48 ONION-RAISING. 



daily, until thoroughly dried, when the "seed is ready to be 

 threshed out. It may be stored in barrels in a dry loft, and 

 threshed as wanted. If the seed is plump, and has been well 

 ripened, the frequent turning of the stalks will have shaken 

 out by far the larger proportion of it, — in some seasons 

 more than five-sixths. To clear the seed, winnow it. If 

 the seed are light, it will be best to sink it in water, pouring 

 off all that floats. After it has been very thoroughly dried, 

 it will need to be winnowed, and probably more or Ices 

 hand-picked, to remove hulls and stones. 



As the seed-stalks make but little shade, the ground 

 between the rows can be cultivated to spinach, lettuce, 

 radishes, turnips, or some early vegetables, but this will make 

 the hilling of the seed more costly ; and, when these are 

 harvested, the ground may be planted to cucumbers for 

 pickles. The planting between the rows should be confined 

 to the middle, and in trenches an inch or so below the sur- 

 face, unless it be made after the onions have received their 

 final hoeing ; otherwise the drawing of the earth around the 

 seed-stalks will seriously interfere with these crops. 



Strange as it may seem to those who have not tried it, 

 such rampant growers as squashes can be raised among 

 seed-onions, and generally with no material injury to the 

 seed. I have known five tons of Hubbard squashes grown 

 on about half an acre of ground planted to seed-onions. 

 The squashes should be planted towards the close of May, 

 after the onions have received their final hilling, two or three 

 seeds being planted close to every other row, and about nine 

 feet apart in the row : allow but one plant to grow in a hill.^ 

 The vines, thus having plenty of room between the rows to 

 spread about, do not incline much to climbing on the seed- 

 stock. Care should be exercised to break off at once the 



