470 
or the floor of a viuery cleared of fruit. When 
the roots and tops are completely withered the 
greater portion of the latter should be taken off, 
and the bulbs may then be stored in a dry cool 
place. They keep very well in a loft above an open 
shed, secured, however, from frost by a covering 
of straw, and a lining of the same material round 
the walls. They also keep well strung together 
by their necks on a straw rope, and suspended 
THE GARDENER’S ASSISTANT. 
so as not to touch the walls of the place in . 
which they are stored. Onions have been known 
to keep well till late in the spring by storing 
them several feet thick in a cool ioft, without 
disturbing them till finally removed for use. 
Onions for Pickling.—W hite Spanish or Read- 
ing, Silver-skinned, Early Silver-skinned, and 
Nocera, are sorts specially recommended for 
this purpose; but the Silver-skinned varieties 
~ig. 1226.—An Onion Crop. 
are preferred for their finer appearance in pickle- 
jars and at table. As security against failure 
some of each of these may be sown in March. 
The ground should be rather poor than rich, 
and not manured. The seeds should be sown 
thickly, covered very slightly, and well rolled. 
Thinning is not required except where the 
plants have come up too close together. 
If seeds of Onions are sown in spring, the 
plants cultivated so as to attain a fair size, and 
taken up when mature and replanted in the 
following spring, they push fresh roots, flower, 
seed, and then die; but if sown in autumn, 
they will survive ordinary winters, and develop 
into large bulbs in the course of the following 
spring and summer. If an early sort be sown 
thickly in not very rich soil in the beginning of 
May, small bulbs will be matured sufficiently 
well to keep through the winter; and in conse- 
quence of having been sown late, and from 
being of small size, they will not be disposed 
to run to seed when replanted in spring, and 
their vegetation not taking that direction, the 
small bulbs become very large. It thus appears 
that very large Onions result from two seasons’ 
growth, as is the case when the small bulbs of 
one year’s growth are planted in the spring of 
the next, or when a growth made in autumn is 
continued in the following spring and summer. 
In Portugal, Onions do not require to be sown 
so early in the autumn as in Britain; but they 
are forwarded in a little heat in November and 
December, and thus make a considerable growth 
before the spring-sown Onions are above-ground. 
From having this advantage, they swell to a 
much larger size than those sown in March, and 
which have consequently a much shorter period 
of growth; for, whether sown in autumn, or 
