Early Spring Vegetables 



form a clump of tender shoots which are ready 

 for use in May. If, however, the bed is neglected 

 and allowed to form sod or weeds the onions de- 

 teriorate and become tough and woody ; their prin- 

 cipal merit consists in their earliness. For first 

 class bunching onions, however, onions with bot- 

 toms, one should sow seed in August in a fine, 

 clean seed bed that has been heavily manured, 

 scattering the seed thinly in drills one foot or fif- 

 teen inches apart and thin the plants to stand 

 two inches apart in the rows. Onions are quite 

 hardy and will usually winter without protection 

 but in severe climates a light covering of straw 

 or of evergreen boughs will be beneficial; this 

 practice gives very fine green onions early in 

 the spring. 



Another practice, very satisfactory for the 

 home garden, consists in planting in early spring 

 the old onions placed in storage for winter use; 

 usually these will have begun to grow by March 

 and are useless for cooking, but if pulled apart 

 and each shoot planted out in good garden soil 

 they will start at once into growth and in a few 



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