SHALLOTS. 
223 
or till a fork will pass through them with 
the same ease as in boiled potatoes. When 
properly boiled, they are dried and laid in 
a cloth . which is placed in a covered dish 
and sent to table. In this way they are con-' 
sidered as superior to cooked chestnuts, form- 
ing a palatable and wholesome article of food, 
and in a medical point of view being emi- 
nently soothing and conducive to the healthy 
action of the digestive functions. One advan- 
tage they possess as an article of cookery is, 
that they cannot be overdone. When boiled 
they may be pounded with sugar, when they 
serve as an excellent dessert. In Holland 
they are eaten with fresh butter at the second 
course. 
The best mode of cultivating them is to 
plant the tubers in April, in a good substan- 
tial rich soil, in rows a foot apart. They 
require little farther care or attention except 
an occasional weeding. Each tuber will pro- 
duce a plant. They may be taken up after 
summer, and stored away in pits to be used at 
convenience. They could certainly be left in 
the open ground, were it not that there they are 
very apt to be eaten by vermin ; and there- 
fore they had better be removed to some safe 
place. The seeds ripen in July or August, 
and may be sown the following spring for a 
fresh crop, but the quicker and more usual 
method of propagating or growing them is 
to plant the tubercles, as with potatoes. It 
has sometimes been urged that the roots are 
small, and not likely to compensate for the 
trouble of growing them ; but it should be 
remembered that those of the wild plants are 
of course very different from such as are cul- 
tivated. The same objection might, with as 
good show of reason, be raised to the cultiva- 
tion of several other things. The wild carrot, 
for instance, has not roots like the cultivated 
sorts ; the wild potato is a very different 
article from what is served at our tables ; and 
no two things can be more dissimilar in re- 
spectto size than theViola tricolor of our fields 
and by-ways, and the pansy, which attracts 
its crowd of admirers at all our floricultural 
exhibitions. As an economical article of food, 
the Lathyrus tuberosus is well deserving the 
attention of the cottager. Not only are the 
roots wholesome and nourishing, while they 
can be grown with little care or trouble, but the 
plant itself is eaten with avidity by cattle, and 
might be profitably grown as fodder. 
SHALLOTS. 
Few vegetables are more neglected in pri- 
vate families than shallots, few are more 
valuable, few more wholesome ; and none of 
the bulbous tribes yield a larger increase. It 
would be unprofitable to describe the various 
uses of the shallots. There is, however, no 
use to which the onion can be applied that the 
subject under notice may not be appropriated 
to with advantage. It is superior in flavour, 
much more potent in strength, keeps better, 
and as a pickle is infinitely superior to the best 
onion we can find. A few rows of this bulb 
will always yield from four to eight times its 
bulk in a season, and therefore retaining the 
same quantity for plants season after season, 
there would be abundant produce for use. 
There is no fancy in the flavour. It is not, 
like garlic, peculiar, and to anybody un- 
pleasant ; but so sure as an onion is accept- 
able, the shallot will be more so. It is true 
that if bulk be required, the onion affords it 
cheaper, but if flavour alone be regarded in 
compounding soups and made dishes, the shallot 
is far preferable. The cultivation is very simple. 
Dig your ground, and dress it with decayed 
nightsoil, if it can be had, if not, a good supply 
of rotten horsedung ; let it be well mixed with 
the soil. Procure strong bulbs, which have 
always a large portion of embryo offsets ; plant 
these, by dibbling one foot apart and four 
inches deep, in rows eighteen inches from each 
other ; when once planted, they require no 
further attention than keeping clear of weeds ; 
but when they come up, it does them gi-eat 
service to stir the surface of the soil. They 
give no further trouble than weeding until the 
leaves turn yellow and die down to the ground, 
when they are to be taken up. A small fork 
is the best instrument for this purpose. They 
may be thi'own together in a basket, and when 
all taken up, they should be placed in an out- 
house, or under cover, to dry. When perfectly 
dry — which drying is hastened by speading 
them out a little — they have to be cleared of 
the earth that is about them, and all the loose 
offsets should be taken off. Take for use those 
bulbs which are the most single and clear — 
that is, those which do not indicate the pre- 
sence of offsets by the bumps in the skin 
which encloses them ; and having secured these 
for consumption, lay the others and all the off- 
sets by in the seed-room. Towards the autumn, 
plant all the large ones as before, one foot 
apart, in ground previously prepared as di- 
rected, but not on the same spot as the last 
years' were grown on. Let the small offsets 
be planted six inches apart, or if there be any 
very small, draw a drill three inches deep, and 
place them at the bottom pretty close, say two 
or three inches apart, and cover them three 
inches with the stuff drawn out of the drill ; 
keep them clean, stir the surface, and in other 
respects treat them as before. When the 
leaves have died down, take them up, dry 
them, and clean them after they are sorted, 
as before, and the bulbs intended for planting 
have to wait their time in the seed-room. All 
