GARDEN MANUAL FOR THE SOUTHERN STATES. 65 
Onions. 
For PRICE LIST SEE RED PAGES IN BACK OF BOOK. 
Ognon (Fr.), Zwiebel (Ger.), Cebolla (Sp.), Cipollo (Ital.) 
The cut on this page represents a well-grown Onion raised from Louisiana or Creole 
CULTURE. seed. The Onion is one of the most important vegetables planted 1n this section. 
Thousands of barrels are annually shipped from here tothe West and North. If sown at the proper time, 
with ordinary cultivation, they will always produce a crop and meet with ready sale. The seed 1s nota 
sure crop every year and some years it sells very high. 
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4 been 
Louisiana or Red Creole. 235, Pees 
here for a century—supposed to have been brought 
here first from the south of Europe, we presume the 
bulbs produced but few seeds. It is hard to say from 
what variety this Onion originated; having been 
planted here for so long it has become a distinct 
kind. Itis not as red asthe Wethersfield, and not 
as light as the Strassburg; in flavor itis similar to 
the two last named varieties, but much stronger than 
the Italian kinds. In this latitude the s-ed should 
be sown from the 15th of September to about the 
10th of October; if sown sooner, a good many will 
throw up seed stalks, which impairs the keeping 
quality of the Onion, We sow the seed broadcast, 
protect the seed beds by spreading green moss over 
them, which is removed every evening and replaced 
in the morning. Some gardeners use lataniers for 
covering the bed. When the seed is coming up, say 
in 7 or 9 days, the cover hasto be removed entirely; 
but if the weather is dry the watering has to be con- 
tinued. They thrive best in loamy soil. Can -be 
planted in the same ground for years, and require no 
rotation as other crops. When the plants have 
reached the size of a goose quill, they are trans- 
planted into rows which canbe from one to two feet 
apart, according to the mode of cultivation, and 
about five or six incies apart in the rows. The 
ground should be prepared before setting out the 
plants. We generally shorten the tops and roots. 
In April the Onion will be ready to be taken up. 
In sections where it is too cold to sow Onion seed 
in the fall, the Creole seed can be sown in January 
and February; in that case they should be sown very 
thinly in drills, thinned out toa proper stand, and 
by the end of spring they will producea good size 
Stowell’s Evergreen, a Standard Sugar Corn. 
