170 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



monious." Hence it would appear that the scientific 

 produce is not absolutely safe, but may in certain 

 cases be as dangerous as that which is gathered from 

 the stumps of old trees or from under a hedge. 



Onions Is the most precious crop of the garden, 

 and precious just because the highest cultivation is 

 requisite for the attainment of the highest produce ; 

 and more art being necessary, there are more failures, 

 which serve to enhance the price. It is needless to 

 attend to all the varieties of the onion. The culti- 

 vator who depends on new sorts is like the invalid 

 who is always changing his medicines, but who had 

 much better apply with more exactness the common 

 and well known rules of health. One sort of onion 

 differs far less from another than the degree of skill 

 in different hands or the degree of quality in differ- 

 ent soils. The best sort for keeping is the Stras- 

 burgh, and for a large crop the white Spanish : the 

 silver-skinned is beautiful, and the dwarf-grown of 

 that sort are the handsomest for pickles. The soil 

 cannot be too light, if it be rich with old manure, 

 incorporated by digging about the end of autumn. 

 It is of advantage in the course of the winter, after 

 the manure has become amalgamated with the soil, 

 to ridge up the earth like potato drills, which, by 

 pulverizing and drying, prepares for early sowing. 

 As the seed may be ill ripened, or mixed with 

 what is too old, it is of use to prove it, in order to 

 avoid blanks, which in drilled crops are never to be 

 tolerated, as well as to guard against sowing too 

 thick, which gives weakness to the plants, and much 

 trouble of thinning at a time when the ground ought 

 not to be touched. To try the vegetative powers of 



