8o 



BIGGLE GARDEN BOOK 



BULBLETS 



"Scullions" or "scallions" are onions which grow a thick 

 neck and fail to bottom out. Inferior seed or too wet a soil 

 may cause the trouble. 



If the onion tops are still green in early September, roll 

 a barrel along the rows and break them down. This helps to 

 check growth and hastens the withering process. 



One-half ounce of onion seed is required for about loo 

 feet of drill. About four pounds per acre. Sets, one quart 

 to perhaps forty feet of row^; about eight bushels or more to 

 the acre. 



There are three kinds of onion sets: i, onions grown 

 from any common variety of seed, and not allowed to 

 mature — thus producing little w^hite, red or yellow "sets,'' 

 according to the kind of seed sown; 2, sets that are produced 

 in a cluster above ground on the stalk end of a peculiar 

 variety called "Egyptian," "top" or "tree" onion; and, 3, 

 "multiplier" or "potato onion" sets which are produced in a 

 cluster underground in the odd way common to this distinct 

 variety. Each kind of set, if planted, of course keeps and 

 reproduces its own characteristics. 



Winter storage of onions requires experience, and even 

 then is usually attended with more or less loss; but the prac- 

 tise often pays. Onions may be wintered, says Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 39, by two different processes, namely, by 

 freezing the bulbs and keeping them in this state all winter, 

 or by storing them in shallow bins in a dry apartment (not 

 in a cellar) where the temperature can be maintained just 

 above the freezing point. The freezing process is satisfactory 

 only in the extreme North, where the weather is cold during 

 the entire winter. It consists in simply storing the bulbs in 

 the barn or outbuilding, allowing them to freeze, then cover- 

 ing with hay, straw, or bags, and letting cover remain on the 

 bulbs until they gradually thaw out with the rising tempera- 

 ture of the spring. A layer of hay must be thrown on the 

 floor or bottom of the bins before putting in the onions. 

 The temperature of the bins should not run above 32° or 

 below 15° until spring. Too sei'ere freezing or successive 

 free::ing and thaiving zvill injure the bulbs. Onions not thor- 

 oughly dry when stored will sprout and spoil. 



Insects and diseases: The principal enemies of the onion 

 are the onion maggot, a tiny white worm which burrows in 

 the bulb; and onion smut or rot, a blackish fungous disease. 

 For the first the most effective remedy is a change of location 

 of the onion field each year. This may be followed by any 

 of the treatments recommended by John B. Smith in his 



