HOW TO GROW ONIONS 
Plant 1/3 oz. to 100 feet of drill, three to four pounds per acre, except 
Sweet Spanish and like sorts 2 to V-h. For sets, forty 
to eighty pounds per acre. 
In onion culture thorough preparation of the ground, careful sowing and 
the best of after culture, though essential for a full yield, will avail nothing 
unless seed of the best quality be used. Given the same care and conditions, 
the product from two lots ot onion seed of the same variety but of different 
quality may be so unequal in the quantity of merchantable onions that it would 
be more profitable to use the good seed though it cost twenty times as much 
as the other. The seed we offer is the best obtainable. Although onions are 
often raised from sets and from division, by far the best and cheapest mode of 
production is from seed. The facility with which seed is sown and the 
superior bulbs it produces, recommend it tor general use. 
The Soil ’ A crop of onions can be grown on any soil which will pro¬ 
duce a full crop ot corn, but on a stiff clay, very light sand 
or gravel, or on some muck or swamp lands, neither a large 
nor a very profitable crop can be grown. I prefer a rich loam with a 
slight mixture of clay. This is much better if it has been cultivated with hoed 
crops, kept clean from weeds and well-manured for two years previous, because 
if a sufficient quantity of manure to raise an ordinary soil to a proper degree 
of fertility is applied at once, it is likely to make the onion soft. The same 
result will follow it we sow on rank mucky ground or on that which is too wet. 
Manuring There is no crop in which a liberal use of manure is more 
y essential than in this, and it should be the best quality, 
well fermented and shoveled over at least twice during the 
previous summer to kill weed seeds. It rank, fresh manure is used, it is liable 
to result in soft bulbs with many scallions. Of the commercial manures, any 
of the high-grade, complete fertilizers are good for ordinary soils, and even 
very rich soils are frequently greatly benefited by fine ground bone, and mucky 
ones by a liberal dressing of wood ashes. 
Preparation 
Remove all refuse of previous crops in time to complete 
the work before the ground freezes up and spread the com¬ 
posted manure evenly at the rate of about twenty tons to 
the acre. This should first be disced in and then the ground ploughed a 
moderate depth, taking a narrow furrow in order to thoroughly mix the manure 
with the soil. Carefully avoid tramping on the ground during the winter. 
Disc thoroughly as early in the spring as it can be worked, after which the 
entire surface should be made fine and level with a smoothing harrow. It 
is impossible to cultivate the crop economically unless the rows are perfectly 
straight. 
Sowing the This should be done as soon as the ground can be made 
o j y ready and can be done best by a hand seed drill. Growers 
aeea of large acreages here plant with the 4 row beet drills 
using special plates. This permits cultivating with 4 row cul¬ 
tivators. The drill should be carefully adjusted to sow the desired quantity 
of seed about one inch deep. The quantity needed will vary with the soil, 
the seed used and the kind of onions desired. Thin seeding gives much larger 
onions than thick seeding. Two to four pounds per acre is the usual quantity 
needed to grow large onions. Use a drill with a roller attached, but if the 
drill has none the ground should be well rolled with a light roller immediately 
after the seed is planted. 
Cultivation As soon as the onions are large enough so that the rows can 
be seen begin cultivating very shallow and as close to the 
rows as possible without damaging the plants. Cultivate 
every week to ten days until the bulbs have started to develop. Hoe every 
week, removing all weeds and grass. Do not allow any weeds or grass to 
remain in the field. 
If under irrigation: Irrigate every week to 10 days until the crop is 
matured or up to about ten days before harvest. Here we irrigate 12 to 14 
times and cultivate 10 to 12 times. 
Gathering 
As soon as the tops die in the fall the bulbs should be pulled 
and about four rows put together in each windrow. As soon 
as the tops are dried cut about one-half inch from the bulb 
with shears and put into field crates. Stack crates in piles of about one truck 
load each and protect top crates from weather. When thoroughly cured run 
over grader, sort out scallions and damaged bulbs and store in onion house. 
Stack so that the best of ventilation is assured. Keep dry and as near a 
uniform temperature just above 32 degrees as is possible. Repeated freezing 
and thawing will spoil the bulbs. Very early onions are grown by the 
transplanting method, the seed being sownHn frames or beds and the small 
onions transplanted when the size of a small lead pencil to the field rows. 
The tops remain green on many of the Sweet Spanish types and these are 
pulled when ready to harvest and the tops dry down in the windrows. 
52 
D. V. Burrell Seed Growers Co., Rocky Ford, Colo 
