IV.] 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 



151 



inches distance ; and leave the onions to grow thus, 

 in clumps ; and this is not a bad way ; for, they 

 will squeeze each other out. They will not be large; 

 but, they will be ripe earlier^ and will not run to 

 neck. — The third mode of cultivation is as follows : 

 sow the onions any time between April and the 

 middle of June, in drills six inches apart, and put 

 the seed very thick along the drills. Let all the 

 plants stand, and they will get to be about as big 

 round as the top of your little finger. Then the 

 leaves will get yellow, and, when that is the case, 

 pull up the onions and lay them on a board, till the 

 sun have withered up the leaves. Then take these 

 diminutive onions, put them in a bag, and hang them 

 up in a dry place till spring. As soon as the frost 

 is gone, and the ground dry, plant out these onions 

 in good and fine ground, in rows a foot apart. 

 Make, not drills^ but little marks along the ground; 

 and put the onions at six or eight inches apart. Do 

 not cover them with the earth ; but just press them 

 down upon the mark with your thumb and fore- 

 finger. The ground ought to be trodden and slight- 

 ly raked again before you make the marks ; for no 

 earth should rise up, about the plants. — Proceed 

 after this as with sown onions; only observe, that, 

 if any should be running up to seedy you must 

 twist down the neck as soon as you perceive it. 

 But, observe this : the shorter the time that these 

 onions have been in the ground the year before, the 

 less likely will they he to run to seed, — Preserving 

 onions is an easy matter. Frost never hurts them, 

 unless -you move them during the time that they are 

 frozen. Any dry, airy place, will, therefore, do. 

 They should not- be kept in a warm place ; for they 

 willAea^ and grow. The neatesi, way is to tie them 

 up in ropes ; that is to say, to tie them round sticks, 



