

 acre ]iatch, the fertilizer and soil being exactly the same. 

 These transplanted plants not only made more perfe('t roots 

 but matured at least ten days before the other patch. 



The principal advantage that the onion has is that it 

 seems suited to the Florida soil in general, being found 

 growing in all parts of the State. Cold weather does not 

 kill them. I have seen onions survi^-e a blizzard when the 



