ONION GROWING IN CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10268, 10 February 1899, Page 2

ONION GROWING IN CANTERBURY.

CROPS AT MARSHLANDS. "Weekly Press and Referee." (By Ouk Agricultural Reporter.) The growing of onions, not only to supply the local markets, but for export to Australia, and particularly to Sydney, is one of the best paying branches of the work of small farmers in certain parts of New Zealand where the soil is suitable. Last year iv consequence of the short crop in Australia, where drought was the cause of failure, the New Zealand onion growers had a most successful season, the yield being heavy, and the price exceptionally high, ranging from £3 in -larch to £9 at the end of September, for export, the average for the season being sometliing like £5 per ton at country railway stations. In all 2500 tons were exported from Canterbury, so that averaging the value at £5 per ton a return of £12,500 was obtained from this item of export. The area sown in onions in the colony each year is not known, but now that the crop has become such an important source of revenue to a large and industrious body of settlers, it is time that it was included in the schedule of crops which the collector of agricultural statistics has to obtain particulars of. Onions can be grown on different classes of scils, provided that they arc properly prepared, and under a variety of circumstances. To produce good onions, however, that will command the highest price in the market", it is necessary to go to some trouble in making a selection of good soil and a suitable situation. Onions succeed best in a rich, loamy, friable soil, inclined to be light rather than heavy, and where the subsoil is good and well drained. Where the drainage is not good it should be artificially attended to. The rich swamp land in the neighbourhood of Christchurch, the site of a heavy forest long since destroyed, is among the best soil available in this colony for the production of onions. The Marshlands, Papanui, and Belfast districts to the north and Halswell to the south are the principal localities where the onion forms a staple crop for the small farmer, the first-named district containing most of the largest growers. Here the holdings are small, numbers of them being from ten to twenty-five acres in extent, a few smaller and a lesser number larger. The land is worth en an average, roughly speaking, about £65 or £70 per acre, and so Well have criion and other root crops paid the settlers that many of them have cleared the cost of their holdings, and the proceeds of last year's crops of onions and potatoes must have eased a good many mortgages. A large portion of the land at Marshlands originally belonged to the Rhodes' and Reeee's estates, and has been gradually cut up and sold in handysized blocks to the present occupiers. Having once been heavy swamp a large amount of labour' and money has been expended in draining, freeing the land from stumps and other timber of which it was full, and then in breaking it in for cropping purposes. Usually the first crop is potatoes and sometimes carrots, and then onions follow. "Very little grain, except oats, is grown, and of this some tremendous cror)3 are. to be seen this year. They are mostly cut on the green sida for feed purposes in the winter. The main thing necessary, after suitable soil has been selected, is its preparation for the onion crop, and this consists in working it down to a fine tilth, though in peaty soil this can be overdone, and then the wind ■ will carry the soil and onion seed away. It is a common thing to see a strip of autumn-sown oats dividing an onion field for the purposes of a wind break, and shelter belts of trees are a!so grown. In preparing an onion bed the instructions given usually are to make the ground firm after it has been worked down, but in such soil as that at wefc in the winter and spring, and with the moisture never far from the surface in the summer, it is found necessary to keep the surface perfectly loose and free. Tho land will stand a lot of heavy cropping, sometimes onions being grown year after year, and sometimes alternating with potatoes or other root crops. The soil could not, however, stand this continual drain upon its constituents without some renovation, and therefore it is manured every second ' or third year, according to the quality of the soil, stable manure being generally used. Where required, the manure is anphed every season, and is always ploughed in before the crop is sown. Where stock are kept, a fanner will use the manure they produce, but many obtain their supplies from the stables in the city. Complaints are, however, made of the weeds that are introduced on to the farm by this means, and hearing so much nowadays of that dreaded pest, the Californian thistle, they are afraid of obtaining its seed in the manure from town, where the owners of staKes have to buy all their straw. This shows at once the necessity for legislation to pre-Snt the sile " of straw or other produce likely .to contain the seeds of the thistle from those farms where the pest has obtained a footing. The use of artificial manures, especially the Belfast onion manure, is coming more into vogue, and should it prove a satisfactory substitute for stable' Manure it would enable the land to be kept much freer from weeds, which are the bete noire | of the onion grower. It has been found that ! the best way to apply artificial manure is to sow it broadcast and harrow it in, as when sown in the drills with the seed it is apt to perish the young plants or to cake after , rain and prevent root development. This necessitates, of course, a larger quantity being applied to the acre, but the soil should in time derive the full benefit of the application. The quantities used vary from 1£ cwt. to nearly 4 cwt. to the acre. The soil having been prepared by manuring and proper' working, the seed is sown at the end of August or beginning of September, the earlier the better, but the condition of the soil must be taken into consideration, and if too wet and sour the sowing must be delayed accordingly. The seed is drilled in, the rows usually being llin or I2in apart, but where the land is strong and likely to produce a heavy crop the distance between the drills is reduced to lOin. As soon as the young plants are up far enough to enable the rows to be seen, the hand cultivator is put to work among the. weeds, and then follows weeding by hand, this operation having to be repeated generally about four times, or until the crop is clean. On the strong land the onions "are not thinned out to any extent, and they may be seen growing in clusters, and, as one grower put if, in a good crop a bucketful should be obtained in a length of twenty-four inches in each row. For local consumption in the summer a few onions are sometimes sown in March, but the crop, having to come tlirough the winter, is more or less risky. There sre several varieties of onions grown for export purposes, one of the best keeperbeing • Deptfora, while Globe, and what is commonly called Brown Spanish, though it is said not to be the true variety of this name, are also largely grown. AD the principal onion growers raise their own seed every year, and alongside each crop may .now be seen a plot of onions in seed. For seed purposes a number of the soundest and best-shaped onions are kept every year, and I

