CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 387 



ions, the soil preparation must be thorough. If plowing 

 is deferred until spring, this operation should be attended 

 to as soon as the ground is sufficiently dry, followed by 

 repeated harrowing, to prevent the escape of soil mois- 

 ture and to prepare a fine seed bed. The usual forms 

 of disk harrows, followed with the Meeker Disk Smooth- 

 ing Harrow and finished with a plank drag should leave 

 the land fine, even and smooth. 



Muck soils, to be used for the first time, require spe- 

 cial preparation. They must be cleared, drained and 

 thrown up to the exposure of winter freezing. Although 

 analyzing high in plant foods (401), large amounts are 

 not available. Lime will help to release the needed plant 

 food and to correct any soil acidity that may exist. It 

 is generally desirable to grow other crops for a sea- 

 son or more until proper soil conditions have been 

 secured. 



534. Fertilizing. — An analysis of the Southport White 

 Globe onion shows that 2,000 pounds of the mature 

 bulbs contain 2.70 pounds of nitrogen, 0.92 pounds of 

 phosphoric acid and 2.09 pounds of potash. The aver- 

 age legal weight of a bushel in the United States is 

 about 56 pounds. A yield of 500 bushels an acre would, 

 therefore, make a total of 28,000 pounds, and would re- 

 quire 37.80 pounds of nitrogen, 12.88 pounds of phos- 

 phoric acid and 29.26 pounds of potash. Although these 

 figures have some value in indicating the needs of the 

 onion, it is generally recognized that the amounts of the 

 elements used should be considerably in excess of those 

 shown by chemical analysis. The fact is, that no other 

 vegetable requires higher fertility than the onion. The 

 plants must have a bountiful supply of available food un- 

 til the bulbs are formed. 



Stable manures are universally preferred to commer- 

 cial fertilizers because of their influence on the physical 

 properties of the soil. Poultry droppings, on account 



