ESSEX SOCIETY. 71 



manure, in the fall, for onions, that I should not hesitate for a 

 moment to recommend it to all onion growers. I therefore 

 offer for your consideration, the foregoing statement, as the re- 

 sult of my experiment, and the crop of six hundred bushels of 

 onions, raised upon an acre and a half of land. 

 Danvers, Oct. 18, 1850. 



Benjamin Rogers^ s Statement. 



I offer for premium a crop of Mangel Wurtzel, raised on one 

 hundred and twenty-three rods of land, the product being three 

 hundred and sixty baskets, weighing twenty-two thousand 

 three hundred and twenty pounds, or at the rate of twenty- 

 seven thousand nine hundred pounds per acre. 



The soil is a light sandy loam, and is called by most persons, 

 very poor land, not worth cultivating. A crop of white beans 

 was taken from the land last year, amounting to five bushels. 

 The manure applied was three bushel plaster of Paris. This 

 year it had eleven cords of compost, one-third part barn manure 

 and two-thirds sand dug from the barn yard ; all the manure 

 was put into drills. It was ploughed on the 8th of May, and 

 on the 1 1th and 13th of May, the land was furrowed with a 

 plough drawn by a horse, going twice in the same furrow ; the 

 manure was put into the furrow, and covered with a plough, 

 making a small ridge ; the ridge was then raked so as to make 

 the ground nearly level. The holes for the seeds were made 

 by a wheel, containing pegs, in its circumference, which pene- 

 trated the ground one inch, leaving intervals of four inches. 

 The rows were thirty inches asunder ; one capsule was dropped 

 into each hole, and covered with the feet, by treading on each 

 hole. The quantity of seed sowed was three pounds. The 

 cultivator was twice used before the 6th of August, and hoed 

 twice. In the month of July, the plants were thinned, and left 

 from eight to sixteen inches apart, in the rows. The expense 

 of cultivation was as follows : — 



Interest on land, - - - - - $120 



Ploughing, - - - - - 2 00 



Harrowing, - - - - - 1 50 



