THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
lt)03 
NOTES ON ONION CULTURE, 
ExperienceZFrom a Pennsylvania Grower. 
We have been cultivating a half-acre onion patch 
for the last 10 years with fair success. Our land is a 
nearly level piece, the soil on which, to the depth of 
two or three feet, has been washed down from the hill 
above by a brook. We prepare land by plowing in the 
Fall, just before the land freezes up for Winter, back- 
furrowing in beds about 20 feet wide, plowing out 
d?ad furrows clean. As early in the Spring as the 
ground i's dry the beds are thoroughly worked with 
harrow and clod crusher, then hand raked, using the 
dead furrows for what is raked off. The aim is to 
have the bed as nearly level as possible, with a seed 
bed two inches in depth of thoroughly pulverized fine 
soil on top of a compact under soil. We have used the 
best complete vegetable fertilizer, at the rate of 1% 
ton per acre, for five years previous to last year, this 
because of freedom from weeds. But the land became 
so lumpy, evidently lacking vegetable matter, that we 
applied last year a heavy dressing of manure, and this 
year a dressing of lime. Fertilizer was applied just 
before harrowing in the Spring, manure applied be¬ 
fore plowing and turned under. We use a hand seed 
drill (Planet Jr.). The seed will come better if sown 
as soon after raking as the surface is dry enough, so 
(hat drill will work. We u'se the best Massachusetts- 
grown seed of Yellow Danvers at the rate of five 
pounds per acre, rows are one foot apart. Four pounds 
will sow an acre if rows are 14 inches apart. There 
is no crop that will show quicker the advantage of 
the best seed. It takes only four or five bushels of 
scullions to make the difference in price between this 
and California-grown seed. We would not raise Yel¬ 
low Danvers if we had a muck soil, this onion being 
by origin and cultivation only adapted to 
sandy soil. The spaces between the beds, 
about two feet wide, when stones and lumps 
are raked, are sown thickly with radishes 
at same time the onions are sown, these 
and the late plowing will keep maggots 
from seriously damaging the crop. 
Cultivation should begin as soon as 
onions come up, with hand cultivator and 
weeder. Get the weeds when small, or bet¬ 
ter, just before they come up, and stir the 
ground often anyway for good of onions. If 
the ground is to be used for onions, as you 
can, year after year, do not let any weeds 
go to seed; late in the season, when onions 
are too large to permit use of cultivator, a 
basket and hand weeder for purslane, 
chickweed and anything likely to go to 
seed is the only way. Hand weeders and 
fingers keep the rows free from weeds. We 
do not thin onions, let them grow just as 
sown, the small ones for pickling bring 
nearly, as much per bushel as the larger 
ones. Onions are pulled about September 1 
to 10 with a Planet Jr. onion harvester, an 
attachment for hand cultivator that cuts 
under the row and raises the onions out. 
Onions are left on the ground from 10 days 
to two weeks, according to the weather, to cure thor¬ 
oughly, and are stirred with wooden-tooth rake as 
necessary if there is much damp weather. Some dry¬ 
ing sunshiny day they are picked up into crates made 
with slatted bottoms about six inches deep. These 
crates are piled up in an airy, cool part of barn base¬ 
ment. Onions are topped, sorted and shipped in sacks 
or barrels the latter part of November or early in De¬ 
cember, just before severe freezing weather. In stor¬ 
ing or handling onions the aim should be always to 
keep them cool and dry. The average cellar is about 
the poorest place to store that can be found. Our 
market is Scranton, Pa., and price there is generally 
best just at beginning of Winter. Price, delivered 
there in 1901, was $1 per bushel, 1902 70 cents, though 
these are above the average, which would be about 60 
cents per bushel. We have sold as low as three shil¬ 
lings. The yield averages 500 bushels per acre. We 
have not kept account with our patch, but it is an 
easy matter to put $50 in work, seed and fertilizer on 
a half acre of onions. It is a nice crop when you can 
get a good yield and the other fellows don’t. 
