ONION 



457 



for spring-sown crops, as involving 

 less labour ; and as the bulbs, after 

 thinning, stand at regular distances 

 apart over the whole area, the pro- 

 duce per acre is considerably more 

 than when sown in beds or lines. 

 Seed sown in the autumn is, how- 

 ever, sometimes drilled on beds 4 or 



5 ft. wide, these being divided by 

 narrow alleys, which serve as walks 

 for labourers who weed the beds 

 and draw the crop as required for 

 market ; but this crop is also often 

 sown broadcast. 



Onion seed takes a long time 

 to germinate, but if the ground be 

 clean and well tilled, weeds will not 

 appear much sooner than the Onions, 

 or, at least, not so thickly as to 

 choke them. As soon as the Onions 

 have fairly come up, women or men 

 accustomed to Onion-cleaning are 

 set to work amongst them. These 

 operators are furnished with short- 

 handled 2|-inch wide hoes, with 

 which they hoe down the weeds and 

 thin the whole crop with wonder- 

 ful certainty and expedition. The 

 field is marked off into strips for 

 the guidance of the hoers, to each 

 one of whom there is a space of 



6 ft. given, so that were four cleaners 

 employed the strips would each be 

 24 ft. wide. People accustomed to 

 this work do not trample carelessly 

 about ; nor, indeed, can the crop be 

 materially damaged by doing so, for 

 the Onions that are thus prostrate 

 to-day are nearly erect to-morrow. 

 Each plantation is generally cleaned 

 by this means three times during 

 the season, the last cleaning being 

 made about the end of June or early 

 in July, and any large weeds that 

 appear after that time are pulled out 

 by the hand. Towards the end of 

 August or early in September the 

 Onions, being ripe, are harvested 

 when dry. Those that are green 

 and thick-necked are laid aside for 



immediate sale; but the firm and 

 sound bulbs, particularly of the 

 Deptford kind, are either cleaned 

 of any loose scaly skins and spread 

 out a few inches deep over the floor 

 of a loft, or tied into bunches and 

 strung in pairs over poles or pegs in 

 a loft or shed, so that they can be 

 marketed at any convenient season 

 during winter and spring. 



The profits on a good crop of 

 spring-sown Onions are remunera- 

 tive, although they vary in some 

 seasons. Sometimes as much as 

 ;£"45 per acre is made of them by 

 the grower, the purchaser being at 

 the expense of harvesting the crop. 

 At other times, however, ;^3o per 

 acre is considered a good price. 

 The Silver-skinned Onion, which is 

 grown largely for pickling, is sown 

 on good land, the • plants being left 

 as thickly as they come up, as the 

 closer they are together the sooner 

 they will cease growing in summer 

 and the better they will ripen their 

 bulbs. Good clean bulbs realise 

 from 8^. to los. per bushel in the 

 market. The autumn sowing of 

 Onions is made on ground cleared 

 of Cauliflowers, Cabbages, or other 

 early crops, in the end of July 

 for drawing in a young state from 

 September onwards, but the main 

 sowing is not made till about the 

 middle of August. The autumn 

 sowings are, as a rule, made in beds 

 about 5 ft. wide, and the seeds are 

 covered deeper than those of the 

 spring sowings. They are not often 

 made broadcast on fields, as they 

 must be weeded, not hoed, in 

 the process of cleaning ; the hoeing 

 would thin them too much. As 

 they are only required for drawing 

 when young they do not need to be 

 more than one-third of the distance 

 asunder required in the case of the 

 summer Onions. They are weeded 

 soon after they come up, and once, 



