95 
The Cultivation of Vegetables 
Onions for Exhibition. — To grow bulbs from 19 to 
21 in. in circumference requires a special method of culture, 
but the interest of watching, week by week, the progress 
made by the crop, and the very idea of being able to grow 
magnificent specimens, are incentives to work, and the fine 
results will amply repay the extra trouble entailed. 
The seeds should be sown very thinly in pots or boxes 
as early as possible in January, and placed in a gentle 
bottom heat in the greenhouse, or in a frame on a hotbed. 
The soil used should be made of 3 parts of sifted loam, 
1 part leaf soil, and ^ part of well-rotted horse manure, 
with a sprinkling of sand. When the plants have made 
about 1 in. of the second leaf, they should be pricked off— 
the soil recommended will allow the roots to come out 
freely. The tiny plants should then be put into boxes 
2 in. apart each way. In planting, care should be taken 
not to double up the roots. The hole should be made 
large enough with the dibber to allow the roots to go right 
down into it; then firm the soil well round the roots. They 
may again be placed in the warm frame or greenhouse 
until they begin to grow, when they should be gradually 
hardened off. By the beginning of April they should be 
able to stand without the glass, and from a week to a 
fortnight afterwards they should be planted out. 
The ground should be thoroughly trenched in autumn, 
putting in large quantities of manure, cow manure for pre- 
ference, and, if possible, a quantity of good loam. In 
spring a good dressing of soot and also bone meal may be 
given, the soil being again broken down and made very 
firm. The whole should then be raked over, and the 
onions planted in rows 15 to 18 in. apart, with a space 
