20 



HOW TO TCAISE ONIONS. 



resting or. each tier of side-boards, with cleets on each 

 end, like a wagon-board for a seat one or two hogs- 

 head staves side by side are the cheapest, if the width 

 of the bin is calculated for them, with similar strips 

 resting on these, in number according to the width of 

 the bin, about one foot apart, running lengthwise and 

 thus on each tier of side-boards as they are filled, 

 using loose side-boards for the top, as high as wished 

 or needed. The ends may be filled up, slanting so as 

 to support themselves, or cross-boards may be fitted in. 

 The spaces under the staves or flat boards will effectu- 

 ally ventilate and prevent heating. The onions should 

 be well dried and have their tops left on, and when 

 first frozen be covered with one or more thicknesses of 

 carpets or old garments, and have them hung around 

 t'heir sides. Freezing does them no apparent injury, if 

 <hey are thawed gradually. When wished for winter's 

 sale, the temperature should not be below freezing, 

 nor much above it, which will have to be regulated by 

 stoves, or by moving them to dry cellars when hard 

 frost comes on. 



To RAISE SEED. Select a piece of warm, rich 

 ground, manure it well, plough deep, and strike out 

 light furrows two feet and a half apart, and set out, 

 six inches apart, well-bottomed onions, (no scallions,} 

 remembering that " like produces like." Set them in 

 the bottom of the furrows, and cover well. Till 

 the pround as for potatoes, with plough and hoe, ridg- 

 ing well, to support the tops. In August, when the 

 seed-pods are half-opened, gather by cutting off the 

 stalks just below the tops, and spread them on a cham- 

 ber-floor to 4ry, and thresh out any tune when needed. 

 Or, as mice are very fond of it, spread a few days on 

 sheets in the s^u, and when dry, rub the seed out m 

 the hot part of the day, when it will shell much more 

 easily than in the cooler parts, for it rapidly absorbs a 

 great deal of moisture. Clean it by stirring it in water ; 

 the good seed will sink i a few minutes: all the res* 

 should be thrown away with the chaff. "Pu*; the seed 

 into bags, and keep it in a dry X>!^.CP cst <\ tb 

 of mice. 



No. XI. 

 BY H. WADE, FLOYD CO,, IOWA. 



FIRST select the best and brightest-looking onions, 

 tor seed, and plant them in rows about two feet apart, 

 one foot in the row, and when they grow up, drive 

 stakes and draw twine along, to keep the heads in their 

 place, until ripe. Then cut them off and tie in bunches 

 of about a dozen heads, and hang them in a shed, 

 where the wind does not blow very much, for a time, 

 and then rub out and spread thin for a few days be- 

 fore putting away for winter, and thus good seed for 

 spring may always be had. 



Now for preparing the ground. I have grown 

 onions on almost all kinds of soil, but the best on a 

 sandy loam. In preparing my garden, out here in the 

 West, I fixed on a place to grow my onions. I dug it 

 two good spades deep and mixed it as well as I could. 

 The soil was pretty sandy and not very rich, but very 

 dry. In the fall I put on good rotten manure of any 

 kind I could get, about four inches thick, and let it lie 

 all winter, and as soon as dry enough in spring, I mixed 

 (t altogether about eight inches deep with a good four- 

 toothed fork. (When I raised them in fields I used a 

 cultivator for this part of the work.) I then let it lie a 

 few days to dry, and then dragged perfectly, until four 

 inches of the surface was all quite fine. I have a marker 

 that marks four drills at a time, one foot apart, about 

 one inch deep. A small seed-sower is best for plant- 

 ing. Care must be taken not to sow too thick, unless 

 you are near a market where you can sell green onions ; 

 then it does not signify, as thinning loosens the soil 



for what is left. Rake them in lightly, lengthwise thd 

 rows, so as not to get the seed out of the drill ; then 

 with a light hand-roller go evenly over the piece each 

 way, and leave it till the onions make their appear- 

 ance. In cultivating, use a light sharp tooth-rake, 

 head nine inches long, teeth one and a half inches 

 apart, handle six feet long. It is better than a hoe, as 

 you can loosen the soil close to the rows without cut- 

 ting the roots, and if you made a good seed-bed, a 

 man will do as much again with a rake as a hoe. 

 Rake over every week if the weather permits, as soon 

 as it is dry enough after a hard rain to keep the top 

 from crusting. Attend to this at first well, and you 

 will not regret it. 



About June, as soon as the onions are up enough, 

 thin out to about four inches in the row, pulling out at 

 the same time what few weeds are growing with them, 

 and after that, you may run the small rake between 

 the rows occasionally. Onions may always be on one 

 spot in a garden, but you must manure pretty well 

 every fall, after the ground has been dug. Once in 

 two years dig two spades deep ; and if a stiff clay soil, 

 put stones or something at the bottom, for an under- 

 drain. Good well-rotted barnyard manure is as good 

 as any to manure with. I have grown them three 

 years in one place, and last year I had the best and 

 handsomest I ever saw. You could hardly teU one 

 from the other. 



When the tops begin to fall down, I go over them 



