1015. 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
61 
ture 
tion 
POSSIBILITIES OF PRODUCTION. 
The Story of Intensive Work. 
A GREAT ONION CROP.—I was greatly im¬ 
pressed last Autumn with the wonderful re¬ 
sults which may he attained by intensive cul- 
where favorable conditions of weather, selec- 
of crops, and careful cultural operations are 
combined. I sent you, by parcel post, three onions 
which are some of the largest of seven bushels of 
Giant Gibraltar grown on 300 square feet of ground, 
or at the rate of more than 800 bushels 
per acre. Twelve hundred plants were 
transplanted early in June from flats, 
having been started seven weeks be¬ 
fore under glass. Of these a very few 
did not grow, and a few grew to 
“splits" or “thick-necks,” but more 
than 1100 grew to be more than two 
inches in diameter. Had the whole 
1200 grown to the size of specimens sent 
(about 15 ounces each) the crop would 
have been at one cent a pound (the 
wholesale price here) more than at the 
rate of $1,200 per acre, allowing three 
onions per square foot. This would be 
three onions per foot of row with rows 
one foot apart. 
SOIL CONDITIONS.—It is custom¬ 
ary with writers to qualify accounts 
of big yields with numerous draw¬ 
backs of poor season and poor soil. I 
shall have to follow suit by stating 
that my onion patch was on common, 
annually cultivated soil, very sparing¬ 
ly manured with stable manure, and 
was in no ways ideal onion soil. Up 
to the middle of August, when early 
sown Yellow Danvers were ripening. 
I think not one was more than an 
inch through, and several visitors pro¬ 
nounced the crop a failure. However, 
frequent rains and mild weather in 
September forced a beautiful growth, 
so that I harvested seven bushels by measure, which 
weighed more than the legal weight, the variety be¬ 
ing very solid. This variety is the best for trans¬ 
planting of any I have tried, and the strain of seed 
as I got it is much more true to type than most of 
the ITizetaker strains. 
POSSIBLE PROFITS.—I have quoted one cent 
per pound, but there is no reason why local dealers 
should not pay the Bermuda price (which is double 
or treble this) for onions growing to 12 ounces or 
more. With soil and 
culture which gave a 
crop averaging about 
one pound per onion, 
and a full stand, the 
crop would be 130,680 
pounds. If three cents 
per pound could be ob¬ 
tained the crop from an 
acre would reach near¬ 
ly $4,000. This would 
compare favorably with 
celery growing in Flor¬ 
ida. For the modest 
sum of several thou¬ 
sand dollars per acre 
one could afford to use 
the best of ground and 
fertilizer and devote 
the whole Summer to 
one acre of this onion 
alone. As it does not 
need a whole Summer 
to produce a crop one 
could be all through 
June in transplanting, 
having cleared the land 
of weeds during the 
previous weeks w li e n 
frost made it necessary 
to keep the plants in 
the cold frame and thus 
to trying an acre, but would not be averse to put¬ 
ting out 10,000. 
EXAMPLES OF INTENSIVE CROPPING.—Now 
to review a little. If my readers will measure a 
plot of ground 9x40 feet, they will see that it is not 
a large piece. In ordinary families half the area 
would give all the onions consumed, or 3 % bushels. 
This would be a plot 9x20 feet. Then supposing we 
doubled the crop by raising the average size to more 
than one-half pound. This would cut the ground 
in half again, and we would have 90 feet, or less 
GIANT GIBRALTAR ONION—ACTUAL SIZE. Fio. 18. 
area than the floor of an ordinary bedroom. Let us 
take another crop. Plant the ground with beets at 
three inches, with rows at 12. This would give 360, 
or 10 dozen bunches of three each. In the first of 
the season beets command 40 cents and upwards 
per dozen. Last Summer more was realized for the 
first 10 days. At 40 cents the value of the beets 
would be $4 on one-third rod, or $1,920 per acre. 
SUCCESSION CROPS.—On a similar area more 
than double the amount of radishes could be grown. 
ery, snap beans, or pickle cucumbers, or onion seed 
could be drilled between the rows in July and bunch¬ 
ing onions grown. I sowed a patch July 9 and the 
young seedlings as scallions were large enough to 
eat in late October. 
