tiie amateur’s kitchen garden. 
113 
are just covered. Keep them clear of weeds, and before they 
come into flower provide them with rails attached to posts, 
to which tie them to prevent their destruction by storms. 
Stout tarred string will answer, but rails are better if the 
heads are large. Cut the heads as soon as they become 
brownish, and lay them on cloths in the sun to finish. Our 
mode of saving onion seed is to lay some large bell-glasses 
hollow side upwards on a stage of a sunny greenhouse, and as 
the heads are cut they are thrown in. In the course of a few 
days the seed is found clean and ripe at the bottom, having 
shelled itself out without giving a moment’s trouble. Nine- 
tenths of all the small seeds grown may be saved in this 
simple manner. The books say, “ it is of the utmost conse- 
quence to employ seed of not more than one year old, other- 
wise scarcely one in fifty will vegetate.” This is nonsense, 
for we have oftentimes obtained as fine crops from seed four 
years old as from that of the previous year. However, we do 
not recommend old seed, for it is generally agreed that onion 
seed should not be kept any great length of time, and things 
commonly agreed on are usually founded on observation and 
experience. 
The Selection oe Varieties must be determined by the 
requirements of the cultivator. For a good crop of spring sown 
onions any of the race of White Spanish , such as Heading , or 
Nuneham Park, will answer every purpose, and as they keep 
well and look well, they are among the best of market onions. 
For autumn sowing, the Tripoli or Strasburgh sections are the 
best ; and, perhaps, the very best two sorts amongst them are 
White Tripoli and Giant Bocca. If particularly large onions 
are required, sow Giant Lisbon, both in the open ground and 
in a frame in August or September, and plant out in March, 
in a bed of rotten stable manure six inches deep, made on a 
bottom of hard soil. None of the Madeira or Portugal race 
keep long, and therefore there should be no more grown than 
are likely to be required for autumn and earty winter use. 
Amongst the late-keeping sorts, James’s P ear-shaped is con- 
sidered the best. A true sample of this variety should be tall, 
and broader at the shoulders than at the base, somewhat of 
the shape of the great oil-jars which figure in the story of 
“ Ali Baba ; or the Forty Thieves.” A fine onion for main 
crop is Trebons, which may be known by its appearing as if 
pinched by finger and thumb near the root. The Welsh 
