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

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ONION.
the seed well among the mould. Keep the beds
at all times very clear from weeds, and when the
plants are up three inches high, thin them out,
leaving the plants standing at five or six inches
apart for a full bulbing crop; but would recom¬
mend the leaving a bed, or part thereof, thinned
only to three inches, in order to allow for draw¬
ing young Onions for present use, by successive
thinnings, to the above distance. The plants will
begin to bulb in June, and attain full maturity in
August, which is discovered by the leaves begin¬
ning to turn yellow and decay, and the shrinking
of the neck, when they may be pulled up, spread
on a compartment of dry ground in the full sun,
to dry and harden completely, turning them over
every two or three days, and in ten days or a
fortnight, they will be ready to store up for win¬
ter and spring use. TheNgrossest part of the top
must be cleared off previously to storing, and
frequently turned over and the decayed ones
picked out.
Onions should be grown at twice, that is to say,
the seed should be sown late in the summer, and
the small bulbs so produced planted the follow¬
ing spring, and they will be found much more
superior in size than when grown the same year;
which circumstance may be accounted for on this
principle, that the bulb generates the first season
the sap or vegetable blood which composes the
leaves and roots the following year, consequently
it possesses much more strength and vigour than
the seed.