apartment. They are propagated by planting the bulbs in 

 drills, fourteen inches apart, the largest ones six, the smaller 

 four inches apart in the row, and the smallest ones two 

 inches. The small ones rapidly increase and make onions 

 from two to three inches in diameter, while the larger ones 

 divide and make from four to a dozen or even sixteen 

 (usually from five to eight) small, irregularly shaped onions. 

 It will be seen that the larger bulbs answer the same purpose 

 as the seed in the common onion ; hence to have onions for 

 sale and yet maintain the stock, it is necessary that both 

 sizes should be planted. 



The Potato onion should be indulged for its best develop- 

 ment in a soil rather moister than the varieties from seed. 

 The advantage of the Potato onion is its earliness, and the 

 fact that it is not as liable to injury from the onion maggot, 

 when that abounds, as the common sort. I have seen an 

 instance where, on half an acre of each growing side by side, 

 the common onion (that raised from seed) was almost wholly 

 destroyed, while the Potato onion was nearly uninjured. 



Shallots differ from Potato onions principally in their 

 characteristics of always multiplying ; a Shallot never grows 

 into a large round onion, but always multiplies itself, forming 

 bulbs that average more oblong and are usually smaller than 

 those of the Potato onion. I find them occasionally pushing 

 a seed shoot, which I have never seen in the Potato onion. 

 Their habit of growth is finer, making a longer and more 

 slender leaf than the Potato onion. They are mild of flavor, 

 and greatly excel every other variety of the onion family in 

 their keeping properties : with little care they may be kept 

 the year round. All seedsmen do not know the difference 

 between the Potato onion and the Shallot. Within a few 

 years I have twice had Shallots sent me under the name 

 "Potato onion." 



