CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 
3 S 7 
ions, the soil preparation must be thorough. If plowing 
is deferred until spring, this operation should be attended 
to as soon as the ground is sufficiently dry, followed by 
repeated harrowing, to prevent the escape of soil mois- 
ture and to prepare a fine seed bed. The usual forms 
of disk harrows, followed with the Meeker Disk Smooth- 
ing Harrow and finished with a plank drag should leave 
the land fine, even and smooth. 
Muck soils, to be used for the first time, require spe- 
cial preparation. They must be cleared, drained and 
thrown up to the exposure of winter freezing. Although 
analyzing high in plant foods (401), large amounts are 
not available. Lime will help to release the needed plant 
food and to correct any soil acidity that may exist. It 
is generally desirable to grow other crops for a sea- 
son or more until proper soil conditions have been 
secured. 
534. Fertilizing. — An analysis of the Southport White 
Globe onion shows that 2,000 pounds of the mature 
bulbs contain 2.70 pounds of nitrogen, 0.92 pounds of 
phosphoric acid and 2.09 pounds of potash. The aver- 
age legal weight of a bushel in the United States is 
about 56 pounds. A yield of 500 bushels an acre would, 
therefore, make a total of 28,000 pounds, and would re- 
quire 37.80 pounds of nitrogen, 12.88 pounds of phos- 
phoric acid and 29.26 pounds of potash. Although these 
figures have some value in indicating the needs of 1 li e 
onion, it is generally recognized that the amounts of the 
elements used should be considerably in excess of those 
shown by chemical analysis. The fact is, that no 0th 0 ’' 
vegetable requires higher fertility than the onion. The 
plants must have a bountiful supply of available food un 
til the bulbs are formed. 
Stable manures are universally preferred to commer 
cial fertilizers because of their influence on the physical 
properties of the soil. Poultry droppings, on account 
