174 horticulturist's rule-book. 



Onions demand a dry cellar, and the bulbs sliould be thorouglily 

 dried in the sun before they are stored. All tops should be 

 cut away when the onions are harvested. If a cellar can- 

 not be had, the bulbs may be allowed to freeze, but great 

 care must be exercised or the whole crop will be lost. The 

 onions must not be subjected to extremes of temperature, 

 and they should not thaw out during the winter. They 

 can be stored on the north side of a loft, being covered with 

 two or three feet of straw, hay, or chaff to preserve an 

 equable temperature. They must not be handled while 

 frozen, and they must thaw out very gradually in the 

 spring. This method of keeping onions is reliable only 

 when the weather is cold and tolerably miiform, and it is 

 little used. 



Orange. — Aside from the customary wrapping of oranges in 

 tissue paper and packing them in boxes, burying in dry 

 sand is sometimes practised. The fruit is first wrapped in 

 tissue paper, and it should be buried in such manner that 

 the fruit shall not be more than three tiers deep. 



Pears. — Pears should be picked several days or a couple of 

 weeks before they are ripe, and then placed in a dry and 

 well-ventilated room, like a chamber. Make very shallow 

 piles, or, better, place on trays. They will then ripen up 

 well. The fruits are picked when full grown but not ripe, 

 and when the stem separates readily from the fruit-spur if 

 the pear is lifted up. All pears are better for being pre- 

 maturely picked in this way. Winter pears are stored iji 

 the same manner as winter apples. 



Quinces are kept in the same way as winter apples and winter 

 pears. Some varieties, particularly the Champion, may be 

 kept until after New Year's in a good cellar. 



Roots of all sorts, as beets, carrots, salsify, parsnips, can be 

 kept from wilting by packing them in damp sphagnum 

 moss, like that used by nurserymen. They may also be 

 packed in sand. It is an erroneous notion that parsnips 

 and salsify are not good until after they are frozen. 



Squashes should be stored in a dry room in which the tempe*^- 



