DESCRIPTION OF A PINE PIT. 
61 
lowing summer. The superiority of the onions of Portugal over 
those grown in England must, I apprehend, be attributed to the 
higher temperature enjoyed by the people of that country, as much 
as to their system of management, which, I do not doubt, is well 
suited to their climate. Irrigation, it is well known, is very gene¬ 
rally practiced in the culture of all kinds of vegetables both in Spain 
and Portugal, where, in consequence of the heat and dryness of the 
atmosphere, the practice is found to be highly beneficial if not abso¬ 
lutely essential. The water, I believe, is distributed over the grounds 
to the roots of the different plants by means of canals or trenches, 
but I have never understood that onions were any where always 
planted in deep drills, a mode of treatment, which, although it may 
succeed in Portugal, I am confident will never be generally adopted 
in this country. In a climate such as that of England, onions treat¬ 
ed in the manner described, instead of being improved in size and 
flavour, would be much more likely to perish from excess of mois¬ 
ture, their fibrous roots being liable to damp off, especially in cold 
and wet seasons, and on a retentive subsoil. I am satisfied, howe¬ 
ver, that in the warm and dry summers with which we are some¬ 
times favoured in this country, the growth of onions would be great¬ 
ly promoted by more copious waterings than are usually supplied; 
but I know no method in which these can be supplied as safely and 
at the same time as effectually, as from the rose of a watering pot, 
the ground being formed into beds in the common way. 
Cepa. 
October 6th, 1832. 
ARTICLE VI. 
DESCRIPTION OF A PINE PIT.— By Mr. Waldron. 
The annexed plan with the cost attending its erection, will, I think, 
be found worth the notice of your readers. The pit is thirty-one feet 
long and ten feet wide, it requires eighteen sashes, nine upper (a) and 
nine lower (b) each to be four feet nine inches long, made of the 
best red deal, top rails two inches thick, and two inches and a half 
wide, bottom ones one inch and a half thick and three inches wide; 
the bottom sashes (b) to be moveable, having small brass rollers at- 
