Occupations > Abercrombie's improved practical gardener; with a monthly calendar for the flower garden

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Deptford, Strasburg, and Globe are the best for
principal crops, as they yield well, and keep long¬
er than most others in the spring. The Silver¬
skinned is reckoned the best for pickling. The
Potatoe Onion is planted for an auxiliary crop,
but is inferior in flavour. The Welsh Onion is
generally sown at the latter end of summer,
(September,) to draw in spring as scallions.
Use.
Young Onions, in spring, are used in salads,
and, when bulbed and mature, in soups and
stews, and are for these purposes cultivated by
every class of society in Europe.
The Onion delights in a rich mellow soil on a
dry subsoil, and on such it attains a good size;
but for picklers the soil should be poor. For a
bed five feet by twenty, two ounces of seed will
be required; but when sown for a full crop, one
ounce of seed will be sufficient for a bed twenty-
four feet long by five wide; and for a bed the
same size, to be drawn off for transplanting in
the spring, three ounces will not be too much.
Propagation and Su' scquenl Culture.
March, if the weather be fine and open, is the
best season for sowing the seed for a full or main
crop; for this purpose allot an open compartment
of ground and tread it into beds of convenient
width, from three to five feet, and sow the seed
in the above proportion, and rake it in evenly,
lengthways of the beds, being careful to cover