April 8, 1893. 
499 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
spring are ready, and also for drawing young to use 
for salading. The ground should be prepared as be¬ 
fore directed except that the drills should be drawn 
deeper to prevent the frost lifting the young plants 
out of the ground during the winter. The seed 
should be sown in the beginning of August and a 
warm site should be chosen for the bed. Treading 
or beating the ground must be resorted to at this 
time of the year whether the soil be light or heavy, 
as being dry it cannot be made too firm. If the 
weather be exceptionally dry, watering will be found 
necessary to enable the seeds to germinate. The 
plants should remain in the bed till the end of Feb¬ 
ruary or the beginning of March, according to the 
state of the weather, when they should be trans-. 
planted to a bed of good rich soil. In transplanting 
the roots should be preserved as much as possible. 
In May and June the bulbs will be growing freely, 
and probably some will be inclined to “ bolt ” or run 
to seed, but if the tops are laid over it will check 
them from running to seed to a great extent. When 
laying over the tops care should be taken -not to 
break them off at the neck, which is generally 
brittle at this period, and if the finger is held directly 
under the stem, and the stem pressed down gently 
with the thumb, they will not so readily snap off. 
This process is of great practical utility in the culti¬ 
vation of Onions, as the growth of the stem is 
checked, to the great benefit of the bulbs. As the 
autumn sown Onions do not keep long only a suffi¬ 
cient number should be planted to meet the demands 
of the kitchen until the spring sown bulbs are fit for 
use. Varieties suitable for autumn sowing are the 
Tripoli or Giant Rocca, White Lisbon, Ailsa Crag, 
and Rousham Park Hero. 
Cultivation for Exhibition. 
In growing Onions for exhibition it is necessary in 
the first place to select varieties that grow to a large 
size, such as Rousham Park Hero, Anglo White 
Spanish, Ailsa Crag, Improved Wroxton, Suttons’ 
Ai, etc. The seed should either be sown in the 
Autumn, and transplanted as advised for Autumn- 
sown Onions; or they maybe sown in January, in 
boxes or pans, and placed in a moderate heat till they 
are up, when they should be pricked off in boxes, and 
gradually hardened off till they are large enough to 
plant out of doors. They should be planted on abed of 
very rich soil that has been previously dressed with 
cow or pig manure. Small trenches should be made_ 
and the roots carefully placed in them, leaving the 
plant above the surface of the soil. 
Frequent waterings of liquid manure and soot 
water should be given them when they are growing 
freely, or a slight sprinkling of artificial manure, such 
as Clays' Fertilizer or Guano, may be used where 
liquid manure is not obtainable. The Guano or 
Fertilizer should either be used in showery weather, 
or be watered in. Frequent attention will be neces¬ 
sary in bending over the tops, until they commence 
to turn yellow and die away, when the bulbs should 
be pulled up and ripened thoroughly, taking care not 
to bruise them in any way. They should then be 
stored in a dry, airy shed, laying them out singly till 
required for exhibition. 
Cultivation for Pickling. 
The chief object in producing Onions for pickling is 
to have them small, therefore they should be sown 
on poor soil that has not been manured. The seed 
may be sown during March or April, either in drills 
6 in. apart or broadcast, and for this purpose they 
should be sown pretty thickly. Thinning will not 
be necessary, simply keeping the bed free from 
weeds is all the attention required till they begin to 
die down, when they should be pulled up and 
ripened the same as the others, they will then be in a 
fit condition for pickling at any time. The varieties 
most suitable for pickling are the Silver Skinned, so 
called on account of the flesh being white streaked 
with fine green lines extending from the base to the 
neck. The Queen is one of the best varieties of the 
Silver skinned type remarkable for its rapid growth 
and ripening before any other sort. There is also a 
variety called Two-bladed on account of its only 
producing two blades or leaves; it is small, early, 
and useful. 
On Storing. 
