Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-03-05
ONIONS.
Paper read before Wood County Horticulture
Society by n. Fl. Robinson.l

|
| 1t is with reluctance that | prepare
this paper, upon being invited to do SO
by our committee on programme. As |
realize that [ have a great deal yet to
learn upon the subject, yet, if by SO
doing can set anyone to thinking or
reading some of the able literature that
has been written by men who have
devoted lifetime to the study Of the
onion, and finally stimulate them to put
into practice something, however small
it may be, this paper will not have been
in vain.
| will treat briefly of the onion
raising under two heads, viz: bunch
onions and bulb-onions. By bunch
onions | mean all onions grown for sale
and grown and sold in green state tied
up in bunches; and by bulb onions l
mean al onions allowed to mature.
BUNCH ONIONS.
One way quite extensively practiced
| is to SOW the seed of the ordinary
''back seed" onion, about the middle
of April, in sandy loan which was
kept free from weeds the preceding
year. For sets the land need not be
necessarily what we call rich from a
gardeners standpoint, but should be
rich enough to raise good crop Of
corn or potatoes. Great care must be
exercised to apply only manure that is
perfectly free from weed seed and made
after the month of June. One can't be
too particular about getting land and
manure that is as free from weeds as
possible, as the onion when first start
ing is very delicate, and once stunted
by weeds or anything else, will never
amount to anything. The seed should
be sown in drills about II inches apart
so as to admit of easy cultivation with
the Wheel-hoe. In raising sets from
seed our aim is to get bulbs not to
exceed ! inches in diameter. Smaller
than that is better. So we SOW the seed
very thick, 20 pounds per acre at least.
The best way to SOW the seed is with a
seed drill. Keep the ground free from
weeds and harvest the sets as soon as
the tops dry down. Rake them into
windrows Of three to six onion rows
each, and leave in the sun to dry for
two or three days. Then place on
dry floor. Don't put them in piles over
one foot in thickness as they are liable
to heat and spoil. They can be wintered
safest in garret or barn loft. They
should be slightly covered with litter to
prevent freezing and thawing.
For setting out we should select some
place in the garden that was free from
weeds the previous season, top dress it
with about fifty cords of we'll rotted
compost per acre; plow and harrow
very fine, then roll or plank, mark off
the rows twelve inches apart, drop sets
in the rows from one to two inches
apart and cover. Begin punching as
soon as large enough.
[ use the Perennial Egyptian tree
onion quite extensively. They are set
in August or September after the ground
has been prepared in the same manner
|as given above, and are set as described
above. Our best gardeners prefer the
sets grown from seed to the winter
variety, as their flavor is far superior
to the winter sorts. Besides if we
plant more than we use in the green
state, if properly handled they will
continue to grow and make good bulbs
for fall use.
All onions used for punching are
grown in the same way as described
before and on similar soils. The
cheapest way I have tried to put out the
sets is to take the Planet Jr. wheel hoe
with the plow attachment and open a
| furrow with it, drop the sets about two
| inches apart in the furrow and cover
them with the same tool, turning the
| same soil back into the furrow on
| the sets.
BULB ONIONS.
| In growing onions for sale in the
| mature state | should select a we'll
drained mucky soil, with gravelly or
sandy sub-soil to admit of thorough
drainage, although any land that was
free from weeds the previous year and
that will produce 25 or 80 bushels of
wheat per acre, will raise good onions.
| More care should be taken to select a
good soil for bulb onions than when
they are to be sold in the green state.
The old method of growing onions
consists of sowing the seed as early in
the spring as the soil will work up fine
and nice in drills twelve inches apart.
| AS soon as large enough thin to three
inches apart in the rows. Great care
should be exercised to keep the hoe
| persistently in use. The advice that
the Quaker Father gave his son fits
better in the garden than in any other
part of the farm. My son" said he,
''let not thy hoe rust in the growing
season." 1t would be impossible to
give the onion too much cultivation OF
proper kind.
| The new onion culture consists of
sowing the seed in hot-beds, for our
latitude about the 1st of March, or
| about six weeks before the onion
ground will do to work. As soon as
| possible in the spring the onion bed
should be prepared in the old way and
marked off in rows II inches apart.
The young onions are taken from the