764 



ADDENDUM 



The usual way is to use a very small stick or a pencil with which 

 to make holes a quarter of an inch deep and about half an inch 

 apart all over the surface of each box, dropping one seed into each, 

 covering them up and watering through a fine rose, then standing 

 in a frame close up to the glass and keeping close until the 

 seedlings appear. If the sun shines strongly it is advisable to 

 shade the boxes in order to prevent the soil becoming too dry. 

 Directly the seedlings appear, give all the light possible, and thus 

 encourage the plants to become stocky. During the time the 

 seeds are germinating get some other boxes filled in the same way 

 as above detailed, and when the seedling onions are, say, 4 in. high 

 lift each one carefully, so that none of the roots are injured, and 

 dibble them into the newly filled boxes 2 inches apart each way. 

 Return the boxes to the frame and keep close until the young 

 plnnts are growing freely, and when they have got a good root- 

 hold they may have plenty of air. Towards the end of April or 

 in the early days of May the plants, after having been well 

 hardened off, may be carefully lifted from the boxes with a hand- 

 fork or a trowel and planted out in rows 18 in. apart and 10 in. 

 apart in the rows. 



The ground in which these large exhibition bulbs are to be 

 grown should have been in the previous winter or in the early 

 spring trenched to a depth of from 24 in. to 30 in — as Onions are 

 very deep rooting — and had worked into it, not only well down, 

 but also near the surface, a good dressing of well-rotted manure, 

 choosing cow manure if the soil is inclined to be light. This 

 should have been done some few weeks before the time for 

 planting out the Onions comes, in order that the soil may settle 

 down. When the young plants are growing freely, and the 

 weather is dry, occasional doses of liquid manure are very 

 beneficial and help swell the bulbs. Nitrate of soda is also good, 

 but it should be given at the rate of no more than 2 lb. per rod, 

 as it is apt to encourage leafage and softness of the bulbs. Top 

 dressings of soot are very helpful, but such are in our opinion 

 better when worked into the soil when the ground is being 

 prepared. As was said above, Onions are very deep rooting in 

 well-trenched soil, and cases have been known where the roots 

 were found at a depth of 2 ft. In the case of Onions there is no 

 need to grow them in fresh quarters every year, in fact we know 

 of a gardener who never used to even dig the onion quarter, the 

 soil of which was very light. After the year's onion crop had 

 been harvested he used to procure from the home farm fresh cow 

 manure and lay it over the onion bed to a thickness of 6 in. 

 This was allowed to lie until the time came round in the following 

 spring for sowing, when the manure, from which all goodness had 

 been washed down into the soil, was raked off, the surface 



