Queries and Ansiiiers. 627 



Such seems to bathe nature of the soil in which Mr. Whiddon planted his 

 asparagus and onions. I must acknowledge that, for the benefit of both 

 crops, I should have pursued a different plan from that followed by him. He 

 describes the ground as being remarkably hard after the whole was com- 

 pleted. If the above-quoted principles be true, Mr. Whiddon's practice 

 must be aberrant. 



He afterwards states that his crop was pulled up without attention being 

 paid to any particular time or form, and still his crop was sounder and 

 better than those of his neighbours. In this I think he must have been re- 

 markably fortunate. I have ever found that the sound quality of the onion 

 mainly depends upon the bulb being pulled up at the proper season, and 

 afterwards well dried and ripened in the open air : to do which properly, 

 much care and attention ought to be bestowed upon it. 



I cannot agree with Mr. Whiddon regarding the size of onions. I have 

 generally found those of the larger size preferred, as being milder, and better 

 in quality, than small ones. It is my employer's desire that I should, and 

 my ambition to, grow in his garden, fruits and vegetables of the largest size, 

 as well as of the best quality. The wishes of another personage in the 

 family must also be attended to by me. Our cook would scold and rate 

 me soundly, were I to supply her with small onions instead of large ones, 

 and might, perhaps, in her anger, throw them at my head, and call me a 

 saucy youngster, for giving her the trouble of peeling half a dozen small 

 onions, when one large one would have better answered the purpose. I 

 must confess that in my short experience I have seen many small onions 

 thrown into the pig-trough, but have never seen any large ones so wasted. 

 I have likewise experienced that the large onions are sure to be the first 

 picked out by the cook, if left to her discretion, and at the latter end of 

 the season none are to be found in her stores but the small and refuse. 

 I do not mean hereby to deny that small onions are useful in a family, 

 but it is my pride to show my master, and his visiters, that I can grow 

 large onions. 



Mr. Whiddon advises me to try as he has suggested, and says I shall 

 find an advantage in time. Mr. Whiddon acknowledges in his paper that 

 he is a young gardener : we are therefore both young gardeners. If his 

 mode be correct, I have uselessly expended much time and labour in my 

 vocation. Were I to have followed his plan of forming an asparagus bed 

 by digging it only one spade's depth, I should have saved myself much 

 labour, for I have always been simple enough to prepare my asparagus beds 

 by digging them at least three times that depth. He informs me that, for 

 the purpose of keeping his tenacious soil open, he used coal ashes with the 

 dung. I should have been simple enough to have searched the country 

 over for drift-sand for that purpose; having been taught that coal ashes are 

 injurious to the roots of vegetables. I wish his successor in the garden of 

 J. B. Praed, Esq., would inform me of the size to which the asparagus 

 heads on that bed grow ; because I would certainly adopt Mr. Whiddon's 

 mode if it succeeded, in consequence of its saving so much labour and 

 time. — J. Mitchell, jun., Gardener. Slapton, near Dartmouth, Devon, 

 June2Q. 1833. 



Art. VI. Queries mid Anstvers. 



The Accentuation of the Terms of Chemistry. (Vol. VIII. p. 735., 

 Vol. IX. p. 122. 500.) — Sir, When I solicited you, iri Vol. VIII. p. 735. 

 or some of your learned correspondents, to insert in this Magazine a 

 list of the chemical terms relating to horticulture, I ought, perhaps, to 

 have said, chemical terms more immediately connected with gardening, 

 and such a vocabulary as, but shorter than, that in the end of Ewing's 



s s 2 



