116 HORTICULTURE LECT. vm 



All varieties of onions succeed when sown in the 

 autumn, but the White Lisbon and Golden Rocca 

 are favourites. To sow in March, for autumn use, 

 choose White Spanish or Bedfordshire Champion, 

 Brown Globe for winter and spring use; Silver- 

 skinned for pickling; Ailsa Craig for exhibiting. 

 The cost of preparing land for onions is about equal 

 to that of all ordinary crops. The soil must be 

 deep, rich, and fertile, the usual dressing of manure 

 being about sixty loads from the farmyard per acre, 

 supplemented with top dressings of soot. 



Carrots. These afford a return of about <40 

 per acre in suitable soil. Early Horn and James's 

 Intermediate are the favourite sorts. The market- 

 garden process of culture is to plough in manure in 

 the autumn, not in the spring, ten pounds of seed 

 per acre being sown as soon as the ground is ready 

 in spring, in drills a foot or a little more asunder. 

 Thinning is done as soon as the plants can be handled, 

 and the ground is kept free from weeds. Pulling 

 commences when the roots are about half an inch 

 in diameter, from twenty to forty being put in a 

 bunch. From 300 to 400 bunches per acre is a fair 

 crop. For maggot prevention, see page 81 ; for 

 thinning, see page 145. 



Parsnips. Good crops of clean roots, which can 

 only be produced in deeply-worked land, give a good 

 return to the cultivator. The roots become forked 

 and unshapely in hard soil and recently-manured 

 land. In some districts parsnips are grown in every 

 garden ; in others they are scarcely seen. The roots 

 are nutritious and have often been very useful when 

 the disease has spoiled potatoes. Sow in Marc! 

 when the ground is friable, in rows fifteen inches 

 asunder. An ounce of seed will sow a drill 200 feet 

 long, and ten pounds suffice for an acre, The Student 



