Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1911 — FARM GROWS ONIONS; STARTED BIG BUSINESS. [ARTICLE]

FARM GROWS ONIONS; STARTED BIG BUSINESS.

Editor Ylsfts Globe Onion Farm and Gets Knowledge of Industry Conducted by Alf Donnelly.,

The writer recently visited the Globe Onion Farm. i The destinies of this farm are cared for by the owner, Alfred Donnelly, who discovered some years ago that the soil was particularly adapted to the cultivation of onions and who followed up the discovery by engaging extensively in the onion growing* and selling business. There are two needs to make a success. One is to find out what a fellow is good for and the other is to follow it up with diligent work. It is also a proper thing to determine what a rarm is best suited for and then get busy, and Alf Donnelily has beeh busy with onions ever since he harvested his first crop. Now the Donnelly farm is the Globe Onion Farm and has a reputation beyond Jasper county and beyond the borders of Indiana and the enterprise of the owner has given it a dignity that stands right out on the surface of the ground. A fine residence is one of the monuments of the onion business and a big barn and monster packing and storing house for vegetables are part of the other requirements of a successful business. The onion shed has a length of 150 'feet and is 24 feet wide. It is almost filled with onion and other vegetable crates. The walls are almost a foot thick and are filled between with muck soil, contributed by the onion ground. This makes it warm enough that no artificial heat is necessary even on cold nights and the temperature can be preserved at the degree best calculated to prevent rot. From off the main building are the packing rooms, where the onions and other vegetables are sorted and graded and sacked ready for shipment. We had not understood prior to this visit that the Globe Onion Farm proprietor was engaged so extensively in the vegetable business. We had observed him making trips from Rensselaer to Louisville and coming back with his pocket full of orders but had believed' that everything was for onions raised by himself and others in Jasper county*, Our visit undeceived us. Besideq onions Alf has a big lot of cabbage as fresh as though it was Just cut from the garden that morning, also turnips, parsnips, carrots and popcorn. Experience has taught Alf that these things have a ready market and that the buyers are willing to pay a good price for fresh goods and it has also taught him that while taking orders for onions he can just as well supply the other things and that it is just as cheap to run a big vegetable house as a small one and he has taken advantage of this and built up a business that reqnires not only the selling of his own farm products but also the buying in wholesale quantities and the selling in lots to suit (he purchaser. Thus, he last fall purchased two car loads of cabbage in the state of New York and has preserved it in his storage bouse and