Marketing.—Onions are sometimes sold in the open field; a good plan when a fair price can be secured. After curing, as already described, they are usually sold by the bushel or barrel. They are always in demand, as the onion is a standard article of human food.
In the green state they are sold either by measure, by the bunch, or by the rope. The latter method consists in tying the onions along wisps of straw.
Scallions.—No small amount of money is expended by housekeepers in the early spring markets for scallions (scullions), or bunched onion shoots. These tender shoots are washed, tied and sold for 3 to 5 cents per bunch, retail, or half those figures wholesale. Scallions are produced from either sets or large onions planted the preceding autumn, and sheltered either by frames or litter, so as to encourage early spring growth.
PEAS.
It will require one and one-half to two bushels of peas to seed an acre, and no crop finds a more ready sale than fresh peas in the summer and autumn markets. Farmers who are near centres of population, or who enjoy good shipping facilities, will find peas a quick money crop.
Any good soil will produce a crop of this excellent vegetable, but it must not be assumed because the pea is a legume, with nitrogen-collecting roots, that it will not well repay the application of manure to the soil. Peas and beans need less assistance than some other things, but they give good returns for the application of rotted manure or artificial fertilizer.
The seed should be put into the ground in early spring, as soon as the soil is dry enough to receive it, beginning with the smooth, extra-early sorts, which are more hardy than the wrinkled varieties. A little subsequent frost will do no harm.
The smooth, early sorts should be sown in rows, about 3 feet apart, the intermediate or half-dwarf sorts in rows 4 feet apart, and the tall, late varieties, in rows 5 feet apart.