132 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



feet deep with hay. They must not be touched or handled while 

 frozen. For marketing they should be evenly assorted ; many 

 small ones cause extra loss in price. 



On concluding his lecture, Mr. Gregory asked whether any one 

 present had had experience in planting onion seed in the fall. 



Discussion. 



William D. Philbrick, replying to Mr. Gregory's call for expe- 

 rience in fall sowing of onion seed, said that he had sown in 

 August but did uot succeed. A neighbor, the late Timothy 

 Corey, of Brookline, followed the plan successful^, sowing about 

 the 20th of July. When the ground began to freeze the plants 

 would be about a foot high ; they were then covered with strawy 

 horse manure which was raked off the first thing in spring. In 

 this way he got bunch onions the 20th of May ; he succeeded 

 about three years out of five. 



Mr. Gregory in reply to a question said that the very large 

 Spanish onions seen in the market, when cultivated here give only 

 a few good ones. 



Benjamin P. Ware said that in the West farmers plough up 

 prairie land and sow onion seed broadcast and get a great crop 

 without cultivation. This seems discouraging to us, but they are 

 still considered a profitable crop here. The onion maggot has 

 given him so much trouble that he does not grow as many onions 

 as he used to. Mr. Gregor}^ had shown that great manuring is 

 useless ; the speaker thought that eight cords of manure such as 

 he uses — the manure of cows and horses, with the addition of 

 sea manure — would furnish all the food needed ; it is much 

 better than^stable manure from Boston, where the most valuable 

 part — that is the liquid part, runs into the sewer and is wasted. 

 The lecturer had had great experience with implements, but there 

 is one — the drag, which Mr. Ware regards as of very great 

 value, that he did not mention. The speaker exhibited a model 

 of this implement, which he thought would do better work 

 than the Meeker harrow in pulverizing the ground for small 

 seeds. It is eight feet long and four feet wide, made of two-inch 

 plank, with a hard-wood cleat three inches wide and q,n inch thick 

 on the bottom. The planks are nailed firmly to two pieces of 

 timber, one end of each piece of timber being cut at such an 

 angle that the plank nailed to it is slightly inclined, so as to be 



