234 APPENDIX. 



ed, and about two bushels of fresh horse manure spread be- 

 tween the rows. In June, four rows were first watered with 

 the solution of geine above described. In ten days the onions 

 in these rows were nearly double the size of the others. All 

 but six rows of the remainder were then watered. The growth 

 of these soon outstripped the unwatered remainder. 



Mr. Henry Gould, who manages my farm on shares, and 

 who conducted all the foregoing experiments, without think, 

 ing of the importance of leaving at least one row unwatered 

 that we might better ascertion the true effect of this manage- 

 ment, seeing the benefit to the parts thus watered, in about a 

 week after, treated the remainder in the same manner. The 

 ends of some of the rows, however, which did not receive the' 

 watering, produced only very small onions, such as are usually 

 thrown away as worthless by cultivators of this crop. This 

 fact leads me to believe that if the onions had not been water- 

 ed with the solution of geine, not a single bushel of a good 

 size would have been produced on the whole piece. At any 

 rate, it was peat or geine rendered soluble by alkali, that pro- 

 duced this large crop. 



The crop proved greater than our most sanguine expecta- 

 tions. The onions were measured in the presence of the 

 chairman of your committee, and making ample allowance for 

 the tops which had not been stripped off, were adjudged equal 

 to four bushels to the acre. In these experiments, 7 lbs. of 

 potash which cost 7 cents a pound, bought at the retail price, 

 were used. Potash, although dearer than wood ashes at 12 1-2 

 cents per bushel, is, I think, cheaper than the whitewash men- 

 tioned by Dr. Dana, and sufficiently cheap to make with mead- 

 ow mud, a far cheaper manure than such as is in general used 

 among our farmers. The experiment satisfies me that nothing 

 better than potash and peat can be used for most if not all our 

 cultivated vegetables, and the economy of watering with a so- 

 lution of geine, such as are cultivated in rows, I think cannot 

 be doubted. The reason why the corn was not very obviously 

 benefitted, I think, must have been, that the portion of the roots 

 to which it was applied, was already fully supplied with nutri- 

 ment out of the same kind from the peat ashes and manure 

 put in the hill at planting. For watering rows of onions or 



