158 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



the plants are up they should be kept perfectly clean by fre- 

 quent hoeing and hand-weeding, and thinned to one or two 

 inches apart, or to four inches if large onions are desired, and 

 in their cultivation avoid any earthing up of the bulbs. 



Onions while growing are greatly benefited by liquid ma- 

 nure (see p. 64), which may be applied once or twice a week 

 until they begin to ripen. Onions which, from late sowing or 

 other causes, do not swell and ripen, if earthed up a little and 

 left out through the winter, will yield excellent young onions 

 very early in the spring. Choice ones intended for seeding 

 should also be set out in the fall, four or five inches deep. 



ONION SETS. 



Onions are often raised from what are called " sets," that is, 

 very small onions of any color, which are either culled from the 

 general crop, or obtained for this purpose by being sown late 

 and very thickly, so that they are stunted in their growth, and 

 form only small roots, which ripen prematurely. These are 

 set out in the spring by being merely pressed with the thumb 

 and finger into the soft, freshly-dug earth, at three or four 

 inches apart, in rows a foot wide, and cultivated as above di- 

 rected for onions from the seed. The young seed-stems which 

 they usually throw up must be carefully broken out when six 

 to twelve inches high, to aid or force the formation of bulbs. 

 Sets thus treated yield a part of the green onions sold in spring, 

 and the very early stringed and barreled dry onions known in 

 our markets as rareripes. 



ESCALLIONS. 



Onions that are too large for sets, and the refuse onions that 

 remain over from the winter's consumption, when planted in 

 the spring, in rich soil, yield mild and pleasant green onions, 

 known as escallions, which are ready for use almost as early as 

 shallots, but are greatly preferable to them. 



TOP ONIONS. 

 RED. WHITE. YELLOW. 



Top onions produce their sets, as the common kinds yield 