CARROTS AFTER LETTUCE.—Since commenc¬ 
ing this article I stopped long enough to harvest a 
little crop of half-long carrots sowed on the 19th of 
July. The patch which had been in lettuce, meas¬ 
ures 23 feet by a little less than 12 feet or almost 
exactly one square rod. There are five heaping 
half-bushels, weighing 28 pounds each. 
This is at the rate of more than 11 
tons per acre. It does not seem possi¬ 
ble that the growth of carrots could 
equal a moderate crop of silage corn 
nine or 10 feet tall, but I have carefully 
measured the ground twice, and have 
the carrots to show. For some reason 
one-half the piece was much better in 
stand and growth than the other, so I 
did not reach the limit. Had the piece 
been sowed a month earlier, as it 
might have been had not the lettuce 
been held back by drought, then 1 
would have been a month’s longer sea 
son. and those as big as my finger 
would have tripled in weight. In con 
elusion, allow me to suggest to such 
of your readers as have only a small 
area of soil available that they do a 
little planning this Winter and reduce 
the cost of living by a little garden 
exercise next Summer early in the 
morning. I judge that village people 
do not get up very early, from some¬ 
thing that occurred in my own town. 
Sabbath school has been held from 
time immemorial after morning ser 
vice. This made the farmers late to 
dinner, and shortened the time for 
them to speed their new automobiles. 
They voted to change, and have Sab¬ 
bath school before service, and nearly 
all the villagers voted against it, because it gave 
such a short time in the morning. l. b. pierce. 
BLACK AND WHITE STEERS. 
A NOTHER argument for the Holstein is shown 
at Fig. 19. This is a pair of twin steers raised 
and owned by E. J. Harroway of Schoharie 
Go., N. Y. These steers at 18 months weighed 1960 
pounds, and are just about all that a good steer 
ought to be. The big 
black and white cattle 
provide work and beef 
as well as milk. You 
may think oxen are 
•slow, but there is hard¬ 
ly a farm in the East 
that could not use a 
yoke of cattle to advan¬ 
tage. We have reported 
one case where a farm¬ 
er bought an auto on 
the proceeds from work¬ 
ing and selling oxen. 
A 
the weeding would be 
reduced to the minimum. After, and before trans¬ 
planting, a vigorous man or woman could care for 
an acre, and with the ground spaced with a mark¬ 
ing wheel two active boys should put in 10,000 or 
more per day. There is very little loss in trans¬ 
planting onions if the weather is reasonably moist 
for a few days. Plants dropped and lying on top 
of ground sometimes get a root-hold and grow sim¬ 
ply from the soil washed on in a rain. A contest 
against the weather to grow $2,000, or more, per 
acre would be as exciting as an egg-laying contest 
and much more remunerative. I do not feel equal 
TWIN HOLSTEIN STEERS IS MONTHS OLD. Fig. 19 
and sold at 20 cents would bring the same total. If 
of early button varieties they would only occupy 
half the time, and the ground would be clear for 
any crop planted after June 15. In my latitude the 
radishes would generally be off two or three weeks 
earlier, or so nearly so that early Cory sweet corn 
could be planted, and the ground could be sown to 
turnips as a third crop. A friend of mine living 
within the corporate limits of Cincinnati grew three 
crops of early sweet corn by planting between the 
rows each time when the growing crop was in silk. 
The best ground could be cleared in time for cel¬ 
ONIONS IN RYE. 
STRIKING exam¬ 
ple of weed pre¬ 
servation is the 
behavior of the wild 
onion in rye. The small 
sets on the flowering 
top are harvested with 
the crop and dry down 
to about the exact size, 
weight and color of rye 
kernels, so that it is 
about impossible to get 
them out with any or¬ 
dinary process of clean¬ 
ing. A small quantity 
of these onion kernels 
spoils rye for flouring 
purposes, and is likely to take 20 per cent, or more 
from its market value. Clean rye is selling in west¬ 
ern primary markets at upwards of $1.05, in Chica¬ 
go at $1.12, and New York as high as $1.18, yet many 
buyers of Eastern rye will not pay more than 85 cents 
because of the onion menace. These dealers know 
quite well the infested locations and cannot risk 
buying except at prices the grain would be worth 
for live stock feeding. Some farmers practice a 
systematic “rogueing” of their fields, always carry¬ 
ing a small bag to harvest stray patches of the 
pest, to be burned. 
