5Q MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



PARSNIPS. 



Parsnips ara excellent for the table, and are not valued as 

 highly as they deserve for horses and cattle. They are much 

 easier raised than carrots, because the tops get size sooner : 

 and they will keep in the ground till spring better than 

 any other root grown, unless it is horseradish. 



The Jersey cows in their native land were fed largely on 

 parsnips ; and many of the breeders attribute in a great 

 degree the good qualities of the breed to judicious feeding 

 of parsnips while the animals were young. 



A loamy soil, highly manured, deeply ploughed, and rather 

 moist, is most desirable ; though I have seen in the deep 

 mack-bed of the famous Green Swamp, on yonder mountain, 

 some of the largest and handsomest parsnips ever grown, 

 some of which measured fourteen inches in circumference, 

 and were over two feet in length. 



ONIONS. 



I don't know that I have any thing new to offer in regard 

 to onions, except that I am more and more decided that 

 either well-fermented manure or Stockbridge fertilizers should 

 be used for the crop on the same land year after }^ear. I was 

 surprised to see some of our farmers last spring harrowing 

 in coarse stable and hog manure for onions. It increased 

 the labor of raking the ground over very much, and the late 

 weeds were doubly troublesome in such pieces. If manure is 

 used, let it be well rotted, and fermented, if possible, till the 

 seeds of weeds are killed, and the manure well decomposed. 

 Again: the fly and maggot, which so seriously cut down 

 our onions, are identical with the fly and maggot we find 

 with our unfermented manure, and I have a vague suspicion 

 that in some way they are connected in their depredations on 

 both manure and onions. 



BEETS. 

 Beets are attracting more attention than formerly, and 

 justly too ; for improvements have been made in their quality 

 and productiveness. The Early Bassano is considered the 

 best for early marketing, or for the table, to be followed by 

 the Egyptian and Long Blood in their proper courses. The 



