MISCELLANEOUS. 54b^ 



recently published in the Evening Post, of Toledo, and I give it a place that my 

 readers may judge for themselves whether they will continue to.drill their rowa 

 only about a foot apart and cultivate wholly by hand or drill at least two feet 

 apart and use the horse hoes or cultivator, which will, of course, require more 

 land to raise a certain amount of bushels. This must, or ought to, be gov« 

 erned by the amount of land one has, and also more particularly upon the 

 amount of help which one has to aid in the hand part of the culture; for the 

 thinning out the plants, as well as pulling the weeds within an inch or two of 

 the row, must, in all cases, be done by hand. The writer says: "Onions will 

 thrive in any soil, with proper fertilizers and good cultivation, yet they produce 

 more profitably on old onion land, annually fertilized. Drilling in the seed and 

 cultivating with horse power is a great improvement upon the old method. 

 The rows should be far enough apart to cultivate with a horse hoe. This takes 

 more land but pays best, where not very large onions are desired. Thinning 

 onions so that only 1 is left to 3 or 4 inches of ground is being abandoned by 

 onion cxilturists, as medium-sized bulbs demand better prices in most city 

 markets. Everything which can promote rapid growth is essential in onion 

 culture. It is better to sow the seed too thick than too thin. A drill set to drop 

 8 or 3 seeds to each inch of a row answers the purpose best." 



Remarks. — Unless my ground was very rich and had been previously culti- 

 vated T\ath onions, to have the weeds "well in hand," I should certainly prefer 

 liot to have more than one seed to an inch at the very most. 



3. Onions, How Many Can be Raised to the Acre.— This 

 question being often asked, should be judiciously answered, lest ,some person 

 may be led into the business too extensively for his knowledge of how it must 

 be done, as the Ohio Farmer speaks of, from a report that D. M. Ferry, of De- 

 troit, JMich., grew 600 bushels of onions on an acre, and for which he was 

 offered $2.50 a bushel, or $1,500 from an acre; and this, says the Farmer, led a 

 farmer who heard of it, and knew no more of onion growing than he did of 

 Sanskrit, to plant 5 acres of common com land in onions, the next season, the 

 seed costing him $100. He didn't grow a bushel of marketable onions. Had 

 he studied up the subject and planted the first season % or }4 of an acre, he 

 might now be a successful onion grower, whereas he indulges in profanity at 

 the smell of an onion. 



Remarks.— Bnt over 700 bushels have been raised to the acre, on a field of 

 7 acres, as the Congregaiionalist, of Boston, shows by the following in answer 

 to an inquiry of a correspondent, who asked: " How many onions can be raised 

 to the acre ?" To which the editor makes this statement: " In answer to the 

 above, we give a letter received recently from Deer Island, Boston Harbor, 

 where one of the public institutions of Boston is located. ' In reply to yours 

 of this date, I would say that in the year 1869, we raised, on 7 acres of land, 

 5,000 bushels of onions, good measure. I selected and had measured off % an 

 acre of land where the crop was the best, and measured from this % acre 486- 

 bushels of onions. The onions grew very large. I sent 1 bushel to the fair 

 that averaged 1 pound each.'" 



Remarks.— Ijni now, it is not to be understood that this was done on poony- 



