ONION CUL TIVA TION. 



is a very sandy loam, but is situated in 

 the sewage field of a large public institu- 

 tion. There are sewage ditches on each 

 side of the bed, which is ten feet acrpss. 

 An engineer from Cleveland came one 

 day to inspect the sewage farm just as 

 the gardener was having the onions 

 taken up, seeing them lying in rows on 

 the ground as they had been pulled, he 

 said, " Oh, I see you are hauling your 

 onions here to dry them before storing 

 them away for the winter." "Why," 

 said the man, " these were all grown on 

 the ground as you see them." Mr. 

 Engineer laughed him to scorn for try- 

 ing to impose such a yarn on him, but 

 my friend fortunately had a patch at the 

 far end of the bed still unrenioved from 

 the ground, so he took the Clevelander 

 down to where they were growing, and 

 gave him occular demonstration of the 

 enormous yield, which the engineer 

 declared if he had not seen he would 

 not have believed. 



The greatest trouble in growing seed 



onions is the first weeding, but if the 

 rows are put in very straight and the 

 hoe is kept keen and sharp, with a 

 moderately fine flat file, so as to cut the 

 earth to within a hair's breadth of the 

 seedlings, a good deal of the labor is 

 removed. After the first weeding has 

 been accomplished, the wheel hoe culti- 

 vator may be employed successfully. 



To keep the onions through the winter 

 they should be placed on benches made 

 of slats a couple of inches wide, placed 

 an inch apart, so that the air may pass 

 through them. Not more than two 

 layers of onions should be placed on 

 each bench or tray. The temperature 

 should be reduced to 40°. It is said 

 that onions grown by highly concen- 

 trated fertilizers do not keep so well as 

 those raised by well rotted barnyard 

 manure, but of this the writer cannot 

 speak authoratively, never having tried 

 the experiment. 



P. E. BUCKE. 



London., Ont. 



HOW TO HAVE BEAUTIFUL PAN.SIES. 



rANSY seed sown now in pots or 

 boxes in a warm room or hotbed, 

 will, if properly cared for, produce 

 blooming plants all summer. The seed 

 should be scattered very thinly and 

 covered not more than one-eighth of an 

 inch deep, then pressed down with a 

 piece of board and kept moderately 

 moist all the time. When the plants 

 are large enough to be handled, they 

 should be pricked off about two inches 

 apart, and when danger of severe frost 

 is over, planted outdoors about 1 2 

 inches apart each way in a position 

 where they are sheltered from the mid- 

 day sun. In dry weather they require 

 a good deal of water, and an occasional 



watering with liquid manure will help 

 them wonderfully. All faded flowers 

 must be cut off" at once else they will 

 produce seed and detract a great deal of 

 strength from the plants. With pansies, 

 as well as many other plants, the oftener 

 the flowers are cut off", the more new 

 ones will be produced. For early spring 

 blooming, the seed should be sown in 

 August, outdoors, in well-prepared seed 

 beds. During hot dry weather it is best 

 to shade the seed from the dtrect rays 

 of the sun until they have germinated, 

 which will be in about ten or twelve 

 days. The soil can hardly be made too 

 rich and deep for pansies. — F. M. 

 Hexamer, Amer. Agriculturist. 



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