HOW TO RAISE ONIONS. 



tight, put down scantling, and lay on a temporary 

 loose floor for the onions, and if room is plenty, do 

 not put them over two feet thick. That I may be 

 better understood I will give a description of a fit 

 place to store onions for fall and winter keeping. 

 Make a building with the top of the sills one foot from 

 the ground, to afford room for air to blow freely under 

 a loose floor, laid upon the sills. On the inside of the 

 building, crib around with boards to the height you wish 

 to make the pile, leaving a space of fifteen inches be- 

 tween them and the outside. 



As the onions are put in, set a small bundle of straw 

 on the end, about once in five feet, to act as a venti- 

 lator. When cold weather approaches, fill the space 

 around the outside, with the onion-tops which are cut, 

 or an equivalent, and bank around outside the building 

 with litter of some kind. In this region near the 

 shore, sea-weed is used to a good purpose, but coarse 

 manure will do, having some place where the air can 

 be let im in mild weather. Cover the top of the onions 

 with dry litter, such as hay, cornstalks or the like. 

 If put up in good order, they will keep in this way, 

 and perhaps bring price enough to pay the extra work. 



In cutting off the tops, a pocket-knife is generally 

 used. This work can be done at any time after thej 

 are housed, but those intended for keeping late in 

 Spring will do better to remain in the tops until wanted, 

 for market. It is difficult to tell at what time they 

 should be marketed, as the price varies with the 

 seasons. The large quantities raised along the shore 

 here, are sold in New- York, mostly by the barrel, sent 

 in sloops sailing between the city and the different 

 ports. They are sent as soon as they are large enough 

 in the fall, and continued until late in spring. As a 

 general rule, probably, it would be well to dispose ot 

 one half of the crop before the holidays, and look out 

 for the remainder. 



Five hundred bushels per acre are a fair yield, but 

 seven or eight hundred bushel are often raised. Usually 

 the yield is less the first year or two ; after that, if well 

 manured, the crop is more certain and the land may 

 be continued in onions year after year. I know o 

 ground that has produced onions for forty years in 

 succession, with only a rest of one or two years, and 

 yielded well. 



No. III. 



BY JONATHAN DENNIS, NEWPORT CO., R, I. 



THB Island of Rhode Island and the shores of Nara- 

 gansett Bay, have long been celebrated for the raising 

 of onions, particularly the town of Bristol, situated on 

 the main land, twelve miles from the city of Prov- 

 idence, and enjoying a fine harbor, from which large 

 quantities of onions are annually shipped to New- 

 York and all the southern ports of the Union ; but 

 the largest trade perhaps, is carried on with the Island 

 of Cuba, to which great quantities of potatoes, and 

 onions, and other vegetables, are annually shipped, 

 bringing sugar and molasses as return cargo. 



Newport also carries on a considerable trade in 

 onions and other vegetables, with the South. 



SOIL. The onion requires a rich soil, and if it is not 

 naturally so, it must be made so, by the addition of a 

 liberal dressing of manure, otherwise it is of but little 

 use to try to raise a crop of onions ; black heavy soil 

 and rather moist, or such as will not suffer from drouth, 

 perhaps is the best ; but almost any soil that will pro- 

 duce a good crop of Indian corn will answer if made 

 rich enough. Old gardens that have been long culti- 

 vated will generally raise a crop without much diffi- 

 culty, but new land, or land that has not been highly 

 cultivated for a number of years, will not generally 

 produce a full crop for the first year or two, owing, as 

 I suppose, to the manure not becoming sufficiently in- 



corporated with the soil. Those not experienced in the 

 raising of this crop should not be discouraged if they 

 do not succeed the first year, for the onion, unlike 

 most other crops, succeeds better the longer it is plant- 

 ed on the same ground, except in some instances af- 

 ter long planting in the same place, they seem to be- 

 come diseased from some cause not well understood, 

 when alternating with another crop for a year or" two 

 is said to remedy the evil. * This disease shows itselt 

 by the curling of the leaves and turning of a yellow 

 sickly hue, and upon breaking the leaves they appear 

 to be filled with a kind of smut ; hence the disorder is 

 called the smut. 



MANURE. That from the hog-pen I consider the 

 best, but barn or stable-manure will answer nearly as 

 well on most soils ; sea manure is considered excel- 

 lent on our soils. The waters of Naragansett Bay 

 produce large quantities of marine plants, which are 

 washed on the shores and collected by the farmers, 

 and composted in barn-yard and hog-pen, and produce 

 a most valuable manure for this crop. 



Large quantities of fish are taken in this bay, and 

 when composted and mixed with barn or hog-yard 

 manure, are much used for onions. Guano does not 

 seem to suit them as well as it does some other crops, 

 and I would uot advise farmers to try to raise onions 



