Onion Harvest 323 

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need to be weeded by hand once or twice early in the 

 season; although in land which is very clean and free of 

 weeds this expense may not be necessary. The better 

 the preparation of the land the year before, the less 

 will be the trouble and expense of growing the onion 

 crop. 



On some soils onions tend to run too much to top, 

 particularly on those which have been newly turned over 

 from sod, or which are wet, or those which have re- 

 ceived too great an application of rough stable manures. 

 Dry soils and dry seasons tend to produce small top 

 growth and a relatively large bulb, although the plants 

 may mature so early in the season that the bulbs do not 

 reach the actual size that they attain on moister land. 

 If the tops are still rank and green late in August, or 

 early in September, and show little tendency of ripening 

 naturally, it is well to break them down in order to 

 check the growth. A common way of doing this is to 

 roll a barrel lengthwise the rows. The best onion 

 crops, however, are those that ripen naturall3\ 

 Late growth is sometimes due to the seed. If the seed 

 has been grown for a number of seasons in a long- 

 season and moist climate, as in England, the plants will 

 tend to grow very late in the season. 



The onion is a somewhat difficult crop to handle and 

 to store unless the fall season is warm and one has good 

 facilities for handling the bulbs. The onions are 

 usually allowed to dry or cure for a day or two before 

 they are put into storage. If they cannot be handled 

 in the field, they should be cured under cover, for the 

 bulbs should be dry and free from dirt when they are 



