158 On the Management of the Onion. 



produce nearly the effect of one in Spain or Portugal, and 

 the Onion assumes nearly the form and size of those thence 

 imported. 



Seeds of the Spanish or Portugal Onion are sown at the 

 usual period in the spring, very thickly, and in poor soil ; 

 generally under the shade of a fruit tree ; and in such situ- 

 ations the bulbs, in the autumn, are rarely found much to 

 exceed the size of a large pea. These are then taken from 

 the ground, and preserved till the succeeding spring, when 

 they are planted at equal distances from each other, and 

 they afford plants which differ from those raised immediately 

 from seed, only in possessing much greater strength and 

 vigour, owing to the quantity of previously generated sap 

 being much greater in the bulb, than in the seed. The bulbs, 

 thus raised, often exceed considerably five inches in diameter, 

 and being more mature, they are with more certainty pre- 

 served, in a state of perfect soundness, through the winter 

 than those raised from seed in a single season. The same 

 effects are, in some measure, produced by sowing the seeds 

 in August, as is often done ; but the crops often perish during 

 the winter, and the ground becomes compressed and sad- 

 dened (to use an antiquated term) by the winter rains ; and 

 I have in consequence always found that any given weight of 

 this plant may be obtained, with less expense to the grower, 

 by the mode of culture I recommend, than by any other 

 which I have seen practised. 



