38 ONION-RAISING. 



When the plants are too thick, they should be thinned ; 

 but the beginner had better pull with a sparing hand, for, if 

 the ground has been manured very liberally, the crop will 

 do well when the plants are very thickly together ; and they 

 will oftentimes grow as large, and usually bottom better, when 

 very thick, as they will with three times the room. Onion- 

 growers like to see their onions piled two or three deep as 

 they grow, the upper layer being entirely out of the ground 

 with the exception of the roots. When the tops begin to 

 fall over, the onion is rapidly maturing, and the bulbs will 

 now grow very fast. Farmers will tell you that " the top is 

 going down into the bottom." The Strasburg onion begins 

 to bottom late in the season, while the Danvers makes a very 

 encouraging show of bulb quite early. Should the land 

 have been but poorly manured, in seasons of drought, the 

 crop will be apt to be ripened prematurely, forming a small- 

 sized onion ; while (divided, it may be, by merely a wall) 

 those that have been more liberally manured stand the 

 drought, and keep green sufficiently long to receive advan- 

 tage from the later rains, — an investment of twenty dollars 

 in manure thus making a difference sometimes of a hundred 

 dollars in the crop. If the crop is quite backward, late in 

 the season the necks of the onions are sometimes bent over 

 to hasten the formation of the bulb. This is done by hand, 

 or by rolling a barrel over two rows at a time. 



STORING THE CROP. 

 ■\1 TTIEN THE NECKS havc fallen over, and the great pro- 

 ' ^ portion of them are dry, the crop should be pulled by 

 hand, and be laid in windrows, about three rows being put in 

 one. At this time all weeds remaining should be pulled and 

 piled, preparatory to the final clearing of the bed. The 



