Gardening/Onion
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ONION.--A few onions, of one kind or another, give character to every good kitchen-garden. They are grown from seeds ("black seed") for the main crop. They are also grown from sets (which are very small onions, arrested in their development); from "tops" (which are bulblets produced in the place of flowers); and from multipliers or potato onions, which are compound bulbs.
The extremely early crop of onions is grown from sets, and the late or fall crop is grown from seed sown in April or early May. The sets may be saved from the crop harvested the previous fall, saving no bulbs measuring over three-fourths of an inch in diameter, or, better, they may be purchased from the seedsman. These sets should be planted as early as possible in the spring, preferably on land that has been manured and trenched in the fall. Plant in rows 12 inches apart, the sets being 2 or 3 inches in the row. Push the sets well down into the ground and cover with soil, firming them with the feet or a roller. In cultivating, the soil should be thrown towards the tops, as the white stems are usually sought as an indication of mildness. The crop will be in condition to use in three to four weeks, and may be made to last until small seed onions are to be had. Tops or multipliers may also be used for the early crop.
In growing onions from seed, it is only necessary to say that the seed should be in the ground very early in order that the bulbs make their growth before the extreme hot weather of August, when, for want of moisture and because of the heat, the bulbs will ripen up while small. Early in April, in New York, if the ground is in condition, the seed should be sown thickly in drills from 12 to 16 inches apart, and the ground above the seeds well firmed. Good cultivation and constant weeding is the price of a good crop of onions. In cultivating and hoeing, the soil should be kept away from the rows, not covering the growing bulbs, but allowing them to spread over the surface of the ground. When the crop is ready to be harvested, the bulbs may be pulled or cultivated up, left to dry in double rows for several days, the tops and roots taken off, and the bulbs stored in a dry place. Later in the season they may be allowed to freeze, covering with chaff or straw to hold them frozen, and kept until early spring; but this method is usually unsafe with beginners, and always so in a changeable climate. Onion seed should always be fresh when sown--preferably of the last year's crop. One ounce of onion seed will sow 100 feet of drill.
[Illustration: Fig. 310. Bunch onions, grown from seed.]
One of the recent methods of securing extra large and also early bulbs from seed is to sow the seed in a hotbed in February or early March, and transplant to the open ground in April. A bunch of onions, for eating from hand, is shown in Fig. 310.
The Danvers, Prizetaker, Globe, and Wethersfield are favorite varieties, with the addition of White Queen or Barletta for pickling.
