HOW TO GROW ONIONS 
Plant Zz ok. to 10O feet of drill, three to live pounds per acre, except 
Sweet Spanish and like sorts 2 to 2%. For sets, forty 
to eighty pounds per acre. 
In onion culture thorough preparation of the ground, careful sow¬ 
ing 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 of 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 for general use. 
The Soil A crop of onions can be grown on any soil which will pro¬ 
duce a full crop of 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 culti¬ 
vated 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 if 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 
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. If rank, fresh manure is used, 
it is liable to result in soft bulbs with many scallions. Of the com¬ 
mercial 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 asnes. 
Preparation We suggest that you refer to page 2 for preparation 
of the soil. 
Topping Burrell’s Yellow Valencia Onions and 
Placing Them in Field Crates. 
Sowing the This should be done as soon as the ground can be made 
r i ^ ready. A good hand seed drill will do an excellent job 
0660 of planting. Growers of large acreages here plant 
with the 4 row beet drills using special plates. This 
permits cultivating with 4 row cultivators. The drill should be care¬ 
fully 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 two and one-fourth pounds of seed per acre is 
sufficient for very large sorts like Sweet Spanish and as much as five 
or six pounds per acre can be sown of the smaller sorts. 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. 
It is impossible to cultivate the crop economically unless the rows are 
perfectly straight. 
See Page 90 for Special Prices to Market Growers 
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