THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
1912. 
231 
ONION GROWING ON A LARGE SCALE. 
How It is Managed at Oniontown. 
Part II. 
Cultivation. —As soon as the plants are 
large enough to admit of cultivation a wheel 
hoe is run between the rows. This opera¬ 
tion must be repeated at brief intervals un¬ 
til the tops are too high to allow it to be 
done without breaking them over. Then a 
scuflle hoe is used every two weeks until 
the bulbs begin to form, and further work¬ 
ing would injure the crop. It is also neces¬ 
sary to do a good deal of weeding by hand. 
For this purpose boys and women, as well 
as men, are employed. In an average sea¬ 
son and a reasonably clean field three weed- 
ings are sufficient, but sometimes it is 
necessary to go over a part or even the 
whole of a field the fourth, time. The first 
weeding is much the most difficult, and if 
the crop looks promising at its close the 
danger of its being swamped by foul plants 
Is practically over. In unfavorable seasons 
losses of several acres in the larger fields 
are not very unusual. Weeds of various 
kinds are well represented. Dock, pigweed, 
purslane, mustard and redroot are bad, but 
joint grass, which has strong roots and is 
very persistent, is the most troublesome. 
Besides the weeds the principal enemies of 
the onion in this vicinity are the maggot, 
which is not usually very serious, but in 
some seasons does a great deal of damage, 
and the blight, which sometimes strikes the 
crop soon after bulbs begin to form and 
quickly checks their growth. For these 
troubles no really practical remedy has 
been found. One grower, Mr. A. P. Fisher, 
has experimented with lime, and has also 
sown moth balls and camphor flakes along 
the rows to keep away the maggot fly, but 
with little success. In hope of destroying 
the eggs of the fly he has sprinkled kerosene 
along the ditches, but perhaps because the 
owners of adjoining fields have not taken 
this precaution, the effect of this effort is 
not noticeable. 
Harvesting. —When ripe the onions are 
pulled by hand and thrown into windrows. 
One row is taken for the center and six 
rows on each side are thrown with it. After 
they have dried for 10 or 12 days the tops 
are cut off with a sharp knife or with 
shears. Some large growers, however, use 
machines for this purpose. While it seems 
almost impossible, it is a fact that these 
machines do the work as well as it can be 
done by hand, and they do not injure the 
bulbs. One which the writer has seen in 
operation topped at the rate of 50 bushels 
per hour. This machine cost 9250, and the 
three horse-power gasoline engine which 
Is mounted on it and supplies the power 
sells for 9100. Two larger-sized machines 
are made, one which tops 100 bushels and 
the other 200 bushels per hour. The largest 
size costs .$500, and its four horse-power 
engine costs 9150. The machine is on 
wheels and can be drawn to any part of 
the field. The onions, which have been put 
into crates, are drawn to the machine and 
put on its platform. Here a man passes 
the crates to the two men who- feed the 
onions into the machine while a man on_ 
the ground takes away the crates as they 
are filled and puts empty ones in their 
place. When onions are topped by hand 
they are passed over a rapidly moving 
screen which frees them from dirt and 
loose leaves, but this is not necessary if 
the work is done with a machine. When 
ready for market the onions are put into 
tile crates which hold one bushel each. As 
they have no facilities for storage, renters 
usually sell their crops promptly to the 
buyers, who are always on the ground be¬ 
fore the onions are harvested. Some grow¬ 
ers who own their land do the same, but 
many of them have storehouses on their 
fields in which they keep a part, at least, 
of their crop until later in the season. 
These houses, or inclosed cribs or bins, are 
built with a driveway between the sides, 
and are covered in part with slats for ven¬ 
tilation. Some of them are arranged for 
heating in Winter. These houses are of 
different sizes, some of them holding 3,000 
bushels each. Though some are stored in 
bulk, most of the onions are left in the 
crates in ■which they drawn from the field. 
There is considerable shrinkage, and some 
risk from other sources, but if the bulbs 
keep fairly well there Is usually a sufficient 
advance in the price to pay well for carry¬ 
ing them through the Winter. 
Marketing.-— Practically all of the onions 
grown in this district are hauled to Canas- 
tota. From there they are sent to New 
York, Boston, Philadelphia and many other 
points. Some are shipped at once, but large 
quantities are put into storehouses which 
have a capacity of from 25,000 to 75,000 
bushels each. The onions are hauled in 
crates which are emptied at the storehouses, 
the cars or the canal boats and are then 
returned to the fields for future use. From 
450 to 550 bushels are shipped in a car. 
The price varies some, but for a term of 
years it will probably average a little over 
50 cents a bushel for the large size and 
about 25 cents for the small ones. The 
yield varies with the season. An average 
of 500 bushels per acre in a large field is 
considered very good. When all of the con¬ 
ditions are favorable some acres will yield 
900 bushels each and still larger yields are 
occasionally obtained. In very bad years 
the yield often falls to less than 300 bushels 
per acre over considerable areas. In 1909 
the crop was good. In 1910 the yield fell 
off from one-third to one-half, and present 
indications are that the crop of last year 
was one-third below the average. The 
causes for the shortage this year were con¬ 
cisely and correctly stated by an Italian 
grower as “Too much weed, too much 
worm, too much blight.” 
Celery.— The only rival of the onion in 
this district is celery. It is not in favor 
with renters because it requires considerable 
team work and needs a longer season than 
onions, but if he owns a team the land 
owner can get more profit from a given 
area in cele'ry than he can if it is in onions. 
