ON ROOT CROPS. 



Ill 



that department of expense. To prepare the land, and sow 



an acre, and the seed for the same, is worth ten dollars. It 



requires, to cultivate an acre of onions properly, the labor of 



one man thirty-six days, including marketing, at an expense of 



fifty-nine dollars, thus closing the list of expenditures, which 



may be drawn up in a statement, after the following manner : 



For land rent, per acre, - - - - $15 00 



" manure and drawing, - - - 36 00 



'' preparing the land, &c., - - - 10 00 



'•' hoeing and weeding the first time, - 10 00 



" hoeing and weeding the second time, - - 10 00 



" hoeing two days, - - - - 2 50 



" pulling an acre, - - - - 2 50 



*' harvesting an acre, - - - 3 75 



" picking over four hundred bushels, - - 6 25 



" carrying to Boston eight loads, - - 24 00 



Making a total of expenditures, - - $120 00 



The most pleasant part of my task consists in recording the 

 profits of the crop. I have never as yet been able to raise on 

 an average, one year with another, more than four hundred 

 bushels of onions to the acre. Such has been the result of my 

 labor the past season. The profits accruing from an acre of 

 onions, at four hundred bushels per acre, and at an average 

 price of forty cents per bushel, is forty dollars. It has been 

 the practice among cultivators of onions to spread on their ma- 

 nure, of whatever kind it may be, and plough it in, in the 

 spring, to a depth scarcely sufiicient to cover the dressing ; 

 year after year have they kept on in the old beaten track of 

 shoal ploughing, thus rendering the soil below the depth of 

 four or five inches, hard and unyielding, the result of which 

 has been a great sufl;ering of the crop, in a very dry time. It 

 is evident that a piece of land, ploughed to such a depth for a 

 long succession of years, must have a sub-soil which the roots 

 of an onion cannot penetrate, hence the necessity of deeper 

 ploughing. The question then arises, when shall this deep 

 ploughing be performed ? Shall it be done in the spring, or in 

 the fall ? It is obvious that if the dressing is turned in deep in 



