86-J 



GLEANINGtS IN JiEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15. 



fruits, friend Gault can give you a point or two 

 about them. Arthur T. Goldsborougii. 



Wesley Heights, D. C, Oct. 33. 



[Thanks for your hints, friend G.; but you 

 are certainly wrong in thinking that Mr. Gault 

 gave his plants water or extra quantities of 

 manure. His old plantation, with tall canes, 

 was on pretty rich garden ground, and he gave 

 them some water which he drew in barrels; 

 but his new plantation, and by far the largest 

 plot, had no water whatever during the most 

 severe drouth that I can remember, and the 

 ground has not been manured lately, for he 

 had potatoes between the rows, and he objected 

 to manure because it made his potatoes scabby. 

 The ground certainly was not nearly as good as 

 my market-garden ground, and yet every little 

 plant seemed bent on bearing fruit almost as 

 soon as it was out of the ground. I am to have 

 plants enough to give them a good trial in the 

 spring. If the plant does as well in other 

 places as it does on friend Gault's farm, it 

 seems to me it must be a wonder among berry- 

 plants. Yes, I remember what I said about the 

 experiment stations taking hold of new things, 

 and I belii^ve they are to try this next season. 

 At present I have not a plant for sale, and I 

 think friend Gault has sold all he has to spare 

 for next spring.] 



SHALLOTS. 



Well, what are shallots? All I can tell you 

 is, that the Cleveland Nursery Co., of Rio Vista, 

 Va., say in their price list: " These are a great 

 multiplying variety. This onion is suitable for 

 bunching after the winter onions— often 15 to 35 

 onions from one. but they do not run to top- 

 sets. This, no doubt, is a valuable onion to 

 many market-gardeners for spring bunching. 

 They need planting one foot apart in the row, 

 and rows about 18 inches apart. They need 

 plenty of room." When shall werever know all 

 about all the different kinds of onions? Why 

 not call this a potato onion ? I suppose because 

 it never gets large, and is suitable only for 

 bunching — probably something like the Egyp- 

 tian; but then, again, we read that they do not 

 run to top-sets; therefore the only means of 

 propagation is by dividing or multiplying. 

 This, certainly, would be a desideratum. So 

 far I have not seen a potato-onion or a White 

 Multiplier run up to seed. 



OTHER KINDS OF-ONIONS. 



I wish there were a book in the world that 

 would sive ns a full description and directions 

 for cultivation of all the onions in the world— 

 or, say. of all the onions in the United States if 

 the world is too large; then we could tell some- 

 thins where we are. I do not know but I 

 would gro a thousand miles to see an onion- 

 garden where all kinds of onions were growing: 

 and then this onion-garden could furnish us 

 seeds and multipliers and potato onions to 

 nlant: and I do believe they could manasre. by 

 some hook or crook, so that they need not 

 charge us $5.no a bushel for onions and sets. 

 Why, it is ridiculous. Potato onions can cer- 

 tainly be grown at a profit for a dollar a bushel, 

 and I think the white ones might be grown for 

 $1. ,50 any way. I do not know about shallots. 

 Eevptian or winter onion -sets can be grown for 

 $1.50 per bushel, easily: and for an immediate 

 order I will sell them at that price, or bottom 

 onions (same variety) for SI .00 a bushel. These 

 latter are the best thing I know of to put in 

 greenhouses and cold-frames. 



Now, then, have I got hold of all the different 

 kinds of onions grown ? When I was a boy, 

 some English friends of mine had something in 

 the onion line that they brought over from 



England and they called them '"chives." They 

 grew in great clumps; and when they wanted 

 some for the table they jusi sliced the tops off 

 with a pair of shears. The more they sliced 

 them off. the more they grew. Do any of our 

 readers know any thing about chives, and will 

 they please mail me a root or two? And. by 

 the way. when my creek-bottom ground was 

 cleared up, there was a very pretty wild onion 

 found. It made little bulbs about as large as 

 on ion -sets, and it also produced seed on top. 

 Somebody told me these were garlics. Is garlic 

 an onion? I remember one day our butcher 

 said the only kind of bologna he had on hand 

 was some flavored with garlic. I did not like 

 the garlic kind; but he said it was because I 

 was not brought up right. May be friend Da- 

 dant would say I was not " biiilt " that way. 

 Now, before I write that onion -book you see I 

 want to know all about onions. 



A great many are asking lately about grow- 

 ing onions under glass. If you have a hot-bed, 

 cold-frame, or greenhouse, it is the simplest 

 thing in the world to grow onions under 

 glass; and if you have any old onions that 

 are rotting and sprouting to such an extent 

 that they will not sell for any thing, just put 

 them in rich dirt as close together as you 

 can set them, and with a little dirt between 

 under your greenhouse - benches, or right in 

 your hot-bed or cold-frame. After they have 

 inade long green shoots, peel off the outside so 

 they look white, like nicely bleached celery. 

 Tie" them up in bunches, and they will sell 

 tiptop almost any time in winter. Along in 

 January or February, when people are hungry 

 for green stuff, we often get 5 cents for }-4 lb. 

 Now, I suppose shallots, potato onions, multi- 

 pliers, and may be chives, could be thus forced 

 in the same way. Oh, yes! in growing onion- 

 plants for sale last February they got too rank 

 and tall in that new greenhouse, and we cut 

 the tops off with shears, and sold them around 

 town by the peck and half-bushel. Some of 

 them were sheared off twice. Now, what do 

 you know about onions ? 



HANDLING SASHES. 



When Huber was only nine years old he often 

 used to help me handle the sashes on the plant- 

 beds. Frequently the air would turn frosty 

 Sunday evening, when the men were all away. 

 Sometimes, in laying the sash down on the 

 edges of the beds, he would get his fingers 

 pinched. Boys — especially small boys— have to 

 learn to take care of these soft pink fingers. I 

 wonder whether the father always has it in 

 mind to protect these little fingers and toes, and 

 endeavor to avoid pinching them and giving 

 them pain. The mother does, as we all know; 

 but I think that fathers, ofttimes, should be a 

 little more motherly. The first I knew, Huber 

 was handling sash quite rapidly, without even 

 letting a finger get a brush. Boy as he was. he 

 had invented a plan for dropping them. The 

 plan has been adopted by all of our men since 

 then; and as some of you handle sashes, I think 

 I will tell you about it. 



Suppose the sashes are piled up at the end of 

 a long bed. You commence at one end — two of 

 you— and lay the first sash in place; then you 

 take the next one, and drop one edge so as to 

 have it come close up against the first sash 

 already on the bed. Now, when you lay down 

 the opiiosite edge, if the sash should not be any 

 longer than the width of the bed, one of you 

 may get a finger pinched. Huber's plan is to 

 cross the free hand over the one holding the 

 corner of the sash, and let the last edge down 

 gently by placing the free hand along the side 

 of the sash instead of under the end. The side, 

 you know, lies over the edge of the bed. and 



