116 Southern Gardener^ s Practical Manual 



stem to increase the length of the edible part. I com- 

 mence using them in this latitude in January, after a 

 favorable fall, when the largest bulbs are the size of a 

 guinea e^g. The sets should be planted in rows fifteen 

 inches apart, and four inches in the drill. The sets are 

 pressed firmly into a shallow trench and enough fine soil 

 to cover their tips drawn over them. I grow my own 

 sets for fall planting. These supply the early crop. 

 Seed sown in the fall follow closely, and seed sown in 

 March follow in July. Onions grown from seed are 

 more delicate in flavor and keep better than those from 

 sets. The keeping qualities, however, depend largely 

 upon the method of cultivation. Those grown with the 

 bulb entirely above ground keep better than those that 

 ripen with the bulb covered with soil. The same rules 

 apply to spring -sown seed and to sets planted in spring 

 as prescribed for fall planting. In each case the soil 

 must be thoroughly pulverized and intensely fertilized. 

 The seed should be sown very thinly, not more than 

 two seeds to the inch, and covered from half to one inch 

 with very finely pulverized soil. If intended to produce 

 onions, the plants should be thinned to four inches in 

 the drill. Where they grow close together, press the soil 

 with the fingers around the roots of the plant left to 

 grow, so as to prevent injury when thinning out the 

 surplus plants. If there are vacancies in the row, the 

 surplus plants may be used to fill them. Growing 

 onions from the seed means bent knees, a tired back 

 and tedious finger work. If baking rains are followed 

 by drying winds after sowing the seed, cultivation 

 should commence before the plants appear. The onion 



