Onion Growing in the Cache a la 
Poudre Valley. 
By WENDELL PADDOCK. 
Colorado is remarkable for its special crops which have been 
developed to a high degree of perfection in certain localities. 
And of these, few have attracted more attention than onion grow¬ 
ing in the Cache a la Pondre valley. As early as 1880 a few 
gardeners in the vicinity of Baporte, began to grow more onions 
than were required to meet the local demand. Much of the sur¬ 
plus was hauled by wagon to Cheyenne, Wyoming, or it was dis¬ 
posed of to ranchmen, and in small towns where there was no 
local supply. At this time onions brought from $1.75 to $1.90 
per hundred pounds. Commission men from Greeley were not 
slow to recognize in this crop a valuable means of supplementing 
the sale of potatoes. These men soon became the principal 
buyers. With the advent of the commission men, the acreage 
devoted to this crop increased rapidly, until now onions are grown 
in varying amounts on the bottom lands adjacent to the river 
from the foot hills to its junction with the Platte at Greeley, a 
distance of forty miles; the territory adjacent to Fort Collins 
still continuing to grow the largest acreage. 
While the price of onions has been reduced to a minimum, 
()5c to 75c per hundred pounds being the average price in the fall, 
yet the crop is usually a paying one. Owners of small tracts of 
land find it profitable to put in small patches of the best soil, and 
perhaps the larger part of the onions is grown in this way. But 
occasionally a twenty-five-acre field is seen, and ten-acre fields of 
onions are not at all uncommon. 
Soils. The onion thrives best in a cool, moist soil, the sur¬ 
face of which is easily kept in a mellow condition. Such soils 
are mostly confined to river bottoms, and they contain more vege¬ 
table matter and more sand than is commonly found in Colorado 
soils. Barge amounts of decayed vegetable matter seem to be 
essential to the best development of this crop. Many of the best 
onion districts in the Hast, as well as in California, are located on 
reclaimed swamp land. One very important effect of the vege¬ 
table matter is that it improves the physical condition of the soil, 
