212 THE HOME ACRE. 



ber, the plants do not usually acquire sufficient 

 strength in this latitude to. resist the frost. It is 

 necessary, therefore, to secure our main crop by 

 very early spring sowings, and it may be said here 

 that after the second thorough pulverization of the 

 soil in spring, the ground will be in such good 

 condition that, if well enriched and stirred late in 

 autumn, it will only need levelling down and 

 smoothing off before the spring sowing. Onions 

 appear to do best on a compact soil, if rich, deep, 

 and clean. It is the surface merely that needs to 

 be stirred lightly and frequently. 



If young green onions with thin, succulent tops 

 are desired very early in spring, it will be an in- 

 teresting experiment to sow the seed the latter 

 part of August or early in September. Another 

 method is to leave a row of onions in the gar- 

 den where they ripened. When the autumn rains 

 begin, they will start to grow again. The winter 

 will not harm them, and even in April there will 

 be a strong growth of green tops. The seed stalk 

 should be picked off as soon as it appears in 

 spring, or else the whole strength will speedily go 

 to the formation of seed. 



It should be remembered that good onions can- 

 not be produced very far to the south by sowing 

 the small gunpowder-like seed. In our own and 

 especially in warmer climates a great advantage is 



