OCR Text |
Show HORTICULTURE GROWING ONIONS. The Most Profitable Crop Which the Farmer Can Raise, Fjr tho new Bottler In Wisconsin, whoso area of cultivated Innd la small, no crop can bo nioro profitably raised thnn onions. To tho majority of farm-era farm-era this will seem like an untcnablu proposition, for It Is Bald, by most of tlioso to whom this ntatcmcnt Is mado, that In rnlBlni; onions tho amount of lubor Involved reduces tho not profit. Thoro Is no question that this Is true when onions are raised by tho usual methods. When, however, now methods meth-ods nro employed, by means of which tho greatest share of, tho labor Is eliminated, elim-inated, tho not profit becomes Brent and this, too, from n comparatively smalt patch of land. There aro threo conspicuous factors which determine) tho profit In raising n crop, says tho Wisconsin Agriculturalist: Agricultur-alist: tho amount of land required tho amount of labor necessary, and tho prlco secured. Two of these factors may be Immediately dropped, for tho urea of land required Is small and the prlco Is usually good. Thoro remains, therefore,, tho labor Involved to bo con-sidorcd. con-sidorcd. As tho area of lnnd required for onions on-ions Is small, tho labor expended In plowing and dragging Is not great, nor in preparing the crop for market Is thero nearly so largo an amount of work necessary ns In preparing such n crop ns sugar beets. Tho principal la- An Onion Topper. bor is performed In keeping down tho weeds. This work will bo greatly lessened les-sened by seeding with some drill which drops tho seeds lu n Btralght line, thus enabling tho operator to whcel-hoo up close to the row, reducing tho hand work to n minimum. Tho Planet, Jr. drill proved n boon to us In this re-spoct. re-spoct. nut as onions nro ordinarily ralsod, oven tho uso of a good drill and tho wheal hoo does not sufficiently reduce re-duce the hand work. This can bo accomplished ac-complished In only ono way; by kcop-ing kcop-ing from tho land all barnyard inanuro ns ordinarily used. Tho man who, year after year, prepares pre-pares his land by eoodlng It down with a multltudo of weeds of all descriptions, descrip-tions, Including white clover, so dim-cult dim-cult to eradicate, and then patlontly labors all Bummor to pay for hla folly, needs tho charity nnd pity of his friends. It Is almost certain that ho will leave, In tho fall, n profusion of plants to again sow his lnnd with trou-bio, trou-bio, to Bay nothing of nddltionnl manure ma-nure the spring following. Whlto clover rotalns Its power to germinate even in a mass of manure which has lain n numbor of years and has so decayed and crumbled that It Is nothing nioro than a heap of very black dirt. This assertion Is made not through a call upon my imagination, but as n result of examinations of actual ac-tual conditions. Only last spring I removed from an old, abnndoncd barn, black manure which had not been disturbed dis-turbed for several years, and tho docay of which, on account of n very leaky roof, had received tho facilities of shade and moisture. A careful examination exam-ination of this dirt revealed the small yellow clover seeds, which upon being planted, grow up into a very nlco stand of whlto clover. And this Is what tho nvurago gardener deliberately places In his soil nnd then wearily labors to remove. Surely it seems that there would naturally arise In his mind tho Idea of separating from tho fertilizer and using us-ing that which benefits him and discarding dis-carding that which injures him. Wo learn, upon Inquiry, from farmers in general, that tho liquid mnnuro is tho best, and yot this liquid mnnuro is generally Inst. Let this liquid mnnuro be preserved and utilized on tho onion patch. Thoro will then bo no immense) crop of weeds, greater than tho crop of onions, to romovo beforo tho crop of onions cnu bo mado n cortnlnty. If no liquid mnnuro can bo secured, there sllll remains tho commercial fertilizers, fer-tilizers, nnd, also common ashes, which gonernlly helps to glvo a good crop. . Hut, I hear Bomeouo say, tho uso of such fertilizers soon results In n'hnrd soil In wlilch nothing can bo worked, and In which nothing will grow. To which I answer, plow In somo clean straw which has passed through a good soparator. l)y moans of tho abovo methods tho amount of labor usually expended on a given area of land lu the production of onions Hhould ho reduced one-half, thus enabling tho producer to almost doublo the aiea, Tho avorogo crop of onions raised by tho methods In common uso should not bo loss than COO bushels to tho aero, as wo havo proved hero, and by tho bettor methods above described, should bo considerably inoro. Accompanying Is an Illustration of a homo mndo onion topper which wo found very convenient. As will bo noticed, no-ticed, tho knife Is an ordinary com cutter. |