40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



interfere with the coming crop that is not up ; so that, in that 

 way, the first growth of weeds is destroyed with very little 

 trouble. You can go over an acre of ground with a drag 

 which will drag a space eight feet wide in a very short time ; 

 and it does perfect work, and leaves the ground in very nice 

 condition for the coming up of the crop that is to follow. 



I did not intend to take the time of this meeting. I know 

 there are men here of very great experience and wisdom in 

 the growing of these crops. I wish they would tell us the 

 facts that they know. We farmers generally, in our expe- 

 rience, get hold of something that our neighbor does not ; 

 and some of us, perhaps, keep it to ourselves, while others 

 are very willing to enlighten their neighbors. Now, at this 

 meeting, if any of my brother-farmers have got something 

 that they have found out, although it may be worth dollars 

 to them, I hope they will let us have it. 



Mr. MuKRAY. I would like to inquire if the gentleman 

 ever tried air-slacked lime to destroy smut on the onion-crop. 

 I have tried it myself, and have always been very successful, 

 putting on a good coating of air-slacked lime before the 

 onion-seed was sown. I have seen it done even as long ago 

 as when I was a boy. 



Mr. Ware. I have had no experience in that particular. 



Mr. Hill of Arlington. I heard Mr. Ware's lecture last 

 winter, when he made the same statement that he has made 

 to-day, — that it was not safe to undertake to raise onions 

 upon a field where the smut had made its appearance. I had 

 one corner of a large onion-field that was infected with smut 

 last year ; and, on listening to him, I thought I could not 

 raise an}^ onions there. But I put in the seed this year, and 

 I did not see one leaf that showed any symptom or sign of 

 smut. I had as good an onion-crop as I ever had. I think 

 it must be something peculiar to liim. I supposed I should 

 have no success the present season ; but I had a good crop 

 where it was almost a perfect failure the year before on 

 account of the smut. 



In regard to mildew on lettuce : I do not think that is 

 accounted for by the condition of the weather. We used to 

 go through the same kind of seasons when we raised lettuce 

 years ago as we do now, and I think we used to cultivate it 

 in the same way ; and for years I never saw any signs of 



