660 



ALLIACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



Fig. 381. The Fig. 382. The small- 

 sickle-hoe, drill hoe. 



onions of considerable size, and being much stronger flavoured than those of 

 any other variety, they go farther in cookery. 



1463. Propagation and Culture. — All the kinds, except the last two, are 

 propagated by seeds, of which two ounces will be requisite for a bed 4 feet 

 by 24 feet, to be drawn young ; or one ounce for a bed 5 feet by 24 feet, to 

 remain till they are full grown. The seed will come up in about a fort- 

 night. The soil in which the onion succeeds best is a strong loam well 

 enriched with manure, which may be of the strongest kmd, such as bullocks' 

 blood, night soil, powdered bones, &c. previously rotted. It should be well 

 pulverised to a considerable depth. Where the soil is not apt to produce 

 annual weeds, the best mode is to sow broadcast, because less labour is 

 required in thinning ; but in the case of soils abounding with the seeds of 

 weeds, it is better to sow- in drills, 9 inches apart for the smaller kinds, and 

 a foot for such as are larger : the plants to be thinned out when 3 inches 

 high to 4 inches, 6 inches or 8 inches, according to the kind, or w-hether 

 onions of large or moderate size are washed for. To produce small onions 



for pickling, the silver-skinned variety, or the 

 Nocera, should be sown thick, or very thick, 

 according to the size wanted ; and to produce 

 very large onions, the Tripoli ought to be sown 

 thin, and the soil stirred once or twice during 

 the summer, care being taken, in this and in 

 every other case of stming the soil among 

 onions, not to earth up the incipient bulb, that being found to impede its 

 swelling. Liquid manure may be freely applied. The time for sowing a 

 main crop, to produce bulbs for keeping through the winter, is the beginning 

 or middle of March ; and great care is requisite not to cover the seed more 

 than an inch, and to press the soil on it firmly by treading or rolling. Thin- 

 ning and hoeing-up weeds should be performed with a 2 inch hoe (394), and 

 the soil may be stirred with the Spanish hoe, fig. 21, in p. 132 ; or, if the 

 plants are very close, with the sickle hoe, fig. 381. When the seeds are to 

 be sown in drills, these may be made either singly with the drill-hoe, fig. 

 882, or in three or four at a time, by the drill-rake, fig. 383. The teeth of 



this rake, like the head, are of w-ood ; the 

 latter being pierced with holes an inch 

 apart, so that the teeth, which are to form 

 the drills, may be fixed at any convenient 

 distance. Market-gardeners sometimes, 

 instead of distributing the seed along the 

 di'ill, drop four or five seeds together at 

 every six or eight inches distant, giving no 

 thinning afterwards, but leavmg the plants to press against and push aside 

 one another. This saves the labour of thinning ; and if the soil is kept 

 well stirred between the rows, a considerable bulk of crop will be produced, 

 though the onions will be very irregular in point of size. 



1464. An autumn and winter crop of onions, for being drawn as wanted 

 for salads and soups, is procured by sowing about the middle of August the 

 Strasburgh, or globe. These will be fit for use by Michaelmas, and will 

 afford supplies through the winter, and in early sprmg till the March-sown 

 crop for drawing comes into use ; or till thinnings can be obtained from the 

 main crop. Formerly the Welch onion was sown to stand through the win- 



Fig. 383. The drill-rake 



