46 ONION-RAISING. 



but the only way to secure and keep the best and most reli- 

 able seed, is that first given. Poor onion-seed is always very 

 dear, indeed, as a present ; while first-class seed, at the high- 

 est price yet paid, is worth a long and careful seeking. I 

 was once shown a sample of the onions planted out to raise 

 one of the largest crops grown in California. They were 

 nothing more than small onions, known in the trade as 

 " picklers," and of a miserable, poor quaUty at that. I 

 would not be understood as stating that all the seed 

 raised in California is grown from such trash : I know the 

 facts of this crop only. A very large proportion of the 

 Danvers-onion seed now said in the United States is 

 raised in California, though it is often sold as Eastern- 

 grown. Onions raised from California-grown seed are not 

 considered to be as good keepers as those raised from seed 

 raised in the East. 



Seed-onions should be kept in a cool, dry place, spread to 

 about a foot in depth ; if kept in barrel (old lime-casks are 

 best), these should be left unheaded, and two or three pieces 

 should be chopped off near the bottom to admit a circula- 

 tioti of air. When kept by freezing, then with care they 

 may be planted out, even before the frost is out of them. 

 As early in the spring as the ground can be worked, they 

 should be set out in trenches (the onion, when covered in 

 trenches, will stand a heavy frost without injury), which 

 should be from three to four feet apart, and about four 

 inches below the surface, the land having first been heavily 

 manured. Some good seed-growers apply their manure 

 directly in the trench ; while others spread it broadcast, and 

 plough in. I prefer to plough in a liberal quantity, and then 

 use ashes, superphosphate of lime or guano, in the rows, 

 being careful to mix it very thoroughly with the soil. If the 



