KITCHEN T -GARDEN PLANTS, CHAP. 



July, and then the stalks should be cut off, and, when 

 quite dry, the seed threshed out, and put by for use. 



165. NASTURTIUM. An annual plant, with a half- 

 red half-yellow flower, which has an offensive smell ; but 

 it bears a seed enveloped in a fleshy pod, and that pod, 

 taken before the seed becomes ripe, is used as a thing to 

 pickle. The seed should be sowed very early in the 

 spring. The plants should have pretty long bushy sticks 

 put to them ; and four or five of them will bear a great 

 quantity of pods. They will grow in almost any ground j 

 but, the better the ground the fewer of them are necessary. 



166. ONION. This is one of the main vegetables. 

 Its uses are many, and they are all well known. The 

 modes of cultivation for crop are various. Three I shall 

 mention, and by either a good crop may be raised. Sow 

 early in March. Let the ground be rich, but not from 

 fresh dung. Make the ground very fine -, make the rows 

 a foot apart, and scatter the seed thinly along a drill two 

 inches deep. Then fill in the drills -, and then press the 

 earth down upon the seed by treading the ground all over. 

 Then give the ground a very slight smoothing over with a 

 rake. When the plants get to be three inches high, thin 

 them to four inches, or to eight inches, if you wish to 

 have very large onions. Keep the ground clear of weeds 

 by hoeing ; but, do not hoe deep, nor raise earth about the 

 plants; for these make them run to neck and not to 

 bulb. When the tips of the leaves begin to be brown, 

 bend down the necks, so that the leaves lie flat with the 

 ground. When the leaves are nearly dead, pull up the 

 onions, and lay them to dry, in order to be put away for 



