ROOT CROPS. 247 



The onion crop of Mr. Joseph N. Rolfe was worth going a 

 long journey to see. Of the Danvers variety the strain was 

 rounder than is usually grown, running almost into the " goose 

 egg " shape, a kind that gives the largest crop when you get 

 them ripe ; but one safe only in a very dry season, in a wet sea- 

 son failing to bottom down, and giving a large crop of scallions. 

 Mr. Rolfe has a noble ambition as a farmer, and aims yet to 

 raise his thousand bushels of merchantable onions to the acre ; 

 but I would not advise him to run this strain of onions ; his 

 land is a clay loam, having a sandy sub-soil. I think that a wet 

 season would be more apt to give scallions on such a soil with 

 this strain than a crop of marketable bulbs. The tops of this 

 crop were two and a half to three and a half feet in length, 

 measured as they lay in a dense, dry mass, almost covering the 

 ground. Now every onion-grower knows what would have 

 happened with onions having such tremendous tops, had the 

 season proved a wet one towards its close instead of remarkably 

 dry. To ascertain the quantity of the half acre three rows 

 were taken, the middle row and one at each end. These were 

 pulled and topped on the ground, and then weighed ; and the 

 yield as thus determined was at the rate of one thousand and 

 ninety bushels to the acre. As the crop was somewhat green, 

 the onions not being very hard, though the necks were well 

 dried down, the committee arranged with Mr. Rolfe to receive 

 a report from him of the actual weight of the crop when mar- 

 keted. It will be seen by the report of Mr. Rolfe that the yield 

 of the crop was 970 bushels to the acre. This is a remarkable 

 crop, worth a journey of thirty miles to see. With Mr. Rolfe's 

 figures of the cost of his crop I nearly agree, but shall put the 

 cost of cultivation a little higher. I find Holbrook's Double 

 Wheel Hoe quite an improvement on the common wheel hoe. 

 It can be run much nearer to the growing crop, and thus saves 

 a great deal of hand weeding. 



The members of the committee who visited the onion crop of 

 Mr. Noyes, of Middleton, found it to be of superior quality, the 

 onions being of excellent size for market, very hard and well 

 ripened, necks small, with not a pocketful of scallions on the half 

 acre. To determine the amount of the crop, three rows were 

 taken, one at each end of the half acre and one in the middle ; 

 these were pulled, topped, and carefully weighed, and assumed 



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