THE OLD ONION CULTURE 



63 



and thrown into a sieve having about four meshes to 

 the inch, so that the dirt and sand may be sifted out ; or 

 they may simply be left on the ground for a day or 

 two to cure, provided the weather remains dry. Then 

 gather them up, preferably on sieves such as used for 

 drying raspberries and other fruit, and store under 

 shelter where they have a good chance to dry out 

 thoroughly. Afterward they can be cleaned and 

 sorted. I use a sieve for cleaning pickling onions and 



Fig 43 — ^ASSORTED BARLETTA ONIONS 



onion sets. This is a simple homemade affair, shown 

 in Fig 42. The screen used has four meshes to the 

 inch. The mechanical genius of the family will have 

 little difficulty to construct a sieve or drum like mine 

 or similar to it. Put a moderate quantity of the little 

 onions into this drum, let them get quite dry, and then 

 turn until they are clean. They may then be sorted, 

 which is easily done by running through a coarse 

 meshed sieve (meshes to be about three- fourths inch), 

 and are then ready for use or sale. The usual sizes into 

 which they are assorted are shown in Fig 43. 



Housewives often complain of the trouble they 

 have in cleaning small pickling onions. This is simply 



