The Rural Voice, 1979-10, Page 25In the
Onion Patch
Farmer Tony Goud specializes
in onions -- 110 acres of them
BY ADRIAN VOS
Tony Goud, 31, is a busy man. Driving
down #21 highway, just before reaching
the Lambton county panhandle, a traveller
can often see a crew of men working in the
fields after everyone else has gone home,
except maybe a farmer taking in a last load
of hay or doing some late combining.
Goud manages the 110 acres of onions
and 14 acres of turnips for the multi-
national firm, "Mosselman Onion Sets
Ltd.", with operations in Holland and
Belgium, besides this one in Huron county.
A number of different onions are
produced and most thrive well under
Canadian conditions. As well, in fact, as in
the rich sea -clay of the island where he
grew up.
Early variety turnips are being hand
harvested now. Goud says that he grows
turnips for crop rotation in order to protect
the soil.
The onions reach maturity at different
times, depending on the type and time of
seeding.
The visitor can see row upon row of
pulled onions drying in the sun, while other
acres are still growing.
The Dutch Onion sets yield some five
tons an acre. At approximately 30c a pound
that figures to a gross yield of some $3,000
an acre. Not many crops give that much
gross return. It is little wonder that the
farm yields between $250,000 and 5300,000
a year gross.
The company gives steady employment
to a crew of three men and Tony, and at
harvest time this is boosted to seven or
eight men. Even with much of the work
being stoop work Tony has no problem in
getting all the help that he needs.
The onions are harvested with the same
type of machine that is used for harvesting
potatoes. A fork at the front scoops the
onions out of the ground and onto an
elevator. The elevator is screened letting
Tony Goud
(Photo by Adrian Vol)
the picked -up soil drop through the screen.
The next elevator takes the product
sideways into the collection boxes.
After the initial drying in the field, the
onions are further dried inside the huge
barn. The relative humidity is kept at a
steady 50%. When dry enough they go into
the giant processing machine where they
are automatically topped, sized, and the
stones and dirt cleaned out.
After the harvest pressure is over they
are packaged into 50 Ib. polynet bags or in
one Ib. nylonnet bags.
The product is shipped all over the
United States and Canada.
Greenhouse operators use them in
winter to produce green onions from them,
and in summer they are planted outside for
the same purpose.
Tony is pleased with this year's crop
prospect.
"This looks to be the best year to date,"
he said.
Flax: a diminishing crop
Anyone who wants to see real flax grown
in western Ontario better hurry up, for the
acreage devoted to the crop is steadily
diminishing, according to Mike Miller,
assistant agricultural representative in
Huron County.
The reason is that there is no outlet for
the fibre in the stalks anymore and the
residual straw is slow to rot away, thereby
tying up valuable soil nutrients which are
needed for the next crop on that land.
Miller says that there is a steady switch
BY ADRIAN VOS
from tlax to rapeseed production and as a
result the acreage was down in Huron
county to 3,000 to 4,000 in 1978.
Western Ontario used to be an important
area for flax production and every year
bands of Indians came down to pull the
plants, for most farmers had them pulled
by hand. The straw was then sold to the
flax mills and they didn't have to go very
far, for every town and village had a
flaxworks.
The flax intended for fibre was seeded
twice as thick as the flax seeded for the
PG. 34 THE RURAL VOICE/OC, OBER 1979
oilseeds, thereby forcing the plants
upwards. Today there are different vari-
eties, long stemmed for fibre and high seed
yielding short strawed ones for the
oilseeds.
Today, farmers like George Montcrief of
Ashfield township swath and combine the
flax and then remove the straw from the
field. There are few mills that buy the
seeds to semi to the crushers for the
production of linseed oil and linseed oil
cakes for cattle feed.