The Symbolic Onion To thousands of gardeners, small-holders and allotment
holders in this ecu dry the onion is the symbol of spring. The preparation of that smooth bed on bright March days, the light raking over and over of the frost-powdered soil, the dribbling of the black seed in the shallow drills, make up one of the 'first and most satisfying of gardening 'pleasures. It ought to he a proverb that when the onions are in, winter flies over the hedgerow. And it is astonishing to discover that, in spite Of' this intense onion-sowing and the annual production Up and down the country of onions like balloOns, we produce only five per cent. of our onion requirements. Imports of Spanish, Dutch and Egyptian onions make up the rest. Th... truth is that whereas for the 'small gardener and allotment holder it would be almost sacrilegious not to grow onions, the farmer for some reason neglects them. Fields of onions are far rarer than fields of flax or maize. And now the Government, Stirred also perhaps by the symbolism of the onion, is con- Sidering. an' increase on the duty of imported onions in order to encourage home production. So that we may yet have the pleasure-of seeing members of the House no longer displaying herrings in order to reinforce their arguments, but 'supping off that traditional and favourite rural combination, bread and cheese, beer, and spring onions, and so affording the Government, the Opposition, die-hards and back-benchers alike 'with the unusaal experience of seeing each other shed their first spontaneous' , et en if not genuine, political tears.
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