CULTURE OF THE ONION, 



203 



any succeecilni^ liour, descending a division at each. F is 

 the ring hy which the instrument is suspended ; and G is a 

 hole, in which the key on the pulley E is placed, when the 

 watch is removed, and the instrument out qf use. 



IX. 



On tfiT Management of the Onion, By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq. F. R. S., Sfc* 



T, 



HE first object of the Horticultural Society being to Culture of xise» 

 point out improvements in the culture of those plants, ^"jp'ants a 

 which are extensively useful to the public, I send a few 

 remarks on the managem<ent of one of these, the onion ; 

 which both constitutes one of the humble luxuries of the 

 poor, and finds its way in various forms to the tables of the 

 affluent and luxurious. 



Every bulbous rooted plant, and indeed every plant Growth of 

 vhich produces leaves, and lives longer than pneyear, gene- bulbs, 

 rales, in one season, the sap, or vegetable blood, v/hich 

 (composes the leaves and roots of the succeediug spring; 

 and when the sap has accumulated during one oT more 

 seasons, it is ultimately expended in the production of blos- 

 soms and seeds. This reserved sap is deposited in, and 

 composes in a great measure, the bulb; and moreover the 

 quantity accumulated, as well as the period required for 

 its accumulation, varies greatly in the same species of plant, 

 under more or less favourable circumstances. Thus the ji^^^ 

 onion in the south of Europe acquires a much larger size 

 during the long and warm summers of Spain and Portugal, 

 in a single season, than in the colder climate of England; 

 but under the following mode of culture, which I have 

 long practised, two summers in England produce nearly 

 ihe effect of one in Spain or Portugal, and the onion as- 

 sumes nearly the form and size of those thence imported, 



* Trans, of the Horticpltuul Spciety, vol. I, p. 157. 



Seed? 



