90 ESSAY ON ONIONS. 



weeds. Want of due care in this is often the cause of failure of a 

 crop. We have known the present season, a highly promising crop 

 to be injured twenty per cent at least, by permitting the weeds to re- 

 main unnoticed one week too long. This is especially true when 

 there has been a want of due care in preventing the scattering of the 

 seeds of the weeds on the land in the years preceding. Care should 

 be taken, both that no weeds shall ripen their seed upon the land, 

 and that no weed seed shall be found in the manure. In this respect 

 warm stable manure, muscle bed and ashes have a decided superiori- 

 ty over all other manures. Perhaps there is no plant more liable to 

 be injured by weeds than the onion. The fibres it sends out are very 

 numerous, minute, and tender ; any fracture of any of these necessa- 

 rily impairs the perfection of the plant. When the land is in proper 

 condition, two careful weedings are all that may be necessary. The 

 rest of the stirring of the ground that may be required to promote 

 the growth, can be done with the onion Jioe; an instrument, specially 

 constructed for the purpose, moving on wheels, and adapted to the 

 width of the rows. This hoe was invented by Mr. Joseph Bushby 

 of Danvers, an intelligent and successful cultivator of garden vege 

 tables, about twenty-five years since ; and was used by himself and 

 neighbors only for about ten years. It has now come into general 

 use, and saves much of back-aching labor. The usual distance be- 

 tween the rows is fourteen inches. This can be varied according to 

 the quality and condition of the soil. Keeping the ground well stir- 

 red, loose and free of weeds, greatly facilitates the bottoming of the 

 onion. There is no plant that will better reward diligent care in the 

 cultivation. The entire difference between a bountiful crop, and nO' 

 crop at all, often depends on this. The old maxim, "a stitch in time 

 saves nine" applies with great force in raising onions. 



6. The blights and injuries to which the crop may be subject. 



So far as we have observed, this crop is as certain as any other 

 that is cultivated. We know that onions will not grow without 

 a reasonable proportion of heat and moisture ; buc we have 

 rarely, if ever known, an entire failure of the crop, where due dili- 

 gence has been used. There are occasionally blights, the causes of 

 which we have not learned. The more prominent will be noticed. 



Sometimes we have seen the plant covered with a small insect or 

 louse, that gives the top a white or Hght colored aspect, and stops 

 and stints the growth. These make their ajpearance about the 



