DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



ONION— Covent harden, Picking. 



Top, or Button. — Bulbs, round, a little flattened ; producing, instead of 

 seeds, a number of small bulbs or onions about the size of acorns, which serve 

 as a substitute for seed, in prop- 

 agation. These little bulbs are 

 called Top, or Button Onions, or 

 Onion Sets, and will produce a 

 large onion, maturing much ear- 

 lier than from the seed. 



Potato Onion. — Produces a 

 quantity of young bulbs on the 

 parent root, which should be 

 planted in rows, in April, three 

 inches deep, and six inches apart ; 

 the rows should be eighteen 

 inches apart. Keep them free from weeds, 

 and earth them up like potatoes, as they 

 continue to grow. 



English Multiplier. — This is es- 

 teemed by many as the best of bulbous 

 Onions. It is large-sized, of a mild, sweet, 

 sugary flavor ; very early, and a large pro- 

 ducer. The fruit is produced in clusters, 

 around the parent bulb, in large numbers, 

 and of good size, growing mostly on the 

 top of the ground. 



The Bottom Sets of Onions, which 

 are produced by sowing seed thickly, and 

 not thinning out, and in the fall pulled, and 

 re-set in the Spring, should not be con- ONION— Top Or Button. 



founded with the Top Onion or Top Onion Set, which is the little round bulb 

 glowing on the top of a stalk, which is planted out in the Spring, and produces 

 a large Onion, maturing much earlier than from the seed. In this locality, the 

 Top Onion Sets, or Button Onions, are used to the entire exclusion of the 

 Bottom Sets. 



Culture. — Onion Seed should be sown from the first of April to the mid- 

 dle of May, the earlier the better, provided the ground is dry enough to work 

 light and fine. After preparing the land by manuring heavily, and harrowing 

 and raking fine, draw drills fourteen inches apart, with a marking rake, and sow 

 at the rate of six pounds to the acre, if wanted for bunching, but for onions to 

 sell by the bushel, three pounds will be sufficient. The sowing is mostly done 

 by machines, which can be adjusted to sow any desired quantity to the acre. 

 If convenient, it is better to go over the ground with a light roller, immediately 

 after sowing. It is customary to weed them three times. At the first two, the 

 earth is drawn up a little to the plants, and at the third or last weeding, it 

 should be brushed clear away with the fingers, to give them an opportunity to 

 bottom entirely above ground. Onions are an exception to the theory of rota- 

 tion of crops. They succeed equally well any number of years on the same 

 ground, if kept highly enriched with hog dung, or fine yard manure, spread on 



