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Oporto is the chief port of exportation for the large variety of onion known in trade as 

 the Spanish or Portugal onion. The principal part o^ the product is sent to the English 

 market, where it commands a much higher price than do the onions of any other variety, on 

 account of mildness of flavor and great size. The average weight of the onion is about two 

 pounds, and I have seen some which weighed as high as five pounds. The yield, with 

 proper cultivation, is, perhaps, extraordinary. I saw a crop this summer of $600 worth 

 made on an acre of ground. This was in August, soon after they had been taken out of the 

 earth. 



The cultivation is as follows : In the month of October, the seed is sown in a sheltered 

 spot, in very well manured seed-beds. In about ten days, the plants appear, and are watered 

 in dry weather, weeded, and the surface occasionally stirred with a sharp-pointed stick. The 

 young plants not subjected to any severe frost (for the thermometer seldom falls below 30° 

 F.) enjoy an uninterrupted growth till spring-time. In TMarch they are taken up, being 

 then some .5 to 8 inches in height, and planted from 12 to 15 inches apart, in furrows made by 

 the hoe in well plowed and harrowed land. The furrows are filled to the depth of 3 or 4 

 inches with well-rotted manure, with which the roots of the young plants are placed in ac- 

 tual contact. A very essential condition of the cultivation of the onion is water. The abun- 

 dant and time]}' irrigation of the growing crop requires great and constant care. After 

 transplanting, it has two to five hoeings and weedings. With the last weeding are sown either 

 turnips, maize, or, more rarely, grass-seed. The onion crop is off the ground in August, and 

 sometimes in July. After drying a couple of weeks, they are made up in strings, put into 

 boxes, and ready for shipment. 



Yield and profit of mangel-wurzel. — Our coirespoiident iu 

 Plymouth County, Massachusetts, sends us the statistics of a crop of 

 mangel-wurzel produced by Mr. Albert Fearing. Three-fourths of an 

 acre produced 38^ tons, value $10 per ton, $385; cost, 9 cords of man- 

 ure, $90; seed, $2; plowing, $4; cultivation, $10.50; harvesting, $12 ; 

 total, $124. 50 ; net profit, $260.50. This is at the rate of 1,708 bushels, 

 or 51 J tons, per acre, at a profit of $347.33. 



Farming in the bed of a mill-pond. — A correspondent in Eich- 

 mond County, Virginia, reports that he emigrated from New York, and 

 purchased a farm in that county, some seventy acres of which had once 

 been a mill-pond. In 1871 he cleared it of weeds, brush, &c., and 

 ditched where necessary, and has since raided on it, without fertilizers, 

 excellent crops of corn, wheat, rye, and oats. In August, 1872, he 

 sowed on a portion of it buckwheat and rye, sowing both on the same 

 ground at the same time. The buckwheat made a good croi>. After it 

 was harvested, the rye came forward rapidly, and afforded much pas- 

 ture for calves during the winter. When harvested in 1873, it was the 

 best crop he ever saw. Most of it was seven feet high, with long heads 

 and good grain. Some of the straw was sold in Washington for $1.25 

 per hundred-weight. He also, in 1873, harvested from some of this mill- 

 pond land a bountiful crop of timothy hay, some of the heads of which 

 were over one foot in length. 



The most profitable fertilizers. — A correspondent sends us an. 

 account of a discussion by an agricultural association in the parish of 

 Catahoula, Louisiana, respecting the relative advantages of purchasing 

 fertilizers in the market, or producing them on the farm. After in- 

 terchanges of views, illustrated by statements of experience in trying 

 the one and the other theory, it was decided that for the soil of that 

 parish the manure derived from its productions is not only the cheapest 

 as to cost, and most profitable for the crop to which it is first applied, 

 but is more permanent than foreign fertilizers in its good effects. The 

 principal reason assigned was that it returns to the soil the very ingre- 

 dients taken from it by the crops from which it is derived. Hence it 

 was recommended that measures be taken to economize manures on the 

 farm in all practicable ways, among which were specified the free use 

 of litter and other absorbents in stables and yards for horses, cows, and 

 hogs, so as to save all the liquid manure ; and the saving of all the 

 bones from beef, pork, and every other source, breaking them up, keep- 



