144 



Bulb or Onion Crops 



Early Green Onions 

 The small early or spring onions, used green or fresli 

 and usually sold in bunches, are grown from either bulbs 

 or seeds, usually from bulbs. These bulbs, as we have 

 learned, are of three kinds : " top onions," or bulbels that 

 are produced on the top of the flower-stalk, in the 

 place of flowers ; " sets," which are small onions, arrested 

 in their growth; potato onions," or "multipliers," 

 which are compound bulbs, each component part 

 forming a new bulb. The top onions (sometimes 

 called "tree onio^ns " and "Egyptian onions") and the 

 multipliers are distinct races or types of onions, but sets 

 are only the partially grown bulbs of any common onion 

 which it is desired to propagate in this way. 



To raise sets, seeds are sown very thickly on a rather 

 light and dry piece of ground. As much as 40 to 70 

 pounds of seed are sown to the acre. The plants soon crowd, 

 and by midsummer the tops begin to die for lack of food, 

 moisture and room. The bulbs should not be more than 

 one-half or three-fourths inch in diameter. They are cured 

 and stored as are ordinary onions. The 

 following spring, when planted, they 

 resume growth, and in a very short 

 time give edible onions for the table. 



The illustration (Fig. 63) shows a 

 multiplier onion. A cross-section (Fig. 

 64) shows that it has three "hearts" 

 or " cores." As these cores grow, each 

 gives rise to a separate bulb. If allowed to remain in the 

 ground, each part develops two or more cores; and so the 

 multiplication continues. When planted, the parts or 



A multiplier onion 

 (X about %). -^-p (( nnvaii 



