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VEGETABLE GARDENING 
keting is done by hand or power machine, which removes 
chaff and dirt. The shrinkage in bulk from harvest until 
the middle of February is from 25 to 30 per cent. For 
this reason some growers prefer selling at harvest, when 
prices are sometimes nearly as good as in the winter. 
One hundred barrels to the acre is a good crop. The 
average is from 60 to 70. Harvesting and cleaning costs 
50 to 75 cents a barrel. Prices are extremely variable, but 
the industry is regarded as fairly profitable. White sets 
are in greatest demand. 
546. Growing picklers. — Pickling onions are grown by 
the same method as sets, except that less seed is used. 
Twenty-five to 30 pounds an acre is sufficient. The bulbs 
range from Y inch to Ip2 inches in diameter. Uni- 
formity in size is very important. 
547. Bunching onions. — Immense quantities of onions 
are bunched when the tops are green and sold from early 
spring until midsummer. In the South, white and yellow 
multipliers are used; in the North, sets grown from seed 
and also those of the Egyptian tree onion. 
Multipliers are generally planted in the fall, about six 
weeks before freezing weather. The trenches should be 
4 or 5 inches deep and the bulbs set 3 to 6 inches apart. 
Large bulbs of the potato class, planted in the spring, 
will produce a great many small bulbs for planting in 
the fall of the same season. They will make a good start 
in the fall, grow to some extent during the winter in 
mild localities and make rapid progress in the spring. 
When multipliers are planted where the winters are 
severe, a mulch of some kind, preferably strawy manure, 
should be applied after the ground is frozen. 
In the North, enormous quantities of sets are planted 
to produce bunching onions for local markets. It is cus- 
tomary to plant the sets I to 2 inches apart with I foot 
of space between rows, as soon as the ground can be 
prepared in the spring. 
