210 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



on the onion seed drill will show plainly, enabling 

 the driller to make straight rows. After rolling the 

 land, I sow fertilizer, using a drill. Some success- 

 ful onion growers sow fertilizers broadcast after 

 plowing and before harrowing or rolling the land. 

 I use a brand that has a small amount of nitrogen, 

 from 8 to 10 per cent of available phosphoric acid 

 and from 8 to io per cent of -potash. 



" In planting, run the onion drills so as to make 

 the rows 14 inches apart. This allows cultivators 

 and weeders to pass through without difficulty. 

 The seeds should not be sown over 1 inch in depth, 

 and less than that is better. As soon as the sprouts 

 come through so you can see the rows, begin wheel 

 hoeing. I usually run my cultivators between rows 

 until weeds begin to come. Then I set the wheel 

 hoe to straddle the row and plow close to save as 

 much finger weeding as possible. After the work- 

 ing has begun, the onions should be cultivated once 

 a week and weeded so as to keep them clean until 

 laid by. 



" Pull white onions while tops are yet green and 

 standing; top them at once into crates and leave 

 them in the field in single rows not over four 

 crates high. Cover the top crates well with onion 

 tops, boards or some other thing that will turn sun 

 and rain from them. After about ten days the 

 onions can be taken into the sheds or sent to market. 

 After the tops of red and yellow onions begin to 

 fall, pull them out of the ground and lay in wind- 

 rows. Begin to top in about five or six days." 



A NEW ENGLAND ONION FIELD 



" Last year," says G. M. Hubbard of Franklin 

 county, Massachusetts, " I raised 11 acres of onions, 



