ox REARING KITCHEX VEGETABLES. 



61 



aud hang them in a shed to dry. If radishes are sown 

 broadcast over a piece of grouiid that has been planted 

 with potatoes, the crop ^vill be fit for use by the time the 

 potatoes are above the ground, and this is a very good 

 and economical plan. 



II.— STEMS. 



The plants cultivated in the kitchen garden for their 

 stems, are onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, chives, celery, 

 rhubai'b, and asparagus. 



1. — Onions. 



The Onion is more used for its flavour and stimulus 

 than for the nutriment it contains, consisting chiefly of 

 fibre, with a little starch, which renders it pulpy when 

 boiled, and not unwholesome, though it is not readily 

 digested by weaker stomachs. 



The proper soil is a rich loam, well manured the pre- 

 vious season, but no manure must be used unless it be 

 thoroughly rotted : the decayed manure from the bottoms 

 of old celery trenches is well adapted for this purpose. 

 An open exposed situation is indispensable. The time 

 for sowing is about the 20th of !March for a summer crop, 

 and about the middle of August and the middle of Sep- 

 tember, for a crop to stand through the winter, and to 

 be drawn and used in a green and young state in the 

 spring. 



For the summer crop, either red Strasburgh, or Dept- 

 ford, or globe, or straw-coloured, or the white Spanish or 

 James's are the best sorts ; and for pickling, the small 

 silver-skinned may be sown. For the winter crop, or an 

 early spring crop, the Welsh, is preferred. 



For a bed four feet broad, and twelve feet long, an 

 ounce of seed will be enough, when the plants Eire to be 

 drawn young ; when they are intended to mature them- 

 selves, half an ounce is sufhcient. 



Sow thinly broadcast on a finely dug and raked bed, or 

 in shallow drills, a foot apart, beating or treading the 

 seed well down, and covering it with two inches' depth of 

 .earth. It is much better to sow them in drills, as they 



