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Show ONION IS PROFITABLE Large Yield Depends Greatly on Quality of Seed. Should Be Planted in Rows Between Irrigation Furrows Cultivation Should Be More or Less Continuous Con-tinuous From Start. (By E. R. BENNETT, Colorado Agricultural Agricul-tural College.) No crop offers greater possibilities for a large return per acre than does the onion. On the other hand, few, if any, crops cost more per acre to produce pro-duce than the onion. For this reason the onion should not be planted with the expectation of financial returns except ex-cept where soil and climate are well adapted to its culture. The onion will grow on most any soil, but the loamy bottom land soils or the sandy loam soils of the mesas are best adapted to its growth. As the cultivation is largely by hand, the soil must be especially prepared in order to bring the amount of labor down to the minimum. Probably the best preparation for onion soils is to grow some hoed crop, such as beets, cabbage, potatoes, etc., on the land previous to the onion crop. Then, the land Bhould be thoroughly fertilized by the use of from fifteen to thirty tons of well decomposed stable manure per acre, and Is best fall plowed. This gives the frost of winter a chance to Blake the soil and make a perfect seed bed and also allows the sowing of seed earlier In the spring than where Bprlng plowing is practiced. Several varieties are grown. The one that is most common is a selected strain of Yellow Danvers, Yellow Globe and Red Globe. A great deal of the art in securing a large yield depends de-pends upon the quality of the seed. It has been found in some districts that home grown seed from selected bulbs Is to be preferred to seed secured from eastern seedsmen or from foreign markets. 1 The seed should be sown as early in spring as possible, In drills from ten to eighteen inches apart. The usual practice, in districts where flooding of the ground Is objectionable, is first, to prepare the soil so as to secure as fine seed bed as possible by continuous harrowing and leveling or floating. When the soil is thoroughly prepared, a marker is used, composed of three or four legs attached to a horizontal piece of timber, and this is drawn by hand across the field. These marks are about twenty-six inches apart. The marks are followed by a small hand plow, which makes furrows for the irrigation. Following the furrowing, furrow-ing, the seeding Is done by running a garden seed drill so as to put two rows of onionB in the space between the irrigation furrows. Some growers make these rows so that the two rows will be about ten Inches apart with fourteen to eighteen Inches space between be-tween the rows, in which the irrigation irriga-tion ditch is to be kept. From three and a half to four pounds of seed are used per acre. The seed is sown about one-half Inch deep, or just sufficiently deep to avoid rains from washing the seed out of the row. After sowing, the soil is kept moist by irrigation, if sufficient rain does not follow, so that the plants will not be prevented from growing from lack of moisture. This condition is maintained main-tained until the - onion is practically mature or until the tops begin to fall, which should be some time in August. Cultivation should be more or less continuous from the time plants show above ground until irrigation ceases. Some growers make a practice of cultivating cul-tivating the land once each week. This cultivation should be with either a wheel hoe or the so-called hand cultivator. cul-tivator. The onion is a more or less shallow feeder, so that cultivation should only be to a depth of from one inch to an inch and a half or two Inches. From two to three hand weed-ings weed-ings are usually necessary. Up to the present time, thinning has not been generally practiced, although It is quite possible that a certain amount of thinning would be advisable. Growers vary considerably in their estimates of the cost of growing. This Is probably not far from $100 to $150 per acre. The yields obtained on the soils that are adapted to the cultivation cultiva-tion of the onion are from 250 to 450 sacks of two bushels each. From five to eight acres is all that one person can possibly expect to care for during the season. T |