

HOW TO GROW ONIONS 
Plant 1/3 oz. to 100 feet of drill, three to five pounds per acre, 
except Sweet Spanish and like sorts, 134 to 2a. For 
Sets, forty ‘to eighty pounds per acre. 
In Onion culture, thorough preparation of the ground care- 
ful Sowing and the best of after-culture, though eyeential for 
a full yield, will avail nothing unless Seed of the best quality 
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 cheap- 
est 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 Brown on any soil which wil] pro- 
duce a full crop of corn, but on a stiff clay, very light sand 
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 fre- 
quently greatly benefited by fine ground bone, and mucky ones 
by a liberal dressing of wood ‘ashes. 

Topping Burrell’s Yellow Valencia Onions and Placing Them 
in Field Crates. 
PREPARATION ‘ 
Refer to page 3 for preparation of the soil: 
SOWING THE SEED ae 
This should be done as soon as the ground can be made 
ready. A good hand seed drill will do an excellent job of plant- 
ing. 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 carefully adjusted to sow 
the desired quantity of seed about, one inch deep. The quan- 
tity 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 canbe 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. Itiis impossible to cul- 
tivate the crop economically unless the rows are straight. 12 
seeds planted per foot of row requires about 1% lbs. per acre. 

See page 90 for Special Prices to Market Growers : on 
ew? of rt ¥ 
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