Brooklyn, Pa. E. t. w. 
happy HOLSTEINS.—The picture on this page 
shows the dairy herd of Wm. Rankin, of Massachu¬ 
setts, at rest. These cows are happy in their comfort¬ 
able stable, and look as though they had no fault to 
find with life. That is the frame of mind that en¬ 
closes a perfect life picture for man or cow—provided 
it comes as the result of honest and helpful work. The 
Holsteins are contented by nature, with less nervous 
energy than the Jerseys. They make excellent barn 
cows, and it is a pleasant sight on a sunny Winter 
Jay to see them lie at ease chewing their cud. Hol¬ 
stein milk has a good record for commercial quality. 
CLARK'’ GRASS CULTURE. 
Turning Soil Up vs. Turning If Over. 
Part HL 
Mr. Clark has finished cutting hi's first crop of grass 
and sends the following report: 
Mr. Clark's Great Hay Crop. 
“I have just completed cutting my first crop of hay; 
commenced July 6, ending July 21, 15 days. Last year, 
total, first crop, was 64 tons 874 pounds of dry hay; 
this year first crop was 55 tons 729 pounds, nine tons 
less than last year. The loss was due mostly to three 
causes: First, lack of intense cultivation before seed¬ 
ing of six acres in September, 1901, on account of 
cloudburst which washed nearly all of the intensely 
cultivated soil off the field 10 days before seeding. 
Second, a two months’ drought in Spring. Third, the 
fertilizer was spread six weeks without rain. These 
three cut the column down so that the average pro¬ 
duct was but 7,840 pounds, a little less than four tons 
per acre; the seven-eighths acre, seeded now 14 years, 
cutting 26 first and second crops before this year, a 
total of 104% tons. This year, first crop, cut 12,410 
pounds, making the total product in 27 crops, one 
seeding, 14 years. 111 tons, with the second crop now 
growing. Last year the two crops were 81^ tons; this 
year they will exceed nine tons. The average pei acre 
this year on this field, first crop, is seven tons 176 
pounds, and on the five-eighths acre adjoining seven 
tons 80 pounds. While the sum total is less yet a 
portion of my field is heavier than ever before, not¬ 
withstanding my fertilizers lay bleaching six weeks in 
the sun without rain. Much has heretofore been said 
about the weight of my hay, whether put in the barn 
dry or otherwise, and also what green grass in dry¬ 
ing would shrink. I have made some tests this year 
with the following results. I have taken from several 
sections five square feet of grass, and found the fol¬ 
lowing results: Four pounds two ounces, mostly all 
Timothy, produced when dry 25% ounces, or 13,638 
pounds to the acre; four pounds five ounces, mostly 
all Red-top, when dry produced 20 ounces or 10,880 
pound's to the acre; four pounds six ounces Timothy 
and Red-top mixed 25 9-16 ounces or 13,706 pounds to 
the acre. In another .section mostly Red-top 4% 
pounds; when dry, 25% ounces or 14,021 pounds to the 
acre. Another section, four pounds five ounces, a lit¬ 
tle less Red-top, 25% ounces or 13,638 pounds to the 
acre. On another section, two pounds mixed, when 
dry 9 9-10 ounces or 5,206 pounds to the acre. I have 
kept track of the weights of the hay on theise several 
sections per acre, and they made a few pounds more 
to the acre when dried out than indicated by the 
samples. 
“The Directors of the Connecticut Agricultural Col¬ 
lege wish to have me save a few specimens of hay 
from my field to exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition 
in 1904, which I have done. I have no doubt, how¬ 
ever, that many will be surprised at the height of the 
grass. Judging from a number of the thousands of 
letters that I have received in the last few years, many 
suppose that six tons of hay or more to the acre 
means tall coarse grass, but it is exactly the reverse. 
It means a dense growth of fine grass; 500 to 600 
spears to the square foot, 40 to 45 inches in height, 
will make six to 'seven tons to the acre; every six 
inches in height of my grass containing 500 to 600 
spears to the square foot will produce a ton of dry 
hay to the acre, and it will be as fine as silk. In¬ 
tense cultivation and care is the only thing that will 
make big crops of hay.” 
579 
I do not doubt this statement—having seen the crop 
in former years. This seem's like a wonderful record 
—I doubt if anyone has equaled it in a season like 
the present one. Here is a field of less than an acre, 
which has been seeded now for 14 years, and which 
has given in 27 crops 111 tons of hay! That beats 
the income from some market gardens, and it Shows 
the Clark method at its best. We do not believe that 
it would be possible to obtain a meadow that would 
cut grass permanently by simply turning over a sod 
and cultivating the under side of it. The grass must be 
thoroughly started and deeply rooted in order to en¬ 
dure so long. In addition the soil must be natural 
grass land to begin with; smooth and of even grade, 
and well supplied with soluble fertilizers. 
