"The Onion is a biennial plant, supposed to be a native of Spain. The varieties are numerous. Those esteemed the best, are the Silver Skin, and Large Yellow Strasburgh; the latter is the best keeper, though perhaps not so delicately flavoured as the Silver Skin.

"The Wethersfield red is grown extensively in the eastern states, where it perfects itself the first season.

"It is the practice with the market gardeners of Philadelphia, who grow the Strasburgh and Silver Skin, to the exclusion of all others, to sow the seed thickly in beds in the middle of spring. At midsummer they are taken up, and placed in a dry airy situation, until the succeeding spring, when they are replanted; in this way they get large, firm, well keeping Onions early in the season. It should be observed that if not sown quite thickly they attain too large a size, and when replanted shoot to seed. When sown early, and very thinly, on strong ground, bulbs large enough for family use, may be had the first season; they do not, however, usually attain a size large enough for the market. When sown in this way, they should be frequently hoed, and kept perfectly clean; and the Wethersfield is perhaps the best." - Rural Reg.

To Save Seed

To obtain seed, some old onions must be planted in autumn or early in Spring. The finest and firmest bulbs being selected and planted in rows ten inches apart each way, either in drills or by a blunt-ended dibble, the soil to be rather poorer, if it differs at all from that in which they are cultivated for bulbing. They must be buried so deep, that the mould just covers the crown. Early in Spring their leaves will appear. If grown in large quantities, a path must be left two feet wide between every three or four rows to allow the necessary cultivation. They must be kept thoroughly clear from weeds, and when in flower have stakes driven at intervals of five or six feet on each side of every two rows, to which a string is to be fastened throughout the whole length, a few inches below the heads, to serve as a support and prevent their being broken down. The seeds are ripe in August, which is intimated by the husks becoming brownish; the heads must then be immediately cut, otherwise the receptacles will open and shed their contents. Being spread on cloths in the sun, and during inclement weather they soon become perfectly dry, when the seed may be rubbed out, cleaned of the chaff, and, after remaining another day or two, finally stored.

It is of the utmost consequence to employ seed of not more than two years old, otherwise not more than one in fifty will vegetate. The goodness of seed may be easily discovered by forcing a little of it in a hot-bed or warm water a day before it is employed; a small white point will soon protrude if it is fertile.