AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 251 



necessarily be deep. A rich sand, sandy loam, or gravelly loam, 

 when well manured will answer. Onions do not appear to ex 

 haust the soil, and may be grown for many years in succession 

 without deteriorating. The following is the mode of culture 

 pursued in Danvers, Mass, (D. Buxton, Jun., in Farmer s Com 

 panion and Horticultural Gazette, Vol. ii, p. 86 ; iii, No. 3.) 



Such land is selected as would give a good crop of corn ; wet 

 land will answer if the seed can be got in by the first of May. 

 It must have been plowed from the sod at least three years, un 

 less a crop of carrots was raised the second year. Land may 

 be rich and well manured, and yet not bear onions the first year 

 of planting; afterwards the crops will be good as long as the 

 land is kept well manured. Six or seven cords of good barn 

 yard manure per acre are sufficient. Salt mud and &quot; mussel- 

 bed &quot; are valuable for a change. Ashes, particularly on new 

 land, are beneficial. The land is plowed shallow, rendered fine, 

 and rolled as early in spring as the climate will permit, and the 

 seed is sown in drills 10 or 12 inches apart by a machine made 

 for the purpose. With it, a man can sow two acres a day, and 

 drop the seed thick or thin. New land requires 3 Ibs., old land 

 2 Ibs. of seed per acre ; the young plants being more likely to 

 live on old than on new land. Weeding is performed with a 

 wh eel-hoe (which costs about $1,) two or three times before the 

 plants are large. A man can weed 1|- acres per day. The rest 

 of the weeding is chiefly done by boys, and the expence de 

 pends on the management of the land the first year or two ; it 

 being of the utmost importance not to allow any weed to go to 

 seed. The crop must be kept perfectly clean. When the stalks 

 shrivel, and fall spontaneously, the bulbs have ceased to grow, 

 and should then be pulled up and laid on the ground for some 

 days to dry. If the weather is moist they must be turned. 

 After this they must be spread in the barn till thoroughly dried, 

 and then wove into ropes, or the stalks cut off before putting in 

 barn, and the onions, when dry, packed in barrels. 



