THE ONION. 203 



feet in width, and are regularly thinned, hoed, and kept 

 free from, weeds. About the beginning of September 

 the crop is ripe or ready for lifting, which is known by 

 the withering of the leaves; the roots are taken up, 

 and, after being well dried in the open air, are stored 

 in a garret or loft, where they may be perfectly secured 

 from damp. 



Towards the end of August a secondary crop is sown, 

 to afford a supply of young onions or scallions, as they 

 are called, in the spring months. The Strasburg and 

 White Portugal may be used for this purpose. Those 

 which are not required for the kitchen may be allowed 

 to stand, and if the flower-bud be picked out on its first 

 appearance, and the earth be stirred about them, they 

 will frequently produce bulbs equal in size and quality 

 to the large ones that are imported from the Continent. 



Some eminent horticulturists have strongly recom- 

 mended the transplanting of onions. Mr. Knight re- 

 commends sowing the White Portugal onion in May 

 under the shade of a tree, where the plants remain of 

 a diminutive size, .during the autumn and winter, and 

 are planted out in the succeeding spring. Other culti- 

 vators collect all the minute bulbs of the ordinary crop, 

 and use them in the same way. Mr. Macdonald, Dal- 

 keith Park, was in the 'practice of confining his opera- 

 tions to one summer. He sowed in February on a slight 

 hotbed, or sometimes merely under a glass-fraine. In 

 the first or second week of April, according to the 'state 

 of the weather, he transplanted the young seedlings in 

 rows, eight inches asunder, and at the distance of four 

 or five, inches in the row. Previous to planting, the 

 roots of the seedlings- were dipped in a puddle of one 

 part of soot to three parts of earth, an expedient which 



