MARKETING THE CROP. 41 



would soon spoil if stored in a mass, will keep well when 

 traced, and oftentimes bring a greater profit than the best of 

 the crop. Rareripes, and such of the earlier onions as are 

 to be sent long distances, or be kept a while before market- 

 ing, are sometimes traced. Traced onions keep in good 

 condition a long while in a dry, cool place. Within a few 

 years tracing has almost ceased in this vicinity. 



MARKETING THE CROP. 



'T^HE Set onions. Potato onions. Top onions, and Rareripes, 

 ^ in some sections, are for the most part sent to market 

 in a green state in bunches. The Potato onions are also 

 brought from the South, dry, in large quantities, to supply 

 the Northern markets, soon after the arrival of the Bermuda 

 onions, just before the ripening of the Northern crop. After 

 the Potato onions follows the earliest variety of the Red, and, 

 immediately after, the Danvers, and, finally, the Large Red 

 completes the season. The^ sales in the Northern markets 

 early in the season are made mostly for the supply of the 

 local immediate demand, the great bulk of the crop not 

 being sent in before the call for shipping purposes has com- 

 menced. For this reason, farmers find it to be for their in- 

 terest to do but little more than feel the market until about 

 the middle of October ; as large purchases made previous to 

 this period are mostly as an investment by speculators, with 

 the exception of such lots as go to supply the immediate 

 wants of the markets of large towns and cities of the extreme 

 North beyond the limits of the onion-growing region. 



The price of onions varies greatly : they have sold as low 

 as seventy-five cents a barrel, while the early crop of 1864 

 sold as high as sixteen dollars a barrel, by the five hundred 

 barrels. From September to March, in the same season, the 