Where Onions are required all the year round 
storing is of the utmost importance, and for this 
reason all varieties should be kept separate, as keep¬ 
ing quality is a variable quantity. A cool dry shed 
or loft, from which frost is merely excluded, is an 
excellent place for storing them. It is a good plan 
with late keeping varieties to string them up and 
suspend them to the rafters in the middle of the 
room. All varieties that do not keep long should be 
used first, and these may be laid on the floor or on 
racks two or three bulbs thick. 
Insects. 
Anthomyia Phorbia ceparium, or Onion Fly, as 
it is most commonly called, is at times most in¬ 
jurious to the crops. I have seen whole beds of 
them rendered comparatively useless where the fly 
has been allowed to go unchecked. Therefore at the 
first sign of this insect appearing stringent measures 
must be taken to destroy it. The flies are not unlike 
common house flies in general appearance, but 
rather smaller. They emerge in early summer from 
the pupae, which have, remained underground all 
winter. The female generally lays her eggs five or 
six in number on the leaves just above the soil, and 
from these emerge larva?, which bore downwards into 
the bulb. When full grown they burrow into the 
soil, and there become changed into pupae The 
entire development occupies from, four to six weeks, 
so that several broods may appear during the 
summer. It is necessary to prevent the appearance 
of the fly if possible. Deep trenching of the soil in 
order to bury the pupae is a good practice ; also 
changing the situation of the crop and sowing as far 
away from where the preceding year’s crop was sown 
is another remedy. Dressing the ground with soot 
is a capital preventative, especially if done when the 
crop is sown. Should the fly obtain a footing, it is 
easily detected by the leaves turning yellow. All 
the affected bulbs should be pulled tip and burnt, and 
the bed receive a good dressing of soot, or diluted 
paraffin oil may be used, say a wineglassful to two 
gallons of water. This will check the fly and save 
some of the bulbs. — Garlic. 
--—J-- 
COVENT GARDEN AT 
EASTER. 
11 No, it is practically impossible to give any 
statistics as to the flowers which go through Covent 
Garden at Easter, or any other time,” began Mr. J. 
Assbee, the superintendent of the market, in reply to 
a representative of the Daily Graphic who asked him 
a question on the subject. “ You see,” he continued, 
" we simply let the flower stands to the holders at so 
much a year, and then they do as much business as 
they please.” 
The Harvest of the South West. 
*' Is Easter always a busy time? ” 
‘‘Yes, for it is the opening of the flower season, 
though the height is not reached until Whitsuntide, 
when flowers are sent in in the greatest abundance, 
but this year sees the market unusually well supplied 
for church decoration purposes. It has, of course, 
been an exceptionally favourable season for all the 
outdoor flowers for one reason, but, perhaps, the real 
explanation lies in the fact that we are only just 
beginning to obtain the full benefits of the enormous 
activity which has been shown in Narcissus growing 
in Jersey, the Scilly Isles, and Cornwall. Acres and 
acres have been devoted to the culture of these 
flowers in various varieties, but even though lavishly 
planted, it must of necessity be some years before 
flowers could be cut freely from them. These 
immense gardens are now coming into their full 
bearing strength, while through them we obtain such 
flowers a fortnight earlier than the growers nearer 
home can supply us.” 
11 But has not that seriously affected the smaller 
gardens round London ? ” 
‘‘Not nearly so badly as you would imagine. 
These are the flowers which the general buyer who 
has not much money to spare will buy, and it is pro¬ 
bably some days before he or she realises that they 
have ' come in.' They are to be seen soon on all 
hands, and so the taste for them is encouraged, and 
people go on purchasing them longer than they would 
do were they not plentiful and popular.” 
Primroses, Narcissi, and Arums. 
“ What about Primroses? ” 
“ They are very good this year, for there has been 
no heavy rain to damage them. They come chiefly 
from the southern counties.” 
“ Whence does the market obtain its chief supplies 
of the choicer flowers? ” 
“ Almost entirely within a radius of twenty miles. 
