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 carly 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. 
