110 
THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
final distance for a good useful crop is three or four inches,, 
but on a rich soil they should be left at six inches apart, for 
they ripen better when they jostle each other, and to do 
onions well the ground towards the end of the season should 
be literally paved with them. Ply the hoe between whenever 
weeds appear ; be careful always not to break the necks of 
the plants, or loosen their roots. Give them frequent heavy 
waterings with sewage, if you can, while they are green and 
growing, but not a drop after they show a tendency to ripen. 
When the ripening season approaches, say the middle of July 
in a hot season, and the end of the month or later in a cold 
season, pass the handle of the hoe over the plants carefully, 
to bend the stems down on the bed ; this helps to swell the 
bulbs and promotes perfect ripening. 
Exhibition Onions are grown in two ways : the one oc- 
casioning much trouble, the other little ; and the last-named 
always very nearly, and sometimes quite, as good as the first. 
The seed is sown on well-pulverized, unmanured ground, about 
the middle or last week in May, in rows six inches apart. 
The crop is only moderately thinned, and of course is kept 
very clean with the hoe. In October the crop, consisting of 
bulbs the size of walnuts, is taken up, dried, and stored. 
Early in March the little bulbs are planted in rows a foot 
asunder, and six inches apart in the rows, on ground heavily 
manured ; and when the planting is finished, a coat of fine 
charrings is spread on the surface between the rows. In the 
process of planting, the bulbs are placed on the surface, and 
a handful of rich soil is put around each to hold it in posi- 
tion, this plan being preferable to inserting them in the soil, 
for the onion does not thrive when the neck is covered. The 
easier method is to prepare the ground by laying a good coat 
of fat manure at the bottom of the trench in digging the 
ground, and then to prepare the seed-bed in the usual way, 
and sow in rows, nine inches apart, the last week of August or 
first week of September. They are to be thinned several times, 
and to have a final thinning to nine inches apart in the month 
of April, after which they should be systematically watered 
with liquid manure until they begin to show an inclination to 
ripen, when the blade should be bent down, and not another 
drop of water given. This method of cultivation will pay in 
any garden, without reference to exhibiting or the possible 
profit of praises and prizes. By either of these two methods 
