THE ONION ; ITS VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 127 



that support it — Asia. The Israelites after leaving Egypt 

 remembered with longing the onion among other vegetables which 

 they ate there. 



As an article of diet the onion has not occupied the place it 

 deserves ; it is generally looked upon here merel}^ as a relish, 

 whereas it is really a nourishing food. I have heard of miners 

 in the West making their dinners of half bread and half onions. 

 Their unpleasant effect on the eyes when peeling them may 

 be avoided by holding them under water while doing it. The 

 peculiar flavor of the onion is due to a volatile oil which is very 

 subtle, and consequently, to be in perfection, it should be eaten as 

 soon as it is taken out of the ground. I have entertained at my 

 farm in Middleton friends who had never eaten onions fresh from 

 the ground and who were surprised at their sweetness. I think 

 that their fine flavor is even more volatile than that of green peas 

 or sweet corn. 



There are two distinct classes of onions — those which do and 

 those which do not produce flowers. In the latter class are the 

 potato or "multiplying" onion and the shallot, which, as we all 

 know, are propagated by what are commonly called "setts" — 

 botanicallj' ofl^sets, though occasionally the shallot will make a 

 show of seed. The shallot is the longest keeper of all the onion 

 family ; sometimes it will keep for two years, and therefore it 

 fills a place of its own. Thej^ are sometimes sold in the market 

 as potato-onion setts. There are two or more varieties of shallot. 



Top onions, potato onions, rareripes, Egyptian onions, onion 

 setts, and annual onions, or, as the last are termed in the South, 

 " black seed" onions, to distinguish them from those raised from 

 setts, include all that market farmers and gardeners handle, with 

 the exception of cives, a species which makes but a suggestion 

 of a bulb, the green tops cut for salad being the marketable por- 

 tion. These cives appear to be natives of this country ; it is 

 stated that they grow wild on the shores of Lake Huron and 

 Superior, and the name Onion River would suggest that they 

 have been found there. I think they grow wild also in 

 Marblehead. 



As regards soil, onions will grow on any soil from muck 

 meadows to clay loam. They succeed on Marblehead Neck on 

 soil so gravelly that after a rain there will be places a yard square 

 on wliich not a particle of soil can be seen. Muck soil will not 