The Genistas, the Heaths, and the stove plants 
almost all come from growers who live in certain 
well-defined districts, as for example the Tottenham 
district, the Enfield district, or the Twickenham dis¬ 
trict. For delicate growing flowers of that descrip¬ 
tion, it is a great advantage to be able to send them 
in direct by covered vans, as they do not suffer in 
appearance before they reach the purchaser. But 
now there are large hothouses in the neighbourhood 
of Farnborough and Aldershot, and in time, no 
doubt, we shall receive them from still greater dis¬ 
tances.” 
“ Arums, I notice, are cheap this year.” 
"Yes; that is because they are very easily culti¬ 
vated, and in careful hands the plants bloom very 
freely. When they were sold wholesale at nine or 
ten shillings a dozen many saw that they might be 
made a highly profitable industry, and now, like the 
Narcissus, they are almost superabundant. Flowers 
that a few years ago would have fetched the sum I 
have named hardly bring more, now, than half-a- 
crown a dozen. On the other hand the other im¬ 
portant flower of Eastertide, the Eucharis, maintains 
its price, though the supply is fair, because it requires 
great heat and infinite attention in growth. Roses 
are coming in from the Riviera in good quality and 
great abundance, and I think they are likely to form 
an unusually important feature of this year's decora¬ 
tions.” 
Foliage in Fashion. 
“ So far as you can judge, is there any new fashion 
coming into the decorations ? ” 
“ Undoubtedly; foliage will be more extensively 
employed, partly because it lasts longer itself and 
helps the flowers to last longer, and partly because 
people are awakening to its great beauties and possi¬ 
bilities. All sorts of small fronds, of variegated 
leaves, the tips of the Hawthorn when first bronzed 
by passing frost, the red and brown ground Ivy, and 
every trailing plant, are eagerly sought, while Grasses 
are among the most useful adjuncts of fashionable 
floral arrangements.” 
“ The really keen business of the Easter flower 
market is done, is it not, between six and eight 
o’clock on Saturday morning ? ” 
“ Well, that is when enthusiastic church decorators 
come down in order to secure some of the choicest 
of the flowers, but you see that is one of the days of 
the year on which ordinary dealers are least disposed 
to buy or to pay anything beyond average prices. 
They know what their regular customers will require, 
and are not at-all inclined to buy speculatively when 
no business will be done on Bank Holiday, and they 
can find a fresh supply here on resuming work on 
Tuesday. Our amateur visitors therefore do not 
' demoralise the trade ’ as much as superficial obser¬ 
vations on the subject might make one think, and 
they really derive little advantage that their own 
florist could not have secured for them. But the 
flower market is always a bustling and a crowded 
scene early, and no doubt they enjoy seeing it as 
well as taking a part in it.” 
T omatos. 
As the forward batch in pots grow, keep them 
securely staked and all the side shoots well pinched 
off, give them as much air to set the fruit as possible. 
Do not allow those for planting out either indoors or 
outdoors to become pot-bound, or they will soon get 
yellow, and never be such good plants afterwards. 
Potatos. 
It is time now to plant the main crop of Potatos. 
As a rule, highly cultivated kitchen gardens are not 
the best places in which to grow Potatos that will 
cook well, and except in the case of the early ones it 
is better if possible to grow them in the fields. But 
where this is not possible, select that part of the 
garden that is of a light nature, and not too heavily 
manured. Snowdrop is a great favourite with us, as 
it both crops and cooks well, and keeps right on 
until the late spring in good condition It also keeps 
fairly clear of disease. 
General Work. 
The weather during March was everything that 
could be desired for kitchen garden work, but now 
we are in need of rain, and it is to be hoped we may 
get some before these notes are in print. Cauli¬ 
flowers in frames and pots must have all the air 
possible, only shutting them up to keep off frost, of 
which we have had so much the past three weeks. 
For early planting some Vegetable Marrow seed 
should be sown at once siDgly in small pots, to be 
potted on as soon as large enough ; keep the surface 
of the soil well hoed among the autumn-planted 
Cabbages, and all growing crops.— G. H. S. 
