Ill 



PEOriTABLE GABDENING. 



CaAPTEE XII. THE ONION THIBE — CTJITUHE OF ONIONS, LEEKS, GABUC, 



SHALLOTS, AND CHITES. 



Who does not like a good salad, a bit 

 of evei'ythiDg, and four people to make 

 it, according to the Spanish rule ; that 

 is, a miser for vinegar, a counsellor 

 for salt, a spendthrift for oil, and a 

 madman to chop it up ? But the gar- 

 dener is left out. So it takes five to 

 make a salad, and the gardener, who 

 has the largest share of the work, in 

 growing pretty spring onions, crisp 

 and well blanched lettuces, juicy ra- 

 dishes, bright green mustard and 

 cress, odorous mint, aromatic celery, 

 and, mayhap, even the succulent 

 water-cresses ; surely, when the four 

 have done their work, he is the man 

 Avho should eat it. But without the 

 bowl, without the oil, without salt 

 and vinegar, or a madman bran- 

 dishing a sharp knife, a radish or a 

 lettuce are welcome at any time, even 

 to help down an early breakfast, make 

 cold meat possible, or give a relish to 

 the supper cheese. Gardening with- 

 out salads is like making pies with no- 

 thing to put in them — we don't want 

 to have the hard crust alone. Now, 

 as the salads range pretty wide as to 

 character and culture, I shall confine 

 this chapter to the king of the group, 

 the Onion, which the Hindoos and 

 the Egyptians regarded as a symbol 

 of the universe, because it is a series 

 of globes, one within another, and 

 when cut through it shows a whole 

 system of orbits, around which, if you 

 can stretch your imagination so far, 

 the planetary bodies may be seen re- 

 volving. Thus it was sacred to Osiris, 

 the hero of sweet breath ; and to cut 

 an onion was enough to make a 

 Hindoo shudder at your sacrilege. We 

 may cut the onion, and the supersti- 

 tion too, for if it has any use in divina- 

 tion, it is this — that if a youth eats 

 onions, and then pops the question, 

 he stands an excellent chance of being 

 kicked out at the back door, or, at 

 least, getting " certainly not" for a 

 quietus. 



Is ow, to grow onions needs no help 

 fi'om Egyptian mysteries. Not even 

 Dr. Howard, whose brain has been 



turned by the contemplation of a pil- 

 lar of salt, can help us ; no, strong 

 dung is better, plenty of it, good seed, 

 a little patience, and. here are your 

 onions . 



To grow a good crox^ of useful 

 onions, it is necessary to have a bit of 

 ground that has been liberally manured 

 and deeply tilled ; but new, rank 

 manure, is not advisable, neither is 

 an excess necessaxy. If you aim at 

 immense bulbs you can hardly have 

 too much manure, and when growing, 

 manure-water ought to be given libe- 

 rally ; but large onions are not profit- 

 able, nor do they keep well ; the crop 

 that pays best is one of middling-sized 

 bulbs, well ripened in the sun, and 

 plenty of them — the latter being im- 

 possible if they are grown to a great 

 size. 



Eor all ordinary purposes, two sow- 

 ings of onions are sufficient : one to 

 remain for bulbing, but to be thinned 

 in time, and the thinnings used for 

 salading ; and another to follow, to be 

 entirely used while young, and during 

 the heat of summer, when salads are 

 most sought after. If required for 

 pickling, they ought to be grown rather 

 difierently to the general keeping crop, 

 as we shall see presently. 



The first essential to a crop of 

 onions, is good seeds. There are few 

 things I'especting which the choice of 

 seed is so important a matter ; and 

 hence, it is cjuite a common thing for 

 onion-seed to be thickly sown and not 

 a single plant ever make its appear- 

 ance. It is one of the few things of 

 which home-grown seed is to be pre- 

 ferred, and it need hardly be said, the 

 best-shaped, hardest, and in every 

 other respect, the best old bulbs should 

 be planted for the purpose ; and only 

 one sort of onion should be in bloom 

 at the same time, in the same garden. 

 It ought also to be seed of the pre- 

 ceding year, and to guard against 

 utter failure, it is a common practice 

 for gardeners to sow two sorts toge- 

 ther, on the speculation that one of 

 them may fail. As to sorts, there are 



