ONION GROWING. 191 
In the beginning of March or by the middle of the 
month, go over the beds with a three-pronged dung 
hook, and work the surface over five or six inches deep, 
mixing the manure well with the soil, and then leave 
it for a week, at the end of which rake down the 
ground with a coarse rake, leaving a fine surface ; and 
after the first shower that comes dib in the small bulbs 
in rows across the beds, seven or eight inches apart 
from row to row, and six inches from plant to plant ; 
do not bury them too deep. These small bulbs will 
give the earliest and best Onions, but they must not 
be sown too early, nor allowed to be too thin, or else 
they will run to seed. As soon as they begin to swell 
off, and show-no signs of running to seed, sow a slight 
quantity of ‘Goulding’s Bone Manure,’ or ‘ Goulding’s 
Special,’ over them, but mind not to overdo it; in the 
proportion of one pound to every thirty square yards 
will be quite enough. Keep them clean, and clear out 
the soil round each bulb when they are the size of a 
breakfast cup; the bulbs will then swell rapidly, and 
come to a large size and ripen thoroughly by the 
month of July. When the tops turn yellow, pull them 
up and let them lie on the top of the ground to finish 
off through the power of the sun, which they will do in 
the course of a week, if the weather is fine. Then 
they may be trimmed off and sold. By this means the 
English grower may be able to fairly compete with the 
French, and by perseverance will have finer Onions 
ready for market before they can bring them here. 
There is still another way by which the English 
Onion grower can compete with the French for our 
own markets. Get some seed of Danvers’s Yellow, 
or the Banbury Yellow, and prepare a broad piece of 
