THE LEEK AND SHALLOT. 649 



heads should be cut off and laid in cloths exposed to the sun till they 

 are perfectly dry, when the seed may be thrashed out, and again exposed 

 to the sun for a few hours, previously to being put up in bags. It will 

 keep two years, and sometimes three. It varies considerably in price, 

 according to the crop in this country, and also in Holland, whence much 

 onion-seed is imported. 



The Leek. 



The Leek (Allium Porrum, L.) is a perennial, a native of Switzer- 

 land, in cultivation in British gardens from an unknown period. Its 

 blanched stem is used in soups and stews, and in a dish by itself, served 

 up on toasted bread with white sauce. The best varieties are the 

 London, Musselburgh, Ayton Castle Giant, Henry's Hybrid Prize. For 

 a seed-bed four feet wide by eight feet in length, one ounce of seed is 

 sufficient, which may be sown about the middle of March, and will come 

 up in a fortnight. The plants should be transplanted when three or 

 four inches high, in May or June, if possible in showery weather. 

 They require a very rich soil, and may either be planted along the 

 bottom of drills, or on the surface in rows, ten or twelve inches apart, 

 by six or eight inches in the row ; inserting the sheathed stems nearly 

 up to the leaves, or in default of this mode of planting, earthing them 

 up as they grow, in order that a greater portion of the plant may be 

 blanched. In planting, press the soil to the fibres with the dibble, 

 but leave the stem quite loose and free, and as it were standing in the 

 centre of a hollow cylinder, two inches in diameter, and at least six 

 inches deep. This cylinder will afterwards be filled up by the swelling 

 of the stem, and as the leaves are so close together, it is a much better 

 mode than attempting to earth the plants up. Some plant in hollow 

 drills, and earth up as in celery culture, which produces very large 

 stems. Some form holes with a large dibble, drop the plant in, followed 

 by as much loose earth as will just cover its fibrous roots, and after- 

 wards water once a day, till it has taken sufficient hold of the soil. If 

 the soil is very rich to a considerable depth, and on a dry bottom, the 

 size of the stem, by this mode of culture, becomes enormous. The 

 leeks will be fit for use in September, and will continue in perfection 

 till the following April or May, when they may be taken up and placed 

 in a cool cellar to retard vegetation, which will admit of their being 

 used till the middle or end of May ; or much later, if growth is pre- 

 vented by cutting off the plate from which the roots proceed. When 

 severe frost is anticipated, a portion of the crop may be taken up in 

 the beginning of winter, and planted in sand, in an open shed ; or it 

 may be protected where it stands. A few plants left will produce 

 abundance of seed, which will ripen in September, and may be treated 

 like that of the onion. The seed will keep two or three years. 



The Shallot. 



The Shallot (Allium ascalonicum, L.) is a bulbous- rooted perennial, 

 a native of Palestine, and long in cultivation for its bulbs, which 



