GROWTH OF ONIONS. 55 



caution the farmers about at Fall River. He said there are 

 some matters upon wliicli farmers are agreed : let those rest ; 

 do not bring them up, and discuss them over and over again. 

 The questions upon which we differ, of course, we must dis- 

 cuss in the future. There are some great questions in farm- 

 ing which we are all agreed upon: for instance, we agree 

 upon thorough tillage. We agree also on the fact that a 

 generous application of manures and fertilizers in some way 

 is beneficial to the growth of crops ; and we agree, that, on 

 many kinds of soil, barnyard-manure is beneficial. I should 

 have said, in the past, that it was agreed that the potato-rot 

 was a fungus-growth ; but it seems we are not quite agreed 

 upon that. 



I merely rose to say, that, upon that particular field, I 

 raised six hundred bushels of onions to the acre, with less 

 than two pounds of seed. 



Question. Have you been troubled with smut ? 



Mr. Paul. No, sir. 



Mr. Philbrick. I have here a scuffle-hoe, which differs 

 from a wheel-hoe in that it has a flat shield instead of a 

 wheel. This shield prevents it from running too deep, very 

 much as the wheel of a plough does. It has a long handle ; 

 and a man can go through the rows of a small crop as fast 

 as he can walk. It has also the additional advantage, that, 

 when drawn back, it throws the weeds out better than a 

 wheel-hoe. 



The gentleman upon my right asked for information about 

 his squashes, which he said troubled him after they got 

 pretty well grown. It is possible that that may have been 

 occasioned by the borer at the root. That is a thing with 

 which we are very much troubled, and it is very much more 

 apt to affect squashes that are planted early than those 

 planted late. I know of no remedy, except that I have 

 known some gardeners to cut out the root which is affected 

 by tlie borer, and depend entirely upon the roots that strike 

 down from the branches of the squashes. In this way they 

 have got a partial crop. 



Question. Does Mr. Philbrick know the origin of the 

 borer ? 



Mr. Philbrick. I do not understand any thing about 

 the borer : it is one of those things that I hope Mr. Farlow 

 will tell us about, or some other gentleman. 



