ONIONS. 



husks becoming brownish : the heads must 

 then be immediately cut, otherwise the recep- 

 tacles will open and shed their contents. Be- j 

 ing spread on cloths in the sun, during the day, j 

 and taken under cover every night and during 

 inclement weather, they soon become perfectly j 

 dry, when the seed may be rubbed out, cleaned 

 of the chaff, and, after remaining another day 

 or two, finally stored. It is of the utmost con- 

 sequence to employ seed of not more than one | 

 year old, otherwise not more than 1 in 50 seeds 

 will vegetate. 



The goodness of seed may be easily disco- 

 vered by forcing a little of it in a hotbed or in 

 warm water, a day or two before it is employed : 

 a small white point will soon protrude if it is 

 fertile. 



Onions are raised in large quantities, in the 

 town of Weathersfield, Connecticut, for exporta- 

 tion to the West Indies and Southern Slates. 

 The business is there reduced to a perfect 

 system. Early in spring the land is manured, 

 by ploughing in fine manure from the stable or 

 barn-yard, in the proportion of about 10 loads 

 to the acre. That of neat cattle is preferred, 

 as that of horses is considered to be of too 

 heating a nature. It is then well harrowed and 

 laid out into beds of 5 feet wide, by turning a 

 furrow towards them each way; this raises the 

 beds above the alleys, and allows the surplus 

 water to run off. They are then well raked 

 witn an iron-toothed or common hay rake, and 

 the alleys suffered to remain as left by the 

 plough. 



As early as the season will admit, the seed 

 is sown in the following manner. A rake, with 

 teeth a foot apart, is drawn crosswise of the 

 beds, and drills made for the reception of the 

 seed; it is then sown with the thumb and fingers 

 and covered witL the hand, allowing 10 or 12 

 Ibs. to the acre. After the plants are up, they 

 are kept clean of weeds, which generally re- 

 quires four weedings, using a hoe of suitable 

 width to pass between the rows, which saves 

 much labour. When ripe, they are pulled, and 

 the tops cut off to a suitable length for tyini: 

 them to the straw in roping. Three and a half 

 pounds are required by a law of the state to be 

 put in each rope; and the ordinary crop is 

 from 6 to 8000 ropes to the acre. 



Onions may be raised in the same way in the 

 Middle and Southern States, though the more 

 common practice is to grow them from small 

 bulbs raised from seed the previous year, by sow- 

 ing thickly in rows, about 9 or 10 inches apart, 

 about the middle of spring; if sown too early, 

 they are apt to run to seed when transplanted. 

 Cultivate and preserve* as for full-grown bulbs. 

 Plant early in spring, in well manured ground, 

 in rows about 6 inches apart, and 5 inches in 

 the row, allowing about 18 inches after every 

 fifth row as an alley for convenience in weeding. 



If the land is at all light, it is a good practice 

 to tread or roll well before sowing or trans- 

 planting, and be careful to disturb the bulbs as 

 little as possible in weeding. 



Potato, or under-ground Onion. This species 

 of allium has received the above appellations, 

 on account of its producing a cluster of bulbs 

 or offsets, in number from 2 to 12, and even 

 more, uniformly beneath the surface of the soil. 



ONION, THE WELSH. 



From being first introduced to public notice in 

 Scotland, by Captain Burns of Edinburgh, it is 

 there also known as the Burn onion. There 

 evidently appear to be two varieties of this ve- 

 getable,one of which bears bulbs on the summit 

 of its stems, like the tree onion, and the other 

 never throwing up flower-stems at all. One 

 variety is much larger than the other, and this 

 vegetates again as soon as ripe. 



Both varieties are best propagated by offsets 

 of the root, of moderate size ; for if those are 

 employed which the one variety produces on 

 the summit of its stems, they seldom do more 

 than increase in size the first year, but are pro- 

 lific the next ; this also occurs if very small 

 offsets of the root are employed. 



They may be planted during October or No- 

 vember, or as early in the spring as the season 

 will allow, but not later than April. In the 

 west of England, assisted by their genial cli- 

 mate, they plant on the shortest and take up on 

 the longest day. They are either to be inserted 

 in drills, or by a blunt dibble 8 inches apart 

 each way, not buried entirely, but the top of 

 the offset just level with the surface. Mr. Ma- 

 her, gardener at Arundel Castle, merely places 

 the sets on the surface, covering them with 

 leaf mould, rotten dung, or other light compost. 

 The beds they are grown in are better not more 

 than 4 feet wide, for the convenience of culti- 

 vation. 



The only cultivation required is to keep them 

 clear of weeds. The practice of earthing the 

 mould over them when the stems have grown 

 up is unnatural, and by so doing the bulbs are 

 blanched and prevented ripening perfectly, on 

 which their keeping depends. So far from 

 following this plan, Mr. Wedgewood of Betley 

 recommends the earth always to be cleared 

 away down to the ring whence the fibres 

 spring, as soon as the leaves have attained their 

 full size and begin to be brown at the top, so 

 that a kind of basin is formed round the bulb. 

 As soon as they vegetate, they intimate the 

 number of offsets that will be produced, by 

 showing a shoot for each. 



They attain their full growth towards the end 

 of July, and become completely ripe early in 

 September: for immediate use they may be 

 taken up as they ripen, but for keeping, a little 

 before they attain perfect maturity, which is 

 demonstrated by the same symptoms as were 

 mentioned in speaking of onion. 



ONION, THE WELSH, or CIBOULE, 

 This is a perennial, which never forms a bulb, 

 but is sown annually, to be drawn young for 

 salads, &c. : on account of its strong taste, it 

 is greatly inferior to the common onion for this 

 purpose; but from its extreme hardiness in 

 withstanding the severest frost, it may be cul- 

 tivated with advantage as a winter standing 

 crop for spring use. In France two varieties 

 j are in cultivation, the white and the red; the first 

 of which is the one in :..val use in England. 

 As it may be sown at ai: times, in common 

 with the onion, and is similarly cultivated, ex- 

 cept that it may be sown thicker, and only 

 thinned as wanted, the directions given for that 

 vegetable will suffice. The blade usually die* 

 away completely in winter, but fresh ones ar< 

 thrown out again in February or March. 



86 1 



