78 ONION. 



not be delayed longer than the middle of April. The seed 

 may be sown moderately thick, in drills one inch deep and 

 twelve inches apart.* 



'I hose who cultivate Onions for the sake of their bulbs, 

 may use at the rate of four or five pounds of seed per acre. 



As market gardeners, in the vicinity of large cities, find it 

 most profitable to pull a great proportion of their Onions 

 while young, they generally require at the rate of from eight 

 to ten pounds of seed to an acre of land. 



When the plants are up strong, they should be hoed. Those 

 beds that are to stand for ripening, should be thinned out while 

 young, to the distance of two or three inches from each other. 

 If a few should be required for use after this, those can be 

 taken which incline more to tops than roots ; and if the beds 

 be frequently looked over, and the small and stalky plants 

 taken away where they stand thickest, the remaining bulbs 

 will grow to a larger size. The plants should be hoed at least 

 three times in the early part of their growth ; but if the season 

 prove damp, and weeds vegetate luxuriantly, they must be 

 removed by the hand, because after the Onions have begun to 

 bulb^it would injure them to stir them with a hoe. 



Whlen the greenness is gone out of the tops of Onions, it 

 is time to take them up ; for from this time the fibrous roots 

 decay. After they are pulled, they should be laid out to dry, 

 and when dry, removed to a place of shelter. 



The small Onions may be planted in the following spring. 

 Even an Onion which is partly rotten will produce good bulbs, 

 if the seed stems be taken off as soon as they appear. 



* Onion seed may be sown at any time from March to September, but 

 those only can be depended upon for ripening, which are sown in the first 

 and second spring months. It is a singular fact, that Onions will not ripen 

 later than August or the early part of September, however warm the 

 weather may be ; they can, however, be preserved in the place where they 

 grow, by spreading some short dung over them in autumn, just sufficient 

 to prevent their purging out of the ground in winter. Onions thus pre- 

 served, often prove more profitable to market gardeners in the spring, than 

 crops which ripen ; because ripe Onions are then scarce, and green ones 

 prove a good substitute for Shallots, Welsh Onions, Leeks, &c. 