Rome growers alternate these crops and 
find that the clean culture of the celery 
helps to keep weeds out of the land. On 
general principles this course might be ex¬ 
pected to bring other benefits, but the rota¬ 
tion of crops does not seem to be as neces¬ 
sary with onions as it is with other farm 
products and in this muck land it appar¬ 
ently is not required at all. Some fields 
have been in onions for many successive 
years and have not diminished in productive¬ 
ness. By the liberal use of fertilizers it 
will be possible to continue this course for 
an indefinite period. Because of its natural 
adaptation to the crop, and its favorable 
location for shipping, it is probable that 
the larger part of this extensive tract will 
be kept in onions for a long time to come. 
The profits of onion growing here, though 
reasonably sure, are subject to wide va¬ 
riations. In poor years they are small, and 
In small areas they may be a minus quan¬ 
tity, but in average years they are liberal, 
and in unusually favorable years they are 
large. If well managed these onion fields 
are excellent property. j. e. r. 
Dynamiting and Tree Planting. 
In answer to J. W. M., page 126, in a 
block of seven-year-old apple trees, about 
a dozen failed to make a good growth, and 
one of them died when four years old. Re¬ 
planting, the tree failed to live through the 
Summer. The soil is Hagerstown shale 
loam, and we found the shale very near 
the surface in this place. Before planting 
the third time we used about one-third 
stick of dynamite (say three ounces), mak¬ 
ing the hole with a bar and putting the 
charge about two feet under surface. The 
result was a mass of fine shale of about a 
cubic yard in extent. The tree was planted 
and grew and made a good growth, al¬ 
though the season was very dry. J. W. M. 
would have to get well into that hardpan 
with his dynamite and use more of it, say 
one-half pound. I think the cost would be 
justified in the better drainage secured, as 
unbroken hardpan within two feet of the 
surface would hardly be an Ideal condition 
for an apple orchard. A. t. b. 
Pennsylvania. 
I planted 150 trees with dynamite with 
the best of success; they make a much 
quicker growth. They will grow In two 
years as much as the old way will in three 
years. If the soil is very hard digging it 
will be found much cheaper. c. m. o. 
Massachusetts. 
J. YY. M., Connecticut, wants actual ex¬ 
perience in dynamiting holes for fruit trees. 
I tried that last Spring for over 100 peach 
trees in heavy clay subsoil on land that 
would raise scarcely more than 20 bushels 
of corn to the acre. I used an iron rock 
drill and drilled down about three feet, and 
used one-third stick 40 per cent dynamite. 
The dynamite fuse and caps cost about four 
cents per tree, which I think is a very 
cheap way of digging the holes, as all I 
did after I shot the holes was to shovel 
out a few shovelfuls and set the tree. As 
last season was very dry with us the trees 
made good growth ; they were headed back 
to about 18 inches from the ground and 
about five-eighths inch in diameter when 
set, and now they will average seven feet 
tall and most of them will average two 
inches in diameter and some larger than 
that. This ground was in corn the season 
before, and the patch was set in straw and 
tended up to September. One of my neigh¬ 
bors set peach trees last Spring in the 
spade-dug system and those trees made very 
little growth. We have a man near New 
Albany, Ind., who runs a commercial or¬ 
chard system; he has been trying it 12 
years and I heard him say he would set 
no trees without dynamiting, thinking it 
paid largely. From what experience I 
have had and seen from others I would cer¬ 
tainly try dynamite, for it certainly tears 
up the subsoil and gives those roots a 
chance to go down to moisture, and dry 
as the season was I never lost a single 
tree out of 104, which I think is very good. 
Borden, Ind. R. F. T. 
In the Spring of 1911 I set 52 apple 
trees in filling in an. old orchard where the 
trees had died. First tried one-fourtli 
pound, but found that too heavy a charge 
of it made too large a hole; then used 
one-sixth pound charge. First I bored in 
about 12 to 15 inches, pushed the stick 
clear to the bottom, tamped it well and let 
it go. We could set a tree in the hole 
easily in five minutes, one holding the tree 
and treading in the dirt as the other 
shoveled. Not having enough dynamite two 
holes were dug with shovel. Result, one 
of those trees died and only one of those 
set in holes that were dynamited. The 
soil is a sandy loam underlaid by sand 
rock about three feet below the surface. 
All trees were heavily mulched with straw 
early in the season before the drought be¬ 
gan. Some of the trees made a new 
growth of more fhad two feet on each limb, 
while the tree set in the dug hole made a 
growth of three to six inches. An observa : 
tion of the trees is proof conclusive that it 
paid to use the dynamite. The trees set 
were two years old. h. 
Ohio. 
We are using dynamite here for setting 
grape roots, and it is a good thing for 
clay or hardpan; do not think that it would 
do any good in mellow or gravel soil. It 
would be necessary to get the dynamite 
down in the clay and to tamp the ground 
down hard around the dynamite before fir¬ 
ing the fuse; the explosion then would 
loosen the ground in all directions, and 
would enable the root system to extend 
more quickly. j. w. 
Ilammondsport, N. Y. 
Last Spring in preparing for planting 
fruit trees I decided to use dynamite, which 
was so entirely successful I shall give you 
my method. For making the holes I used a 
heavy iron bar, sinking it from 20 to 24 
inches, using one-quarter stick dynamite, 
pulverized, then after placing cap and fuse 
tamped wet earth into hole. This would 
loosen the ground four or five feet deep and 
about four feet on each side, in ordinary 
freestone soil with heavy yellow clay sub¬ 
soil. My trees made larger growth last 
year, where other trees in the neighborhood 
which were dug in, made very small growth 
or died from the dry weather. Care should 
be taken to pack soil well around trees 
when put in. Cost of material for shooting 
holes was five cents each, not including 
labor. w. m. i. 
Seebert, W. Va. 
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