1464 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



by means of one of the common seed 

 drills, of which there are several makes 

 upon the market. The hand drills which 

 sow one row at a time are extensively em- 

 ployed, but many of the larger growers 

 employ a gang of drills hitched together 

 and plant from five to seven rows at once. 

 A more even distribution of the seed will 

 be secured by the use of the single-row 

 hand drill, owing to the closer attention 

 that can be given. In heavy or moist soils 

 the depth to cover the seed should not 

 be more than one-half to three-fourths 

 inch, while on loose and sandy soils the 

 seed may be covered an inch or more. 



Planting Distances and Seed liequired to 

 Plant an Acre 



Where hand cultivation is practiced 

 throughout, the usual distance between 

 rows is 12 or 14 inches. Where horse 

 culture is employed the distance between 

 rows varies between 24 and 36 inches. 

 The quantity of seed required to plant an 

 acre will depend both upon the distance 

 between rows and the purpose for which 

 the onions are being grown. For the 

 growing of standard market onions in 

 rows 14 inches apart, about four and one- 

 half pounds of first-class seed will be re- 

 quired. With the rows three feet apart, 

 but one and one-fourth or one and one- 

 half pounds will be necessary. Where it 

 is desired to produce small onions for 

 pickling purposes, the amount of seed 

 may be as great as 25 pounds to an acre. 

 Good seed is essential, and if there is any 



doubt regarding the vitality of the seed it 

 should be tested before planting by count- 

 ing and planting four or five hundred 

 seeds in a window box and then determin- 

 ing the germination by counting the seed- 

 lings after ten days' or two weeks' time. 

 There are dealers who make a specialty of 

 securing and furnishing extra-quality 

 onion seed, and while their prices are of- 

 ten somewhat above the general market 

 the seed furnished by them is always pref- 

 erable to ordinary seed. 



Thinning 



Experienced growers are frequently 

 able by using extreme care in regulating 

 the drills to distribute onion seed in 

 rows where the crop is to mature so that 

 little thinning will be necessary. Thin- 

 ning is generally left until the time of 

 the first hand weeding, when all thick 

 bunches along the rows are thinned to a 

 uniform stand of eight or ten plants to 

 the foot. It is always well, however, to 

 allow for considerable loss of plants, and 

 vmless the plants are so thick as to ac- 

 tually crowd, thinning will not be neces- 

 sary. 



Harvesting and Curing 



In the northern onion districts the crop 

 ripens and is harvested during the latter 

 part of the summer and early autumn. 

 As a rule the work of harvesting onions 

 begins late in July and is practically com- 

 pleted and the crop housed before Oc- 

 tober first. In the Southern states, where 

 the crop is grown during the winter, the 



Fig. 3. Field of Onions in Condition for Gathering. 



