ONION. 103 



If it is desired to have green onions very early in the 

 spring, the seed should be sown in August or early in 

 September, and the young onions protected on the approach 

 of cold weather by having some long litter thrown over 

 them along the rows. 



Another mode of raising them is from sets. These are 

 raised by sowing the seed, in April, very thickly, in drills 

 nine inches apart, in a piece of poor or unmanured soil, 

 for if the bulbs get any larger than a hazel nut they will 

 be very apt to run to seed when planted out for the main 

 crop. In August, when ripe, they should be taken up and 

 well dried, after which they should be placed, with their 

 chaff skins on, on the floor of a garret or hay-loft, covering 

 them, when cold weather sets in, with six or eight inches 

 of hay or straw. They will keep, thus protected, until 

 spring. In April of the ensuing spring they are to be 

 planted hi a piece of very rich soil in rows twelve inches 

 apart; a bulb being pressed into the ground with the 

 thumb and forefinger every three inches on the row, and 

 then rolled with a light roller to set them still more firmly. 

 The beds should be kept clean between the rows by 

 occasional hoeing; but all weeds growing "between the 

 bulbs, or within three or four inches of them on the rows, 

 should be removed hy hand. 



The sets from, top onions are treated in the same way. 

 They are raised by planting the full grown bulbs, in the 

 spring, in rows fifteen inches apart, and the bulbs ten 

 inches apart. During the summer they will throw up 

 stems, producing a cluster of ten or twelve small bulbs, 

 instead of a head of flowers and seeds. These sets are to 

 be preserved over winter in the same way as sets raised 

 from seeds, and planted and treated the ensuing season in 

 the same way. 



