Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1909-12-11
THE SPANISH ONION
NEEDS DRY AND
WARM CLIMATE
Interesting Bulletin on Culture
of Famous Variety Of 0dori-
ferrous Vegetable Issued BY
Experiment Station,

"rhc Spanish Onion" Is the subject
of Press Bulletin No. les by the ex-
pertinent station of the Agricultural
college at Mesilla Park, as follows;
Since 1903 the experiment station
has been conducting experiments with
onions. In 1904 Bulletin No, 81 was
issued. In this bulletin Instructions
were given on the cultural methods
for onion growing in this climate. Re-
cent observations show that while the
largest yield may be obtained from
fall planted seed, good crops may be
produced from late winter planted
seed. The results Mt the station show
that If the onions cannot be started in
the fall the next best thing to do Is
to plant the seed in tho field between
January 20 and February /, putting
the rows fifteen inches apart and
thinning TO iour inches in the row as
soon as the seedlings are large
enough, Results also show that the
best time for planting the seed in the
fan is from about the 25th of Septcm-
her to the 10th of october. If the
seed is planted early in September n
very large per cent Of the onions viii
produce seed pods the following year.
On the other hand, II the seed is
planted later than the 10th of Octo-
Der the cold weather will cause "A very
slow termination and the growth
made by the seedlings during the win
ter will be very small, and the seed
lings will not be large enough for
transplanting at the proper time in
the spring.
Most oil the late work on onion cul-
turc has been devoted to experiments
with fertilizers with the object in
view of increasing the yield. one of
the best varieties for this purpose has
been the Gigantic Gibraltar, which
produces a very large, globe-shaped
bulb and light yellow in color. The
flesh is almost white. juicy and very
mild. The stem is large and the
leaves are no-glaucous. In 1908 the
yield from eighteen 1850 acres plats
was -, 900 pounds of marketable on
ions. In 1909 the yield from twenty
five and a half l-50 acre plats was
1883 pounds Of sound onions. 5.2T6
pounds of spoiled onions me 93I
pounds o. scullions. 4 little over l-50
of an acre of this area was Denia
According to the results this
year it has been found that the Dcnia
onion is practically the same as the
Gigantic Gibraltar and IL is well
to our climnte and soil re-
quirements. The Denia onion Is a a
riety grown In Spain and every year
IL Is imported to n eastern markets
In large quantities. The seed of this
Dcnia onion was secured through the
department Of agriculture at Wash
from Spain and planted last
fall.
All of the onions were harvested on
Is and 20. 1909. and inn
mediately steps were taken through
he Mesilla Valley Produce exchange
To ship a carload into Chicago as an
experiment To find out how well these
Spanish onions would sell In competi-
lion with onions of h same variety
imported from spain. Regular Span
.sh crates were bought through the
Mesilla Valley Produce exchange and
IN october II a ear containing 495
rates was shipped TO
chicago.
In order To find out the difference
n price in h Chicago markets be-
the different grades Of onions.
ISs crates Of No. u, las crates Of No.
Is. II crates Of No. IS and 1873 crates
II specials were shipped. The crates
averaged forty pounds in weight. al
hough they lid not hold over thirty
our pounds of onions. or a total Of
s.S30 pounds. All the onions arriVedl