The Onion 



141 



stalks soon arise, and the seeds are produced in heads on 

 top. Some of the kinds, as garlic, seldom produce flowers 

 and seeds. 



ONION 



Cool rather moist and level land, soil with the best pos- 

 sible surface condition and containing much quickly avail- 

 able plant-food, careful attention to the selection of seed, 

 the most perfect shallow tillage, are some of the essentials 

 in the growing of a good crop of onions. The commercial 

 onion supply is grown from seeds, sown where the plants 

 are to grow, the early table onions from bulbs of different 

 kinds and to some extent from transplanted seedlings. All 

 onions withstand considerable frost in- their growing state. 

 In the South, onions are grown as a winter crop. 



Being cool-season plants, onions are sown or planted as 

 early in the spring as the ground can be made ready. In mild 

 climates, seed is sometimes sown in autumn. Onion seed is 

 sown ^2 in. to 1 in. deep. Sets, tops, and multipliers may be 

 planted at intervals until steady warm spring weather comes. 

 One ounce of seed is sown in about 150 feet of drill, and SV2 

 to 5 or even 6 pounds to the acre. Rows stand 12 to 16 or 18 

 in. apart, and the plants are thinned as they stand, so that the 

 mature onions will not crowd. If the onions stand 3 x 14 

 inches, nearly 150.000 plants are required to the acre. A good 

 crop of onions is 300 to 400 or 500 bushels to the acre, but 

 600 to 800 bushels are secured under the best conditions, and 

 sometimes as much as 1.000 bushels. 



Onion smut {Urocystis cepulce) . — Smut can be detected 

 by the presence on leaves and bulbs of black pustules that 

 rupture and expose a powdery black mass of spores. Only 

 onions grown from seed are attacked, and these only in the 

 very young stage. Affected plants gradually die throughout 

 the season. Control: Formaldehyde solution made by adding 