Report From the Kentucky Meadow. 
Last week we gave an interesting statement from 
J. M. Garrett, of Kentucky. Mr. Garrett has cut and 
housed all his hay and now sends this report: 
“At no time from date of sowing until cutting was 
the Timothy on the cut land anything like so good as 
on the plowed land; in fact, the yield on the plowed 
land was at least 2i/^ times as great as on the cut 
land. In order to give manuring some tests, I spread 
with a manure spreader about 10 tons of manure, 
short and half rotted, on a part of the cut land, and 
also on a part of the plowed. I also spread about 600 
pounds to the acre on another part of the cut and 
plowed lands of tobacco stalks run through a cutting 
box and cut in inch lengths; also used on another part 
250 pounds of nitrate of soda (on both plots). It so 
happened that none of this manuring gave any benefit, 
and this is the reason: From April 28 (only a short 
time after these manures were spread), until July 10 
only 1% inch of rain fell, the most considerable 
drought at this season I ever knew. While 
this drought was to some extent local it also 
extended more or less over the entire Blue- 
grass region, and I have not seen a piece 
of Timothy hay in central Kentucky up to 
the standard. I consider my crop cut in 
half. While I did not weigh any of the hay 
it was windrowed in long rows with a side 
delivery rake and loaded with a hay loader, 
so that in crossing the 10 acres of disked 
land I had a good opportunity quite ac¬ 
curately to compare the yields while wagon 
was being loaded. I never left the hay 
harvest from the time we began until it 
was finished, and I know there is no mis¬ 
take. The experiment station at Lexing¬ 
ton has tested nitrate of soda as well as 
tobacco stalks, and finds the latter of 
greater benefii at a loss cost, although the 
nitrate of soda gave some value over cost 
when used in small quantities. 
“It i's not my practice to let Tim¬ 
othy stand only three years. I in¬ 
tended to say it was the general practice 
here, as White-top and other weeds are 
rather hard to control longer than 
three or four years. My experience, how¬ 
ever, is that a few sheep turned in the 
meadow at certain times will pick out most of 
the weeds that give trouble, though they eat chick- 
weed very sparingly, and it is growing worse here 
every year. I shall sow 100 acres more of Timothy 
this Fall, but every foot of it will be plowed, even the 
tobacco land that has been worked all Summer, and 
is as loose as land can be made to the depth of a cul¬ 
tivator, but I want a little more depth of plowed land, 
for plowed land does not dry 'out so easily in late 
Spring and early Summer. Other soils than this may 
do better with only disking, but I have never seen a 
good crop of anything grow in central Kentucky with¬ 
out plowing the first year. After the first year I do 
not think there will be a great deal of difference in 
the Timothy crop, although the root system on plow¬ 
ed land even now has considerably the advantage. 
Even if the crop were as good the first year on disked 
as on plowed land the latter has the advantage, as it 
is cheaper to plow and fit the ground than to disk 
eight or 10 times. I will say further that there were 
more weeds pn the disked land, because I suppose the 
weed seeds were left closer to -the surface.” 
COW PEAS IN MICHIGAN.—We are growing 10 acres 
of cow peas as an experiment to try to restore an im¬ 
poverished piece of land where we took out an old peach 
orchard. We contemplate seeding our young orchard of 
nine acres to Winter vetch, as a cover crop, to plow 
under next Spring. We expect to seed another old piece 
of land down to clover, and are watching closely the 
articles you print on manurial crops. j. s. 
Michigan. 
PEACHES IN TEXAS.—From a number of your read¬ 
ers I have received inquiries as to how those new 
peaches, of which you made mention last year In The 
R. N.-Y., are succeeding this season. There are now 
only two that are promising at this date, the No. 2 
ta fine w'hite freestone) which Prof. Powell, of Wash¬ 
ington, likens to Waddell and the peach that has been 
named Nell. The latter promises to surpass Elberta, 
ripening a few days later. There is no stock as yet for 
sale. The Queen Is holding her own as much as I can 
learn. No stock (trees) are as yet ready for market. 
Mexla, Tex. J. w s. 
