HOW TO GROW ONIONS 
Plant % oz. to 100 feet of drill, three to five pounds per acre, except 
Sweet Spanish and like sorts, 154 to 2%. 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 is 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 quan- 
tity 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 produce qa 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. We 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 fer- 
tility is applied at once, it is likely to make the onion soft. The same 
result will follow if sown 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 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. 


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 
This should be done as soon as the ground can be made ready. Here 
at Rocky Ford we plant from Feb. 20 to April 1. A good hand seed drill 
will do an excellent job of planting. Growers of large acreages here 
plant with the 4 and 6 row beet drills, using special plates. This per- 
mits cultivating with tractor cultivators. 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 seed- 
ing. 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 
straight. 12 seeds planted per foot of row requires about 1% lbs. per 
acre. 
See page 90 for Special Prices to Market Growers 



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