34 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



1843, I ploughed about nine inches deep, and put on eighteen 

 cartloads of stable manure, and planted carrots, and raised 

 twenty-one tons, which I sold, on an average, for eight dollars a 

 ton. In 1844, I ploughed about six inches deep, and applied 

 about five cords of manure, mostly from stable. I then obtained 

 about four hundred bushels of onions to the acre. 



In 1845, I ploughed shallow, and put on about one hundred 

 bushels of leached ashes, and four cords of stable manure, and 

 obtained about four hundred and twenty-five bushels to the 

 acre. 



In 1846, I put on two leaches of ashes, one hundred and eighty 

 bushels, and three cords of manure ; all costing twenty-five dol- 

 lars ; and obtained five hundred and sixty bushels of onions. 



In 1847, I ploughed the land but once, applied two cords of 

 muscle-bed, two leaches of ashes, and one and a half cords of 

 manure; and obtained six hundred and fifty bushels. Until 

 this year, I have sowed the flat onions ; this year I sowed part 

 flat and part round. The flat yielded at the rate of four hun- 

 dred and twenty bushels to the acre. The round yielded at the 

 rate of five hundred and thirty- three bushels to the acre. No 

 difference in the land or treatment. I have used the machine 

 for distributing the seed, and the onion hoe for clearing the 

 weeds. They were weeded twice thoroughly, and hoed and 

 weeded the third time. I have been careful to clean all the 

 weeds and refuse material from the land in the autumn. My 

 crop was severely injured by the wind in the early part of August. 

 Until this wind came, they looked very large and promising. 

 We thought the injury amounted to one hundred bushels to the 

 acre. The ground is level, and a strong hard soil, rather rocky. 

 My crop has sometimes been affected with what we call the grub- 

 worm. It is a dark-colored worm, about one and a half inches 

 long, that eats off the plant close to the ground. I have some- 

 times known them destroy the rows, several feet in extent. 

 They operate in the night-time, and the only way to prevent it, 

 is to hunt for them and destroy them. I have known fields en- 

 tirely destroyed by this worm. 



My mode of management has been much the same as that of 



