Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-08-08
Onion Raising.

DRY. And now we are glad he did not buy
of MS. because we should have had to bear
the blame of the lost crop, though we do not
think the seed was bad which he did plant
The fact is, onions from the black seed
are precarious crop. In the first place
they require land that has been heavily en-
riched for series of years. quizzical
medical friend once advised patient never
to eat anything on an empty stomach. In
the same way we might say that you ought
never to plant onions on piece of ground
until you had raised onions on it for several
years.
After your ground is right, your troubles
in embarrassing are just begun. 1t is really
difficult to get good seed, and the difference
of a dollar or two on pound is trife, pro
vided the higher price brings first-class
seed. In onion seed it is emphatically true
that you should "get the best aud the
stingy man who must have cheap seed will
never get rich by growing onions.
Rich ground breeds insects, yet you must
have rich ground for onions and insects are
death to onions. 1t is a constant fight, with
the chances against you, unless you are an
extra smart fighter
Onions must be got in as early as possible
after the frost is out. A week lost at plant
ing time may lessen the value OF the crop
one-half at harvest time. A poorly ripened
onion will not keep, and it will not sell, so
what can you do with it j? No creature but
man will eat it.
Our own land is extremely well suited to
onions, and we think we know how to grow
them as well as anybody. Yet considering
the cost of manure, and of labor in watch
ing insects aud wedding, and the uncertainty
of the crop, we have never seen much profit
in them.
There are several sorts of onions. That
most commonly grown is raised from the
"black seed" that is, the ordinary onion
seed which grows in globular heads upon
the stem thrown up by the onion the second
year, when set out for this purpose.
Then there is what is known as the " top
onion" which bears, instead of seeds, a
bunch of little onions upon the top of the
stem. These little onions are set out in the
spring, and each grows to large one, with
little ones again on the tops. The objec-
tions to top onions are their unproductive-
ness and poor keeping quality.
Again, there is the "potato onion" or
multipier," very generally grown in North
ern Maine and Lower Canada on account oil
its earliness This onion is planted like tn
potato, only it is not cut, and not covered
in planting hut simply pressed into tn
ground. 1t is good onion in quality, and
good keeper, but all that we have ever
seen until lately were too small and unprc-
ductive for profit when black-seed onion.
can be grown.
We have had considerable call for bot
top and potato onions for seed, but havt
never got much profit out of them, on ac
count of the small yield. But as we got
hold of the excellent " Pringle's Sweet Grab,
in consequence of publicly denouncng crab
apples as a "humbug," so we have at last
got hold of valuable potato onion in tn,
same way A few years ago, friend, who
had heard our poor opinion of "mutipliers,
showed us in his garden small bed of then
grown from seed received from California
and said to be introduced there by the Chi
nese. They were quite a revelation, for the,
were evidently both large and productive
At the proper time we obtained few anc
planted them We have now grown then
for three seasons, and are ready to repor
upon their merits.
In the first place, as to size. They will
average, in good soil (yet not good enougI
for black-seed onions), from six to ten ounce
each, when grown from very small bulbs
When one OF these large bulbs is planted
we get from ten to twenty onions, half o
which will average four ounces each, and tn
rest run from two ounces down to half az
ounce, or even smaller The weight of
whole bunch from one large onion will b
from two to three pounds three-fourths o
which will average as large as good yello,
Danvers, which is the best black-seed onion
1t will be seen that the number of fold thes
onions will yield, by count or weight, de
ponds some on whether large or small one
are planted Much the heaviest crop il
merchantable onions is got by planting GU
bulbs too small to multiply. These wi
grow to single large onions, not unfrequentl
weighing nearly pound. Larger bulb,
weighing from one to three ounces, wi
make from three TO six onions, nearly all @
merchantable size. The most small bulb
can be got by planting large onions, and vic
ce,sa. On the whole, planting half sma
and half large (by weight the yield will b
about eight or ten bushels to one. plantn
IN Iii aaoa .ho ,,;al1 IN - -.
al sinai o"e'' 'ne yie" WIN DC twenty
one. ms on good light soil, MANFRED a
well as for two hundred and fifty bushels @
notatoes. or sixty bushels of corn to the scr,