VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 385 



getker. From two to live hundred bushels per acre is 

 the usual crop. 



For Seed. — Select the largest aud finest bulbs and plaut 

 out in the fall about twelve iuches apart, in beds of com- 

 mon garden soil, not too rich. Keep them free from weeds; 

 and when they throw up seed stalks support them by 

 poles laid horizontally on stakes, six or eight iuches above 

 the surface of the beds. Home-grown seed from good 

 bulbs is as good as the best imported. It will keep three 

 years, but the fresh grown seeds are preferable. Onion 

 buttous are grown in the same manner upon the Top 

 Onion. 



Use. — Onions are among the most useful products of the 

 garden. They are used especially as a flavoring ingredient 

 and seasoning for soups, meats, and sauces; for which 

 purpose they have been employed from time immemorial. 

 They contain considerable nutriment, and are tolerably 

 wholesome, especially if boiled. Onions, like (/// other 

 vegetables, need to be slightly salted while cooking, or their 

 sweetness will be mostly lost. Raw, they are not very 

 digestible, and they are the same if fried or roasted. Eat- 

 ing a few leaves of parsley will destroy in a measure the 

 unpleasant smell they impart to the breath. 



Marketing. — The early crop should be gathered in 

 March, tied five or more in a bunch, and packed in crates. 

 With this early green crop the tops are left on, but with 

 the later dried onions the tops are cut off before packing. 



ORACH.— (A triplex Hortensi*. ) 



A hardy annual, of the same natural family as the beet 

 and Jerusalem oak (Chenopodiaceoe), a native of Tartary, 

 and first cultivated by English gardeners in 1548. The 

 stem rises three or four feet high, with oblong, variously 

 shaped leaves, cut at the edges, thick, pale green, 

 and glaucous, and of slightly acid flavor; flowers of 

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