these arc plaftted at the same time as the seed for the main crop is sown. The area of the onion crop is very much larger than last year, though without statistics it is impossible to say how much of an increase there is. The yield per acre on the average does not, however, promise! to come up to last year's returns, but as the crops have still a lot of growth in them, it is too soon to say how they will finally turn out. Seven or eight tons to the acre is a fair crop, but on the best land fifteen to eighteen tons per acre is at least- looked for. Some heavy yields were obtained at Marsh-' lands last season, in several cases twenty tuns I-) tne aero boin<r recorded. A great many crops, however, are now going off, through being affected with what is commonly termed the blight. The tops are withering away, and in some cases the onions are showing signs of prematurely ripening before they have attained any size. A variety of causes are assigned for this, but the general opinion appears to be that it is due to climatic influences. This summer the weather has been remarkable for its alternate changes of heat and moisture, showers being generally followed .by hot, drying winds. It is thought, therefore, that the heat of the sun the tops of the onions when they are moist from the heavy clew or fog in the morning, or from a shower of rain, causes the damage that is referred to. The crops on the newer land are-affe-cted but little, or not at all, the continuously cropped paddocks suffering most. However, there is still hope that should the weather keep favourable many of the crops now apparently badly affected will return fair yields. A large proportion of the settlers at Marshlands are Germans and Poles, end they are among the largest and most successful srowers of onions. > A drive through the district one day last' week, in company with Mr Chas. Burgess, the Chairman of the Avon Road Board, was somewhat of a new experience to our representative, whoso attention when visiting country districts has hitherto been devoted to cereal crops or stock. To the German settlers, too, the advent of the agricultural reporter was evidently something out ofc'the common, and until his mission was clearly explained there was a manifest air of sus-' picion exhibited by the thrifty and hardworking immigrants from the Fatherland. However, he soon found them kindly and courteous, and ready to give any information asked as to the prospects of their crops, and the method on which they grew them. Not so, however, one of his own countrymen, who looked upon the Pressman as one in league with the tax gatherer, a view of things our representative had hitherto not met with during some fifteen years' experience of reporting upon, crops. Several of the larger* growers were visited, whose crops range from 1£ acre to about 4 acres in extent. Among those who have good crops are Messrs C Lange, C. H. Walters, C. D. Meyer, Sands. Palmer. C. Kars, M. Gearschawski, M. Sharlick, T. Berlowski, V. Kaisnowski, Groffshi. M. Gottermever, M. Schimanski. C. Schimanski, M. Schimanski, junr., and F. Rogatski.' Two of the best crops seen are estimated to yield, under favourable conditions, about 16 to 18 tons per acre.