1.78 GARDEOTNG FOR PROFIT. 



ONION. -{Allium Cepa.) 



Next to Cabbages, perhaps, Onions are the most prof- 

 itable crop of our market gardens, in which they are 

 grown from sets, and nearly all sold in bunches in the green 

 or unripened state. Grown from seed, they are cultivat- 

 ed almost exclusively by farmers or men who devote farm 

 land to this purpose alone ; thus grown, they are all sold 

 in the dry state, and form an important article of com- 

 merce. 



I will first describe the manner of cultivating in our 

 market gardens. To produce the " sets," or small bulbs, 

 that are planted to give early Onions to be sold green, a 

 poor piece of ground is chosen as early as it is fit to work 

 in spring. It is brought into a thorough state of pulver- 

 ization by plowing, harrowing, and raking, so that the 

 surface is level and free from stones ; a line is then 

 stretched, and lines are marked out by the 9-inch side of 

 the marker, in these the seed is sown in beds of 6 rows 

 w r ide, rubbing out every 7th row marked, so that it forms 

 an alley 18 inches wide. For this purpose the seed is 

 sown quite thickly, and on poor soil, so as to pi'oduce the 

 "sets" as small as possible, for we find that whenever 

 they much exceed half an inch in diameter, they will run 

 to seed. It matters not how small the bulb is ; even when 

 of the size of the smallest Peas, they make an equally good 

 if not a better crop, than if of a larger size. The sets are 

 taken up in August, well dried, placed with the chaff 

 among them in a loft of stable or barn, about 4 inches 

 deep, covered up by six inches of hay on the approach of 

 hard frost, and left thus until wanted for setting out in 

 spring. Here w'e again commence our operations for the 



