The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-07
onion Notes.

Onions may be grown ON any soil,
yet for onions as for all other crops
there are soils that are better than
others. says the Farmers Bulletin.
The best soil is a rich. sandy loan, as
free as possible from weeds A we'll
cultivated field OF sandy loSm that
has been we'll MANFRED with stable
TAt nure for several years will grow
good onions. Onions should never be
put in a soil that is foul or that has
been too recently fertihzed with barn
yard manure, unless the manure has
been we'll rotted.
Ground that is intended for onions
this year should be plowed very early
in the spring and disked later. The
ground should be well cultivated just
before the onions are put on the land.
There are two methods of sowing
seed. The old way was to SOW in
drills in the field as you would pease
or other garden crops. After this the
fight with the weeds was sure to dis
gust the cultivator of onions. In the
end we had sacrificed many of the
plants in trying to kill the weeds, and,
OF course, had a very poor stand of
onions. During the past few years
the cultivatoTs of onions for CONNER
cial purposes have been growing their
onions in hotbeds and then planting
them out in the field. Some of the
advantages of this method are: (a)
The crop natures earlier, the seeds
may be sown in the hotbeds in Febfu-
airy; OBJ the onion transplants with as
much ease as any of the garden
plants; (c) it materially increases
the YIELD because of the more even
stand and because of the choice of the
better seedlings for the row, where, if
we allowed them to grow in drills, the
stronger ones are liable to come UP too
near together to allow them to grow,
and many of the best plants are de
stroyed while the weaker ones grow
up where we want the stronger ones;
(d) it does away with the task of
wedding, thus making the production
cheaper. By actual experimentation
it has been found that the cost of ma
turing the crop when transplanted Is
somewhat less than when the seeds
are sown in drills in the field.
The temperature of the hotbeds
should be below eight degrees when the
seeds are planted. When the seedlings
are of a size to set out, which will be
ir about six weeks, the ground should
b. thoroughly cultivated so as to kill
all the weeds that may be starting. The
ground should then be laid off in rows
eighteen to twenty7 inches apart On
ions will stand a great deal of crowd
ing and some growers put them as
close as twelve inches. When the
plants are being removed from the hot
bed the tops should be cut back. The
plants are usually set three inches
apart in a row. with the lower end of
the bulb about an'dnch below the top
of the ground. The transpfanting may
be lone with an ordinary dibble. The
cost of maturing an acre of onions in
this manner is about $40, including
seeds, hotbeds, transplanting and Gull
tivation. The cost for an acre in drills
is about the same.
The cultlvating may be done with a
horse or with a wheel hoe. For tending
crops of this Sort the Experiment Sta
tion has successfully used a wheel hoe
with the onion hoe attachment The
advantage of using this implement is
that the rows may be grown closer to-
gether. The increase in yield will in
crease the profits on a given area. The
implement adapted to this sort of work
is advertised by all dealers in garden
tools and costs from 81 to So No on
ion raiser should be without one, as
it's knives run on each side of the row.
and clean out all the weeds except
those that are directly in the row with
the onions.