488 MANUAL OF GARDENING 



Nutmeg melon are popular varieties. One ounce of seed will plant 

 about fifty hills. 



Okra. — A plant of the cotton family, from the green pods of which 

 is made the well-known gumbo soup of the South, where the plant is 

 more extensively grown than in the North. The pods are also used in 

 their green state for stews, and are dried and used in winter, when they 

 are nutritious, and form no little part of the diet in certain sections of 

 the country. 



The seeds are very sensitive to cold and moisture, and should not 

 be sown until the ground has become warm — the last week in May or 

 the first of June being early enough in New York. The seed should be 

 sown in a drill 1 inch deep, the plants thinned to stand 12 inches 

 in the row. Give the same culture as for corn. One ounce will sow 

 40 feet of drill. Dwarf varieties are best for the North. Green 

 Density and Velvet are leading varieties. 



Onion. — A few onions, of one kind or another, give character to 

 every good kitchen-garden. They are grown from seeds (" black 

 seed ") for the main crop. They are also grown from sets (which are 

 very small onions, arrested in their development) ; from " tops " 

 (which are bulblets produced in the place of flowers) ; and from multi- 

 pliers or potato onions, which are compound bulbs. 



The extremely early crop of onions is grown from sets, and the late 

 or fall crop is grown from seed sown in April or early May. The sets 

 may be saved from the crop harvested the previous fall, saving no bulbs 

 measuring over three-fourths of an inch in diameter, or, better, they 

 may be purchased from the seedsman. These sets should be planted as 

 early as possible in the spring, preferably on land that has been manured 

 and trenched in the fall. Plant in rows 12 inches apart, the sets 

 being 2 or 3 inches in the row. Push the sets well down into the 

 ground and cover with soil, firming them with the feet or a roller. In 

 cultivating, the soil should be thrown towards the tops, as the white 

 stems are usually sought as an indication of mildness. The crop will 

 be in condition to use in three to four weeks, and may be made to last 

 until small seed onions are to be had. Tops or multipliers may also be 

 used for the early crop. 



