Onions 1395 



Good results are often obtained from sowing nitrate of soda in 

 the middle of the summer if there happens to be a wet period. 



If a second application of fertilizer is to be made it is a good 

 plan to use a disc just before sowing the fertilizer, which will 

 leave a little trench on each side of the row ; then, with the hand 

 fertilizer machine, sow the fertilizer in the trench. If this is 

 followed by a mulcher (a machine that looks like a small lawn 

 mower) the ground will be leveled and the fertilizer will be deep 

 enough for the moisture to make it quickly available. 



FITTING TIIE SOIL AND CULTIVATION 



As soon as ground can be worked in the spring is the time to 

 begin fitting for onions. It is a good plan to have the plowing 

 done in the fall. Some fit the land on which late celery was grown 

 the previous year, without plowing at all. 



A spring-tooth harrow followed by an acme and that in turn 

 by a float will make a bed of muck land in splendid condition and 

 ready for the seed. With a Planet, Jr., or Iron King drill there 

 should be little trouble in getting the seed on evenly. 



The drill should be set so as to sow about one inch deep with 

 rows fourteen inches apart. There is a great tempation to make 

 the rows closer but they are much harder to work. As soon as the 

 little onions begin to show above the ground, work should begin. 



Several makes of weeders have been put upon the market in the 

 last two or three years that have been a great help. Some growers 

 still look askance at the manufacturers claiming that any machine 

 that will destroy a weed will not tear out a tender little onion. 

 It is true that they will destroy some, but the difference in cost in 

 going over a field with a weeder and of weeding by hand will 

 more than compensate for the onions that are killed. 



Hand weeding is what makes onion growing so costly. Hand 

 weeding has to be done three or four times, but with the judicious 

 use of a weeder this can be reduced to once or twice. Weeding 

 should be followed by almost constant work with the cultivator 

 until the onions are quite large. 



The onion is a surface crop and care must be exercised not to 

 cut the roots when the plant has grown large enough to send them 

 out of the row. For this reason a shove hoe is probably the best 



