Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/89

 crops of Onions from the same ground, it having had every season a supply of cow, hog, or barn-fowl manure. There are hundreds of acres grown in this vicinity for shipping to the southern market. The system pursued is to manure the ground heavily, with the best of dung. Dig or plow the ground early in Spring; level it well with the rake or harrow; then with the Beet rake draw drills about one and a half inch deep and about nine inches apart, leaving a space of about fifteen inches between every three drills, called an alley. Plant these drills with young Onions, about the size of Beans, and do not cover them. They will be green in a few days. Hoe frequently and keep clear of weeds. In June, dig the alleys and plant them with late Drumhead Cabbage and Savoys for a Winter crop, or large York for a Fall crop. The Onions will be ripe in July, when they are pulled and cleared off. The soil must then be dug up and well broken, to allow the Cabbage crop to extend and grow freely. This is the system pursued by our market gardeners; but one error they all commit, and in consequence are not able to keep full-grown Onions over Winter, the bulbs rotting and decaying, from the drills having been drawn too deep, and pulling the crop two or three weeks too soon. My method is, after the ground has been well dug and raked even, to roll it before the drills are drawn, which must not exceed half an inch deep, being merely a mark whereon to lay the sets. Hoe to keep down the weeds; lift the crop after the tops are fully dried off; expose them in the sun a few days, to harden them; take them to a shed and spread them out thin, to dry; or tie them up in ropes and hang them up for use; by this treatment they will keep perfect throughout the whole Winter.

.—The general method is to sow the seed very thickly, in shallow drills, early in April. The bulbs grow to the size of Peas or Beans by the middle of July, when they are lifted and put away in an airy loft, to keep till next Spring