The Colfax chronicle., 1903-12-19
IowA's BIG ONION CROPS.
Scott County Farmers Are Making
Good Incomes Raising the
Pungent Vegetable.

One of the greatest onion growing dis
tricts in the United States. often quotet
rs the greatest, is that which lies along
the Iowa shore of the Mississippi rivel
above here and has Davenport as iti
market and shipping point The onioI
is known as the Scott county orange,
and is one of the main agricultural sta
pies of this region. Just now it is being
| sent in carload after carload to st. Louis
the principal point of distribution oveI
the south There are some shipments
to other southern points, even as far as
New Orleans, but st. Louis is the great
jobbing point to which the commission
houses here consign. Chicago gets fair
slice of the crop, Cincinnati takes some
and there are scattering shipments to
other points, but St. Louis has long been
the principal consignee.
The harvest has been on here several
weeks, says a recent Davenport report.
The crop is fine and, though the average
Is not as great this year as it has been
in some past years, there appears new
to be total product here of $50 to 200
carloads. running about 600 bushels to
the car. The quality is excellent this
year and the market has held firmly
around the price of so cents per busheI
Usually the price says by this time, but
this year 1t has held up well. The fall
ure OF the crop, In part or in whole, in
other onion growing regions is under
stood to be the reason of this stiffness.
There is q tract in Ohio that grows
good onions, and there is another In
Nebraska, about 40 miles west of Omaha,
but the Scott county, Iowa, onion field
has for so years been the big one, and
one that could always reckoned upon.
There have been very few failures here.
The quality has fuctuated with the sea-
son. sunburn and rot appearing at times
to do mischief, but usually the red onion
OF Scott county has been well at the tor
OF the market 1t has made more thar
one man rich in this part of the coun-
try. and it is paying big dividends this
year
There is no crop that a northern farm
er can raise that means so much money
to him as the onion. Unfortunately, the
opportunities in that direction are few.
for there is not much prime onion land
In the country. When the Scott coun-
ty tract WIS new, In the earliest '40's, it
was no difficult thing to get 900 Bushels
from an acre of 1t. Nearly that yield has
been gathered in recent years where the
neids have been well maintained with
fertilizers and cultivation. Five hundred
and 600 bushels to the acre are more
usual. but still higher yields are often
got. There Is good deal of work In
making the crop. cultivation being a
large item. so it is reckoned that II takes
$40 to $50 an acre to grow onions. In
times OF low prices the margin is reduced.
but 1t Is still large, except when a glut |
OF onions lets the bottom quite out of
the market. Once or twice within the
last rs years onions here have been down
to ten cents and even eight cents a BUSH
el, with practically no sales at those
prices but the average has Leen far
above those figures, and at a price that
meant large returns.
There is more money in onions than
n corn 20 times over provided that the
and is adapted to onion growing. A
'ieid or 500 bushels to the acre at this
'ears prices has meant a profit of $2OC
'r more per acre; and in those cases
Fhere the farmer and his family did the
work, hiring nothing. they have alb
orbed the cost Of cultivation and made
ust that much more. The best Scott
ounty onion land Is held at hundreds
u dollars per acre and is rarely sold. II
usually farmed in fields of small or
Moderate size, but there are many small
'atches, tracts of an acre or two. or =
raction of an acre, that are made n
feld astonishingly.
Inc crop Is always shipped In gunny
acks, holding about two bushels, never
ouik. During the onion harvest here
here are usually weeks when the streets
re blocked by the wagons of the onion
rowers. waiting their chance to get IN
ne warehouse. unloading or getting
way. The steamers usually carry
bod part of the shipments to st. Louis
nough there is very large balance that
oes there by rail. In the colder wealth.
all the shipments, of course. are made
y rail-
There are always some growers who
Did their crop Of onions until well into
le winter or even the spring. While
lere is possibility of loss by freezing
no certainly some loss by rotting and
ways some shrinkage, there are now
1d then onion markets in the spring.
me that are simply golden in their !
lances OF easy wealth for the man who !
Is onions to sell. 1t was a recent af- s
fr here that a group of Scott county s
lion raisers held back their crop.until t
e severe weather was past. The fall C
arket had been about IS cents BUSH s
In the spring they got their onions S
with no heavy shrinkage on their
lnds at price around $1.25. There t
I'VE been other years when the STOCK
late onions went still higher. II IL s
'lieved that, notwithstanding the yerv 8
'od market this fall. a number of grow $
s here will try to carry at least a part
their stock through to the next season
pecting that a firm price this fall can.
It fail to bring correspondingly high. G
figure next year. p
Where the Saving Comes In. c,
you consider the print. ie
OF the Congressional Record an W
noroccarv wocfo ~