CULTURE AND PROPERTIES OF ONIONS. 169 



These are withdrawn some weeks before the autumn crop. Small 

 onions produce very fine and larse ones, and yield offsets, but the 

 larger ones produce the largest clusters. Care should be taken in se- 

 lecting seeds, as all weeds or poor stock are pernicious. To be 

 drawn young, 2 oz. is required for a bed 4 feet by 24 ; but for bulbing 

 1 oz. suffices. 625 bushels have been raised on the acre in Mass. 

 Earthing up is objectionable. 



Middle sized onions are better for eating than larger ones. They 

 are hoed 3 or 4 times till the tops arrive at their height ; the weeds 

 are afterwards pulled by hand. Trampling the soil between the rows 

 and withdrawing the soil from the bulbs, to expose them to the sun, is 

 recommended. When the greenness of the stalks are gone from the 

 tops, they are pulled ; for after this the roots decay. When pulled 

 they lie on the ground for 10 or 12 days to dry and harden, if the 

 weather be fair, and then placed on a floor in a dry covered place. 

 Scallions should not be mixed with good onions, but hung up in bunches. 

 A warm and moist cellar is not so good as a cool and dry place, or dry 

 casks in garrets or lofts. 



When shipped, they are strung on a wisp of straw. If they begin 

 to sprout, which injures them for eating, the fibrous roots are some- 

 times seared with a hot iron ; the pores are thus stopped, which, ad- 

 mitting the air, causes them to rot. The seeds are obtained by plant- 

 ing early in beds, 9 inches apart ; the largest and soundest are best. 

 The tops appear in a month, each with several stems. They are kept 

 free from weeds, and when the flower-heads are about to appear, the 

 stems are secured to a stake about 4 feet long. Onions for pickling 

 are grown on poor soil to keep them small. When gathered, the seeds 

 are spread in the sun a day, to dry, and then put up in papers. 



Every plant living longer than a year, generates the sap to elabo- 

 rate the leaves and roots of the succeeding spring. This juice, depo- 

 sited in the bulbous roots of the onion, varies in quantity according to 

 the circumstances of the plants. It acquires a larger quantity in the 

 south than in the north, having there more sun and heat. To effect 

 the same here, the seed may be sown in spring, thickly, in the shade 

 and on a poor soil, so that in autumn the bulbs are not larger than a 

 pea. These are taken up and preserved during the winter and planted 

 in spring, when they produce bulbs very superior to those raised di- 

 rectly from seeds ; they often exceed 5 inches in diameter, and are 

 otherwise better. In Portugal they are sown in Nov., on a moderately 

 hot bed, protected from frosts, and transplanted to a rich soil in April. 

 The medical properties of the onion were known to the ancients. 

 Raw onions are taken as an expectorant for winter cough. Roasted 

 onions are employed as an emolient poultice to supurating tumors and 

 to the ear, to relieve pain. The expressed juice is given to children 

 and others, with sugar, &c., as an expectorant in coughs ; vinegar or 

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