23 
mm-jtm aid habvest. 
More About the Big Onion. 
BY ROBERT B. WILSON. 
When I wrote you in reply to Dumbell’s 
article in reference to onion& which appear¬ 
ed in Seed-Time and Harvest for Decem¬ 
ber '84, I had no thought of being called 
upon to inflict a second dissertation (?) on 
tin* subject of onions. But it appears that 
one of your many readers is not satisfied 
and thinks further explanation would be 
acceptable to others. Of that matter I 
leave you to judge for yourself and your 
readers. The treatment of the onion crop 
in question was as follows: In October ’83, 
I hauled on manure, about 75 loads (two- 
horse) to the acre and half the quantity of 
sand (drift sand) and immediately plowed 
the whole under and spread nearly as much 
manure on top as I had plowed under. 
This last lot of manure was selected with 
a view to having it pulverize in spring. 
No further attention ‘given till April 3. ’84, 
when, on examination, the surface was 
found dry enough to work md accordingly 
a two-horse harrow was put on and the 
surface thoioughly “scratched”; then the 
whole plot was gone over with the garden 
rake followed by the hand roller. The seed 
was then drilled in with a P anet Jr., 
Drill at the rate of six pounds to the acre. 
As soon as the rows could be followed I 
went through with hand cultivator (my 
own make) with protector to avoid throw¬ 
ing dirt on the little plants; then I went 
through them with a table-fork and plucked 
out whatever clover or weeds the cultivator 
had left. This operation was repeated twice. 
Cultivated them once a week but not deep, 
(about one-half, to three inches) and when 
the blades were from four to eight inches 
long I thinned them to six to nine inches 
apart in tl.e rows, and used of what I pulled 
out to fill up any vacancies that existed. 
In thinning I chose a time when the ground 
was quite damp. I continued to cultivate 
and hand-weed till the blades became so 
long and heavy that I could not get through 
without doing damage, then I allowed the 
onions and crab-grass to fight it out in their 
own way till pulling time. The soil was 
originally a black muckish prairie; had 
been in cultivation about fifteen years but 
tolerably well fed during the time; was not 
underdrained except that a hot bed with 
its drain forms the margin for the upper 
ends of the rows. The rows were exactly 
18 inches apart, which is as close as they 
can be properly cultivated. The onions 
were of the Giant Rocca sort. My hand 
cultivator is a better one than I have ever 
seen on the market. I do not mean this 
last remark for an advertisement but to 
illustrate the fact that manufacturers of 
hand cultivators do not understand the 
defects of their machines and how to 
remedy them. I have no cultivators to sell. 
-THE- 
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