THE 



GARDENER. 



NOVEMBER 1869. 



THE KITCHEN-GAIIDEN. 



NO. VI. 



{Continued from page 354.) 



ONIONS. 



HE Onion is referred to as a popular vegetable at a very early- 

 period of the world's history ; and it is perhaps a veget- 

 able that is more universally cultivated than any other 

 that is embraced in garden -cropping. It is cultivated 

 by hundreds of bushels for royal households, and to a proportionate 

 extent it finds a place in every grade of garden down to the cottage 

 *' yard." Although extensively grown in Britain, so great is the con- 

 sumption of it, that more than a thousand tons are annually im- 

 ported, principally from Spain and Portugal, in which countries it is 

 an important article of commerce ; for, beyond what is brought to this 

 country and sent to others, it is a vegetable which is much more ex- 

 tensively consumed by the Spanish and Portuguese than is common in 

 this country ; in fact, it forms for them an important part of their daily 

 meals. Onions are esteemed, in the first place, on account of their 

 flavouring quality. They are at the same time among the most nutri- 

 tious of vegetables — containing, as they do, 30 per cent of gluten, the 

 presence of which in vegetables determines more than anything else 

 their value in point of nutriment. It is therefore probable that the 

 Portuguese is as well off, in point of nutritious aliment, with his dry 

 bread and Onion, as the English labourer is with bread and cheese. 



The Onion is a vegetable of great antiquity in Africa, having been 

 cultivated and much esteemed there two thousand years before Christ ; 

 and in the food of the Egyptians it still holds an important place. They 



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