Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1906-08-25
NYE'S EXPERIENCE
leadlao Texas Onion Grower Writes
 of His Work for the Press
NYE. TEXAS, Aug. 8, 1906.

DEAR DIR. [ our Iate laNOI ISSSlVSu and In reply beg leave to say that l have no printed matter on hand. I got the main points of my knowledge of onion growing from little book called Onions for Profit, written by T. Grslner, of La Salle, New York, and published by the w. Atlee Burpee Seed Co.,. of Philadelphia. About the only change made In his methods was to plant the Bermuda onion instead of the Spanish King that Grelner planted In New York. He plants In the spring of the year and plant the seed here on the lst of October and transplant In December and mature them in April when the markets all over the United States are bare of on- ions, which allows ours to bring a fair price. One of my sons, A. P. Nye, sold car load, 600 so lb. crates. at $l.5o per crate F. o. B. here to Los Angeles, California, this past season, and know of a car of Crystal Wax Bermudas, 67O crates, to bring clear of freight and commissions $lo3o, sold in New York City. but great many cars did not do so we'll, and in fact, l know of one car that only brought $72. Our county shipped out this past sea- son 533 25 900 pound car loads and they netted something over $500 per car, so you see 1t Is getting to be quite an industry in this. Webb county.
 We irrigate by pumping water from the Rio Grande, which carries an un- limited supply of water. We are To- cated 300 miles above the mouth of the river with an elevation of 490 feet above sea level with very dry atmos- phere and climate. We have one or two very severe freezes during the win- ter a1d if they fall in December or not later than the lst of January we make good crops, but when freeze falls after the 5th of January the crop is generally cut in two. For instance in 1902 my crop produced an average yield of 37 900 pounds per acre; In 1903 the yield averaged only l7,ooo pounds; in 1904 the average was 35,- 900 pounds; again in 1905 the average was l8,o00 pounds per acre and this year we only got an average of l5,ooo pounds. This accounts for my last 5 crops, only two good ones out of five, but no absolute failure. But to drop from 5000 to l8,0OO and l5,OOO makes fellow feel as though he had made failure. Especially when he could not blame himself for any mis- takes made. Chargeable only to con- dltlons beyond his control. Itcosts me to grow and ship out crop of onions never less than $lO0 per acre and this does not include cost of crates and fer tilizers. Two so pound Gunner fold Ing crates cost laid down here l7 cents each or 34 cents to carry 100 pounds of onions to market. My last five crops have in each case been contract ed In advance and the buyer has sup piled his crates, but did all the work and packing and delivered them F. O.. B. here. My last crop brought $l 40 per 100 pounds net except the growing expense. consider 1t poor idea to publish the successes only, leaving out the partial failures. There have been thousands of dollars lost by amateur onion growers, who thought $500 per acre was sure to be an average yield. l have had an average of $750 per