ON ROOT CROPS. 109 



Onions. It is unnecessary, since the Essay on this subject by 

 the President of the Society, to say much upon the Onion. Unlike 

 almost every other root, it does best by being continued on the same 

 ground. A gentleman writing in the (old) New England Farmer, 

 says he is now raising a fine crop of onions on a piece of land where 

 they have been sown for eighty successive years, as nearly as he can 

 determine. This fact is an important one, because, when the 

 ground is once clear of weeds, it is much easier to keep it so than 

 to clear a new piece. 



Many a piece of ground has been abandoned for onion raising, 

 just because they did not seem to do well on the first trial. But it 

 has been quaintly remarked by observing farmers, that almost any 

 rich land will bear onions after it gets used to them, and there is a 

 good deal in it. 



Turnips. Inducements to cultivate them. No such malady as 

 has prevailed among potatoes, has ever yet assailed the turnip. It 

 is, indeed, subject to insect ravages, but these are open and palpa- 

 ble, and can be detected so early in the season, that means may be 

 taken for ridding the plant of them ; and if ineffectual, the crop 

 may be ploughed in, and something else done with the land the same 

 year. But the labor of growing an acre of turnips is less than one 

 of potatoes or of corn, while the produce is double. T went on to 

 an half acre of land which had been ploughed, Avith one hand with 

 me, on the 26th of last May. With the horse, and cultivator spread 

 wide, and one tooth only on each side, we furrowed the land, sowed 

 the seed by hand, and covered it with a common hay rake, using 

 sometimes the teeth and sometimes the head, in little more than half 

 a day. To have planted with potatoes must have taken longer. 

 With a seed-sower it could have been done quicker, and probably 

 better. I have stated the fact, however, so that none may be de- 

 terred from raising root crops on account of the labor. As to the 

 subsequent labor, the ploughing between the rows is the same as 

 among potatoes, of course — thinning and transplanting are extra, it 

 IS true, but if very thick you obtain some fodder, or if the plants 

 be left on the ground, some manure. The hoeing is about the same 

 as hoeing other crops, — and in harvesting, by help of the plough 

 run along side of the rows, it is obvious that the same quantity 

 could be gathered, in far less time. I have referred to the French 

 turnip in the above remarks, — a name, however, which has almost 



