98 TRANSACTIONS OF TIIK ILLINOIS 



Onions. — The profit of an onion crop depends miu li upon locality. 

 Galesbnrg, being within forty-five miles of Davenport. Iowa, (the "Weth- 

 ersfield " of the West,) is not a profitable place to grow onions from the 

 seed, as they often sell at Davenport for twenty-five cents per bushel, and 

 this has a tendency to make low prices at Galesburg. I find the onlv 

 profit is growing from sets, and bunching early in the season. For this, 

 the top or button sets are principally used : but bottom sets, grown from 

 Yellow Danvers seed — sown thickly for the purpose — make the earliest 

 and best onions : but these sets are difficult to keep through the winter. 

 In growing from seed, the best varieties I consider to be Early Yellow 

 Danvers, Yellow Strassburg, Early (rlobe, Early Yellow Cracker, and Large 

 Red Wethersfield. Onion seed should be sown as early as possible ; they 

 require very rich soil, fretiuent hoeing and weeding, and seem to do best 

 when grown upon the same ground, year after vear. 



Parsnips. — They require rich soil, but it should have been manured 

 the previous year ; if not. the tendency will be to throw out many side 

 roots. The beauty of parsnips consists in being smooth. The Hollow 

 Crown I consider the best for general crop, with a few Early Short Round, 

 for early fall u.se, as they grow thick and short. Parsnip seed should be 

 sown as early as the ground can be gotten in good condition ; sow in 

 drills, eighteen or tAventy inches apart ; sow thick, as it is better to have 

 them too thick than too thin, as they can easilv be thinned to four inches. 

 Remember, you can not depend upon parsnip seed more than one year 

 old ; hence the great necessity of growing your own seed. Parsnip seed 

 being very slow to germinate, I generally scatter radish seed very thinly 

 in the row, which comes up much sooner than the parsnips, and enables 

 me to follow the rows, if necessary, to weed them l)efore the parsnips 

 appear. I thus get a crop of radishes without cost. I dig my parsiiijjs 

 early in November, sort them, pile the marketable ones in long piles 

 about three feet wn'de at the base, and the same in height, bringing them 

 to a sharp top or ridge; this I cover lightly with straw, and four inches 

 of dirt, and as winter comes on I increase the dirt, covering to eight 

 inches. I can then begin at one end of the pile to take out, stopping the 

 opening thus made with litter, and if they freeze, it does no harm, but 

 rather improves them. If frozen too hard to handle, put them in the 

 cellar to thaw gradually. 



Peppers. — Of these I ]jlant Sweet Mountain and T,ong Cayenne — the 

 former for stuffing. Pepper seeds should be started in hot-beds with 

 tomatoes, and treated the same until planted in the open ground. 



Potatoes. — Who of us can carry his thoughts back to the days of 

 Fink Eyes and Neshannocks in their glory, without wishing he could ex- 

 change the whole catalogue of to-day (excepting, perhai)s, the Early Rose), 

 with the rot and Colorado beetle thrown in, for those old favorites ? But, 

 alas ! they are of the past, and we must content ourselves with what we 

 have until we get some thing lietter. We have, indeed, made progress in 

 point of season ; in those days it was a great achievement to get new 

 potatoes and green peas by the Fourth of July, and often there was a 

 strong resemblance in point of size. The Early Rose has a wide reputa- 



