31 



the Dottom." The Flat onions begin to bottom late in the 

 season, while the Danvers makes a very encouraging show of 

 bulb quite early. Should the land have been but poorly ma- 

 nured in seasons of drought, the crop will be apt to be ripen- 

 ed prematurely, forming a small sized onion, while (divided 

 it may be by merely a wall) those that have been more liber- 

 ally manured stand the drought, and keep green sufficiently 

 long to receive advantage from the later rains ; an investment 

 of twenty dollars in manure thus making a difference some- 

 times of a hundred dollars in the crop. If the crop is quite 

 backward, late in the season the necks of the onions are 

 sometimes bent over to hasten the formation of the bulb. 

 This is done by hand, or by rolling a barrel over two rows at 

 a time. 



STORING THE CROP. 



When the necks have fallen over, and the great proportion 

 of them are dry, the crop should be pulled by hand and be 

 laid in winrows, about three rows being put in one. At this 

 time all weeds remaining should be pulled and piled, prepar- 

 atory to the final clearing of the bed. The pulling of the 

 crop should not be delayed after the tops are well dry ; for if 

 rain should now fall, the onions will be apt to re-root to their 

 injury. Should the backwardness of the season make it ne- 

 cessary to pull the crop in rather a green state, it will be well 

 to allow it to remain untouched, after pulling, for about a week, 

 before turning or stirring, which will tend to hasten the decay 

 of the greener tops ; otherwise they should be carefully stirred 

 every pleasant day with a wooden-toothed rake. This should 

 be very carefully done, as the onions are very easily injured, 

 especially at this stage, and when injured are almost as likely 

 to rot as a bruised apple. See that they are not injured by 



