42 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in the swamp, and from near the bottom of this the outlet started. The 

 small branch lines ran into it three inches above exit. Room for sedi- 

 ment was left at the bottom of barrel. The small tile ran on a light grade 

 to the outskirts. A box was placed over the barrel and all covered. Our 

 grade was very light from beginning to end. We therefore worked with 

 great caution, lest at any time we fall below our regular grade and thus 

 leave room for sediment to settle and choke the tile, diminishing its capacity. 

 A cord was kept stretched tight overhead, parallel with bottom grade, and 

 from this we measured down in grading and placing the tile. It was our 

 first effort at tile laying; yet, guided by the information we gathered from 

 books and papers, we made a complete success. 



About eight years ago the job was completed and the tile seem to be 

 working today as nicely as ever, apparently good for scores of years to 

 come. We have since dug an open ditch on one side, cutting off a part of 

 the water flowing from high lands above, so that the tile may be able to 

 exhaust the water in case of very heavy rains, before killing of tender 

 vegetation can ensue. From first to last the draining has cost us $300. 

 The clearing, I do not know how much, but a good many hard days' work, 

 I can assure you. But has it paid? We think so. A scar has been 

 removed from the landscape, and that pays well; a fruitful source of disease 

 has been removed from the neighborhood, and that pays. still better; and, 

 should you chance to drive by it next June, you can feast your eyes upon 

 one of the finest truck gardens you ever saw, dry and mellow and completed, 

 filled up with long, straight rows of onions, carrots, mangolds, or some other 

 " truck." The first two years after tiling, we cropped it with corn. Then, 

 the land being well subdued, we tried roots of various kinds. 



UPS AND DO'WNS OF THE BUSINESS. 



For the last six years, in the heart of this garden bed where the muck is 

 deepest, we have raised a patch of onions varying in size from one to two 

 and a quarter acres. The first year we had one and five eighths acres, 

 raised 911 bushels, and sold them at fifty cents per bushel. In 1888 we 

 raised 900 bushels, kept the most of them till spring, and then drew them 

 to the field and plowed them under. While we were harvesting them, a 

 gentleman driving past wanted some, as they looked very inviting, so we 

 placed a few in his buggy, for which he paid us fifteen cents, which was all 

 we received for the entire crop, the market being completely glutted. Of 

 course we were disappointed, but we do not carry all our eggs in one bas- 

 ket, so we managed to stand the loss. We follow general farming, onion- 

 raising being brought in as a sort of knitting-work to fill up the spare 

 moments. The crop of 1890 we were more fortunate with, as there was a 

 light crop in the country and they brought good prices. Taking one year 

 with another, fifty cents may be considered a fair average price, and four 

 hundred bushels a good yield per acre. Your crop will often fall below 

 this, through insect depredation, dry weather at the time of bottoming, or 

 failure of seed to germinate; while it is by no means impossible to grow 

 six hundred bushels to the acre when everything is favorable. We sow 

 the seed about the middle of April. Four pounds to the acre is the rule, 

 but three pounds are plenty if seed is good and evenly sown. It is better 

 to do some thinning than to have too many vacant spaces. We prefer to 

 have varieties that ripen early, as it is better to have them harvested before 

 wet, cold weather sets in. Early Red Globe, Yellow Danver, Early South- 



