112 
THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN^ 
is too valuable to be lost without a struggle, it would in such 
a case be prudent to take it up, and cut off the blades four 
inches above the neck, and put the whole of the bulbs in a 
cooling oven, with the door open, and repeat the process 
three or four times, at intervals of a day or two, to compel 
them to ripen. If it be asked what should be the temperature 
of the oven, we can safely give a wide range, for it must be 
above 60° and it may be below 100°, but an average of 80° 
may be considered the proper temperature. When onions are 
stored in dark houses, they should be on ropes, or very thinly 
spread on shelves. If the household demands large onions 
late in the spring, a sufficient number of large bulbs of late 
keeping sorts should be seared at the neck and the base with 
a hot iron, but it must not be so hot as to scorch the place it 
touches. 
Diseases and Insect Enemies. — We have never had on 
cur ground any serious disaster with the onion crop, and 
therefore, perhaps, cannot properly advise on the prevention 
■or cure of diseases, or the extermination of insects that at- 
tack the onion. Some years ago we prepared some seed-beds 
for onions on a plot of old garden ground we had just taken, 
and in respect of which we were informed that it abounded 
with every possible grub, worm, and fly that wages war with 
the gardener. When the beds were ready for sowing, we gave 
them a heavy watering with sulphuric acid diluted with thirty 
times its bulk of water, and sowed the seed the next day. 
The result was a wonderful crop of onions, but whether the 
acid killed the vermin or simply enriched the ground by act- 
ing on its stony constituents we never took pains to inquire. 
We have sometimes seen a grub or two, or rather have noticed 
the blade fall over here and there as though there was some- 
thing wrong, and have at once watered the crop with a solution 
of nitrate of soda, half-a-pound to the gallon, and that ap- 
peared to stop the plague. There is not a more certain or 
healthy plant grown than the onion, that is, of course, when 
it is grown properly. 
Seed may be raised easily, but the cottagers’ rule is the 
worst possible. Tie selects soft and half-spent bulbs, that are 
not good enough for roasting, and if they produce seed it is of 
poor quality, and will not produce handsome bulbs. At the 
end of February the finest bulbs obtainable should be planted 
in poor soil, a foot apart each way, and so deep that the necks. 
