THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Ill 
onions may be grown in English gardens equal to the best of 
those that are imported from Lisbon and Madrid. White 
Lisbon and Giant Tripoli are the best for this system. 
Pickling Onions should be small, and perfectly ripe. Sow- 
in April, on well-dug soil, without manure, and do not draw 
a single blade ; let the whole crop ripen as it stands, and the 
starving system will insure beautiful bulbs for pickling. The 
White Nocera is the best pickling onion save one, to which 
we shall presently refer, but White Spanish or White Globe 
may be sown instead, and they will answer nearly as well, 
though nothing can equal in appearance the silver-skin race, 
of which the Nocera is the best variety. 
Harvesting and Storing. — It is usual to wait until the 
whole crop is ripe, and then to draw the roots and lay 
them in the sun to finish. This is bad practice, for some 
roots ripen earlier than others, and if rainy weather sets in, 
they make fresh roots after having had a rest, and are then 
deteriorated beyond recovery. Amongst a bulk of onions 
treated in this off-hand way, many will begin to sprout before 
the winter is half gone ; whereas, by better management, the 
whole may be kept nearly the same length of time, this, of 
course, depending in a great measure on the keeping pro- 
perties of the variety. The proper way to harvest the crop 
is to draw the roots as fast as they- ripen, and lay them on 
mats or boards in the sun, and take them under cover at 
night and during wet weather. By this treatment every se- 
parate plant is humoured, and the trouble is no greater ; at 
all events, the more uniform and perfect ripening secured will 
more than compensate for any little extra labour occasioned. 
As they become thoroughly well dry and shrivelled at the 
neck, they may be put in nets, or bags, or wicker baskets, and 
temporarily stored in a dry shed in the full light, and on wet 
days they may be roped and hung to the rafters to supply the 
kitchen or market as required. A capital off-hand way of 
disposing of them is to tie them in convenient bunches and 
hang them in a shed, or even against a wall in the open air, 
under the eaves. By this rough method they keep well until 
April. 
It may happen that just as the crop is ripening, and should 
be lifted, dull rainy weather will set in. As to what is to be 
done in such case, each one must judge for himself, but a 
general advice may be given to this effect — that, as the crop 
