A CURIOUS MISTAKE. 49 



The Chaiejman. I am iu market-gardening only in a 

 small way. I grow two or three crops pretty largely for 

 market, — asparagus, onions, cauliflower, and a little of some 

 other things, but those more particularly. I grow them be- 

 cause I have been studying how to grow some things, and I 

 believe I can grow them better than I could some years ago. 

 I have learned how to grow them on my own land. I could 

 not tell you how to grow them on your land, because your 

 land is entirely different. I have learned this, that while I 

 use stable-manure, and make that the basis for growing these 

 crops, it is for my interest to use something else as a special 

 manure in addition to that. For instance, I had an acre of 

 onions, — as good an acre of onions, certainly, as there was 

 around in my section, — the best I ever grew, although I 

 have grown good crops of onions uniformly for the last fe\\* 

 years ; but I suppose that Mr. Hill or Mr. Rawson, if I had 

 told them, before this meeting, that I sowed nine pounds of 

 onion-seed to the acre, would have said that I should have 

 had nothing but small onions. I rather thought so myself.. 

 It was an accident that I came to sow them in that way. I 

 lent my seed-sower to a neighbor, and, after he returned it, I 

 used it ; and, when I had sowed about a quarter of an acre, 

 I found the seed was going out pretty fast, and, upon exam- 

 ining the machine, I found that some person had reamed 

 out the tin with a jack-knife, instead of changing the tin. I 

 felt very much like making some hard remarks ; but I sup- 

 pressed those as well as I could, because there was no one 

 around to hear, and there was no use in making any fuss. 

 I went to work and changed the tin ; but still I was thrown 

 out so, that I did not know how to regulate the macliine as 

 I wanted to ; and, when I got through, I found there were 

 nine pounds of onion-seed on the acre, when five was all I 

 wanted. The seed was good : it all came up, and looked as 

 though it was thick enough for onion-sets. We weeded it 

 once ; and, when we came to weed it the second time, I said 

 to my son, " I guess we shall have to thin these onions." I 

 tried it about ten feet, and found there was work in it, and 

 said, " I guess we will let the onions go. I think I have got 

 enough manure under them to lift them out, if there are 

 nine pounds of seed on the acre." When I harvested them, 

 I found there were two, three, or four onions piled on top of 

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