ohap.vl] onions. 149 



they are cultivated, the soil should be a rich 

 loam, well pulverised, and richly manured with 

 thoroughly rotten dung-, bone dust, or some 

 other very powerful manure. The seed is sown 

 broadcast in March, on beds about four feet 

 wide; and, after it is raked in, the surface of 

 the bed is rolled or beaten flat with the spade. 

 In about three weeks the beds should be hoed 

 and thinned, as the young onions will be then 

 ready for salads ; and the beds should be aoain 

 hoed and thinned out, from time to time, as the 

 onions may be wanted. Care should be taken, 

 in hoeing the bed, not to earth up the bulbs, as 

 it is said to prevent them from swelling. When 

 the onions are from three to six inches apart, 

 they are generally left to swell for the main 

 crop, and they will be ready to draw in August 

 or September. Many persons, about a month 

 or six weeks before the onions are readv to take 

 up, bend the stalk down flat on the bed, to 

 throw all the strength of the plant into the 

 bulb, and to prevent its thickening at the neck. 

 Onions for pickling are generally sown in April; 

 and onions for salads may be sown at intervals 

 all the year. When onions are wanted of a 

 very large size, they are sown in drills, and 

 regularly earthed up ; and the Spanish onions 

 are generally transplanted. In Portugal it is 

 said "that the alleys between the beds are filled 

 with manure, which is kept constantly watered, 

 and the water directed over the beds. " Charcoal 

 roughly powdered, and mixed with the soil iu 

 which onions are grown, has a most extraordi- 

 nary effect in improving both their size and 



