The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-11-04
Concerning Onions

Onions are eaten to a greater extent than
any garden vegetables raised with the excep-
ton OF cabbages. With many they serve the
double purpose of food and condiment Some
persons who abhor their odor and dislike their
taste eat them because they are nutritious and
conducive to health In many portions OF
Europe where land is scarce and people de-
sire to produce all the food from it they can,
onions are raised to a large extent. They take
the place of butter and cheese in supplying a
relish to coarse bread. They are sliced IN vim
egar and eaten raw, made into soup, and cook
ed boiling and frying. In the warm countries
OF Southern Europe onions take the place Oh
cabbages and potatoes to a great extent.
1t is somewhat singular that onions are not
fed in considerable quantities to poultry and
all kinds of live stock. Fowls of all varieties
are extremely fond of them, and derive great
benefit from eating them. Besides serving all
the purposes Of true food, they aid digestion
and tend to ward off disease They may be
fed raw or cooked. Chickens will eat not
only the bulbs but the leaves when clipped up
and mixed with dough. Chickens that are
allowed onions prepared in this way rarely, if
ever, are troubled with the cholera. Chickens
that eat onions are not likely to be infested by
vermin. One of the best kinds of food for
laying hens during the winter consists ofcook-
ed meat, potatoes and onions Onions are
cheaper than pepper to iced poultry, and they
answer the same purposes.
Almost all kinds of stock are fond ofonions,
and there is generally considerable difficulty
in keeping them from eating them Of course
they should not be fed to milch COWS, owing
to the odor and flavor they impart to milk, but
other kinds Ofstock may eat onions, not only
without detrment, but with great advantage
All animals delight in condiments and there
is nothing in the line of relishes they will eat
as readily as they will onions. For young
stock they should be Clipped up and fed with
grain and meal, but for large animals they re-
quire no preparation. Onions that are large
enough to be salable in seasons when they are
toerably high are expensive food for stock,
but they are always many that are too small or
100 ill-shapen to sell.
To grow onions on large scale to advan-
tage the ground should be prepared in the fall
as the seed should be planted almost as soon
as the frost leaves the soil in the spring. As
onions are gross feeders the land on which
they are planted should be very heavily ma
nured. To prevent trouble with weeds the
fertilizers applied should be free from seeds
which will ordinarily terminate before the un-
ION seed will. Wei-rotted stable manure Ii
excellent and so are the fertilizers prepared
from meat, blood and other slaughter house It
fuse. Ashes and said are also good fertilizers
| IOI ILLS crop. lue uISt cause Ino young plduts
| to grow rapidly and the last will destroy many
insects. Coarse and rank manures are not de
| sirable.
| Onions should not be harvested till the
weather becomes tolerably cool in the fall
though they will ripen early in the season
| The moisture should be allowed to dry from
them before they are stored awey They shoul1
| be kept where the temperature is good and thu
air tolerably dry. Ii they are aided by heal
and moisture they will shriyel and become un
fit for cooking purposes, and, of course, fol-
the market. An ordinary cellar is too mois
and too warm for preserving onions. An ex
tensive onion grower makes, for keeping on
ions, as deep pit as he can with a plow in
dry, sheltered place near the house, scraping
out all the loose dirt with hoe, and putting il
some chaft or straw from the straw stack, anC
tramping down well. Then he hauls the on
ions from where they grew, and piles them il
carefully on this, and puts more chatf on tol
and covers up with foot of dirt from eacl
side and packs it smooth with the spade, wher
they can remain part or all of the winter, o
until wanted.