MARKET GARDENING AND FARMERS' GARDENS. 65 JL 



thickly in poor soil, early in spring, and taken up about j^u- 

 gust, when tliey will be about the size of a walnut, and smaller ; 

 the smaller the better. These " sets " are dried and housed 

 until the next spring, when they are planted out early, in highly 

 enriched and thoroughly pulverized ground, three inches apart, 

 in drills nine inches apart. The drill should be deep enough 

 su that the bulb can be covered with earth, which should be 

 rolled over them with the hand roller. Twice hoeing and 

 weeding is usually sufficient in clean ground, but the weeds 

 should be kept down until the onions are half grown, say in 

 May at the South, and in June at the North, -Nvhen pulling may 

 be commenced. 



Field cultivation is described nearly as follows, by one of the 

 largest onion growers in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mr. J. B. 

 "Wakeman : " Select a deep loam if to be had. Avoid wet clay, 

 stoney land, or side hills. Cultivate the ground for two years 

 with some hoed crop; I prefer corn one or two years. It snould 

 be highly manured, and not a single weed allowed to go to seed. 

 When the corn crop is gathered, prepare the ground in the fall 

 for the next year's crop of onions, by putting on twenty cart 

 loads of well-rotted manure, fifty bushels to the load, per acre. 

 It should be free from weed seed, and ploughed in deep, and not 

 harrowed in the foil. I have plowed my ground both spring 

 and fall, manuring at the same time. It is not more than half 

 the work to prepare ground for the seed that was plowed in the 

 fall, and the yield is as good, if not better. Hog manure is the 

 best, but any kind of strong manure will do. All manure 

 should be free from seed. Manure, either fine or coarse, sliouid 

 be ploughed in deep. If ashes are to be liad, put on one to two 

 hundred bushels to the acre. The crop of onions will pay for 

 them the first year, and they will last from five to eight years. 

 Bone dust is a fine manure. The ground in the spring should 



