248 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
appear ; be careful always not to break tlie necks of the plants, or 
loosen their roots. Grive them frequent heavy waterings with sew- 
age, 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 bed carefully, to bend the stems down on the bed, at about two 
inches from the ground : this helps to swell the bulb and promote 
perfect ripening. 
Exhibition Onions are grown in two ways : the one occasioning 
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, uumanured ground, about the middle or last 
week of 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 plant- 
ing, the bulbs are placed on the surface, and a handful of,^rich soil is 
put around each to hold it in position, 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. 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 onions may be grown in English 
gardens equal to the best of those that are imported from Lisbon 
and Madrid, and sold in the grocers’ shops under the general desig- 
nation of “ Spanish onions.” 
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 notliiug can equal. in appearance the 
silver-skin race, of which the Wocera is the best variety. 
Hakvesting 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 ofi'-hand way, many will 
