Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/645

ONION before ; the seed is sown very thickly in rather poor soil, and the bulbs ripen when very small ; these sets are kept until spring, and planted, instead of seed. In localities where the win- ONONDAGA 631 Top Onions, Natural Size. ter will allow, the seed is sown in August, and the young plants, left in the ground all winter, start early the following spring. In parts of Hartford co., Conn., Orange co., N. Y., Rhode Island, and in some localities of Iowa and other western states, onions are the staple product. They can be grown upon the same ground year after year without deterioration, and there are cases in which the same land has produ- ced onions continuously for half a century or more. High manuring is required. The seed (always of the previous year) is sown by a machine in drills about 15 in. apart as early as possible ; as soon as the plants appear weed- ing is begun, and it is continued unremittingly as long as there is need of it. The maturity of the bulbs is shown by the falling over of the tops; some plants will not form good bulbs, or "bottom out," but remain with a thick stem like a leek, and are known as seal- lions. The onions are pulled, and allowed to cure in the sun a few days. In storing for the winter they must not be in quantities large enough to heat ; freezing does not injure them if they thaw gradually. Seed is raised by set- ting out well kept selected bulbs in rich ground, giving support to the flower stalks by means of stakes and strings, and gathering before the seed shells out. The varieties are numerous, though there are but few which are regarded as standard ; there are red, yellow, and white- skinned onions, and of each of these flat, globu- lar, and oval forms; the Weathersfield red, yellow Danvers, and white Portugal or silver- skin are the most grown. Italy, Spain, Mex- ico, and California are noted for the great size and fine quality of their onions, but the supe- riority is due to soil and climate rather than to the variety. The great enemy to the crop is a maggot, the larva of anthomyia ceparum, a small fly, known as the onion fly ; it lays its eggs on the small plants near the ground, and the^ maggot finds its way to the forming bulb, which it feeds upon and kills ; no practicable remedy has been found for this, or for a smut which sometimes appears on the young plants. The odor of onions is due to a volatile oil simi- lar to if not identical with that of garlic, and their physiological effects are similar, but mild- er ; they are largely used as seasoning, and are eaten both raw and cooked ; boiling dissipates much of the oil. The so-called Welsh onion is curiously misnamed, as the plant (allium fistulosum) is a native of Russia, where it is known as the rock onion. It does not form a bulb, but produces numerous coated stems much like small leeks ; it is little cultivated in this country, but is useful in high latitudes where the common onion cannot be grown. The French, who call it ciboule, have a red and a white variety. Gives or chives (A. scJicenopra- sum), the smallest of the genus in cultivation, is found on the shores of Lakes Huron and Su- perior and northward ; it has small oval bulbs not over half an inch in diameter, numerous small cylindrical leaves about 8 in. long, and clusters of purplish, not inelegant flowers ; it rarely matures seeds, but the bulbs are pro- Cives (Allium schoenoprasmn). duced by offsets in great numbers, and form dense clumps several inches in diameter ; it is propagated by dividing the clumps. The leaves are used, cut when young and tender. ONLAF. See AULAF. ONOBTDAGA, a central county of New York, bounded N. E. by Oneida lake, and watered by the Oswego, Seneca, arid Oneida rivers, and various creeks; area, 812 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 104,183. Its surface is hilly but not broken in the south and level in the north, and the soil is remarkably fertile. It contains several lakes, of which the principal are Onondaga, Cross, Skaneateles, and Otisco. The Onondaga salt springs are in the valley of Onondaga lake, and