
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 22. 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 un- 
less 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 quantity of merchantable onions that it would be 
more profitable to use the good sced 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 pro- 
duction 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 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 canzbe grown. We pre- 
fer 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 ordi- 
nary 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 sown on rank, mucky ground or 
ou 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 ma- 
nure 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 ex- 
cellent job of planting. Growers of large acreages here plant with the 4 and 
6 row beet drills, using special plates. This permits 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 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 straight. 12 seeds planted per foot of row 
requires about 154 Ibs. per acre. 



See page 82 for Special Prices to Market Growers 
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