1458 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



Alsie Craig. 



ean sea. During early times the onion 

 was highly esteemed as an article of 

 food, also as a preventive of thirst while 

 on the march or traveling in the desert. 

 In olden times the production of onions 

 was confined to the alluvial river valleys, 

 but the improvement and adaptation of 

 varieties has made it possible to grow this 

 crop under widely diverse conditions. 



The onion belongs to the widely vari- 

 able species Allium cepa, which forms 

 part of a family of plants which 

 includes many of the lilies, the several 

 forms of asparagus and smilax, and sim- 

 ilar plants having a scaly or fleshy en- 

 larged root. A characteristic of this fam- 

 ily is that most of its species grow natur- 

 ally upon soil having an abundance of 

 moisture, many of them being natives of 

 low-lying areas along the seashore. An- 

 other charactertistic of plants like the 

 onion and asparagus is that they will 

 withstand considerable salt in the soils on 

 which they grow. The onion is grown 

 primarily for its bulb; however, the 

 leaves are often employed for seasoning, 

 and there are several kinds that are 

 grown for their leaves only. 



The onion holds third place among the 

 truck crops grown in the United States. 

 In 1908 about 14,000,000 bushels, valued 

 at $10,000,000, were produced, practically 

 all of which were consumed in this coun- 

 try. In addition we annually import 

 about 1,400,000 bushels from Spain, Egypt, 

 Bermuda, and the South Sea Islands. The 

 onion is one of the more common crops 

 of our home vegetable gardens, and it is 

 well adapted to growing commercially on 

 a small scale, very little capital being 

 required for a beginning. The market for 

 onions includes practically the entire com- 

 mercial world, and the demand for a good 

 article continues throughout the entire 

 year. 



During recent years the production of 

 the various forms of Spanish and Ber- 

 muda onions in the Gulf coast states has 

 become an industry in itself. Owing to 

 the great quantity of this type of onion 

 that can be grown upon a small area, a 

 few thousand acres will produce all that 

 the market can handle at a profit to the 

 grower. In the alluvial delta region of 

 the Mississippi river, the Egyptian onion 

 is being grown to perfection, and there 

 are doubtless regions bordering the Gulf 

 of Mexico where the famous Denian onion 

 may be produced as successfully as in its 

 native Spain. 



Areas Adapted to Onion Culture 



The onion is exceptional in that it will 

 thrive under a very wide range of clim- 

 atic and soil conditions. The crop is 

 grown to perfection in the alluvial valley 

 of the Nile river in Egypt, on the vol- 

 canic soils and under the tropical sea 

 breezes of the South Sea Islands, along 

 sandy coastal plains, in the irrigated por- 

 tions of the arid regions, on sandy up- 

 lands, and on reclaimed swamp soils. 

 There is perhaps no extended area in the 

 United States, except the mountainous 

 regions, where the onion can not be suc- 

 cessfully grown. 



Climatic Requirements of the Onion 



For best results a temperate climate 

 without great extremes of heat and cold 

 should be selected. Onion culture is rare- 

 ly profitable in regions where the clim- 

 ate does not change or has no definite 



