250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



[March 4, 



bundant every season, because the piece will 

 grow richer annually, from the yearly dressings 

 that it will receive, and from the more perfect 

 amalgamation of the manure with the soil, which 

 requires repeated chopping and hoeing before 

 it takes place. 



I have always sowed onions in drills^ about 

 eighteen inches apart, to give fair play to the 

 hoe. Onions must be sowed as early as possi- 

 ble after the frost is out of the ground ; in this 

 climate if the seed is not in the ground before 

 the first of May, there is but litlle chance of a 

 crop. It must be covered slightly, and stamped 

 well over with the hoe to close it well. I 

 would recommend, as most essential, to sow the 

 seed sparingly. Even the best gardeners are 

 apt to put in too much seed. The consequence 

 is, that the young plants come up so lliick that 

 they run up spiry ami weak ; and ivhen you 

 come to thin them, )ou find great difficulty to 

 pull up so many v»ithout injuring those that you 

 leave ; and the worst injury is what you do to 

 the roots, which you tear and loosen. There- 

 fore, have seed of your own raising, or that you 

 know are fresii, and sow sparingly. 



Some thinning xeill alzeays be recjuisile, and that, 

 ought to be done as soon as possible alter they 

 are up. It will be of the greatest im|iortance 

 to give a moderate dressing of wood ashes over 

 the young plants, and repeat it several times, 

 whenever a shower is coming. If it is dry 

 weather, then throw the ashes learly in the 

 morning, when the dew is on. This will as- 

 sist them against a great enemy, an insect call- 

 ed, by some gardeners, Gu/i-/)oai)j£c Lice; being 

 not much bigger than a grain of powder, and 

 about the same colour. They often destroy a 

 crop of onions as they come up from the ground. 

 Repeated hoeings will he nee<lfiil, injt do not suf- 

 fer the hoe to go nearer than two inches from 

 the plants, for fear of loosening them ; no weeds 

 must be sulTered upon an onion bed, ;ind when 

 you hoe, be careful not to break and injure the 

 tops of (he onions. This would stop their o-rowth. 

 Also be carelul not to draw the soil over the 

 bulb, but rather from it ; when the bulb has 

 swelled to a good size, you may stop hoeing, for 

 the ground cannot he stirred without tearing the 

 roots in some degree, which at this period should 

 be undisturbed to bring the fruit to its full size 

 and perfection. 



As the onion ripens, the top withers ; and as 

 soon as you find that the roots have dried, and 

 that the onions come to the hand without much 

 l)ulling, then they are ripe ; and they ought to 

 he gathered in, every day, as they so ripen, and 

 spread upon a dry floor, where the dessication 

 will be completed. Alter an onion is ripe, it is 

 a great injury for it to remain any longer on the 

 ground. 



When the frost comes on, Ihey may be gath- 

 ered up on the floor in one or more heaps, and 

 afterwards put in loosely in flour barrels, (tops 

 and all) without being shaken or paciied tight. 

 And the heads of the barrels ought not to be put 

 in. These barrels may be put away for the 

 winter in a dry sheltered room, where the cold 

 is not felt in all its severity, and as they are 

 wanted, they may be brought in where the frost 

 which is in them will come ofl' gradually. 



In March, or earlier according to the season, 

 in mild fair weather, such barrels as remain on 

 band ought to be turned out and spread to dry 

 away the dampness which their confinement in 



I the barrels will create, and this may be Yepeat- 

 ' ed occasionally; for if they are permitted to 

 I remain close in the barrels, some will rot and 

 \ many will sprout. This, 1 conceive, is the way 

 generally adopted by the gardeners in the vi- 

 Icinity of Boston, which 1 have found to answer 

 very well. 



I There are various sorts of onions ; the red is, 

 I believe, the most hardy, and [)erhapsthe most 

 sure crop. Thev are generall}' cultivated upon 

 the extensive groun<!s of Weathersfield, in Con- 

 necticut, and also in Rhode Island, but they are 

 the most rank of the onion tribe. The Silver 

 Skins are much preferable for their mildness. 

 Upon light dry soils the White Onion, being an 

 early and quick grower, will answer best ; it is 

 the most delicate onion, but will not keep so 

 long, nor be so safe to pack for shipping as the 

 silver skin. 



Before I close these notes, I wish to he more 

 explicit on Ihe nature of the ntani;re6t for raising 

 onions. No raw dung of any sort is fit for the 

 j purpose ; but a compost of loam and dung, well 

 digested by age and by repeated lurning over. 

 [Or the compost which is taken out of the hog- 

 .;stve, kept over a year, till it has become fine 

 j and almost like a rich loam itself Vault manure 

 is as good as any, if it is sutiiciently reduced by 

 ! an addition of loam, and if it is kept at least a 

 year, and well exposed to the operation of the 

 frost. When summer comes on, 1 make uji a 

 heap in my barn yard of alternate layers of loan) 

 I and horse dung, to prevent it from horning. To 

 this 1 add the cattle dung which is taken u|> every 

 morning from about the yard to pre»ent its dry- 

 j ing up, and as the washing davs return, 1 have 

 J the soap suds thrown on tlie heap. It is carried 

 I out of the yard in the fdl, and when the spring 

 returns 1 find it to answer extremely well for mv 

 j onion-bed. In Rhode Island I have observed 

 i persons making up heaps of alternate layers of 

 i loam and, / believe, sun-Jish, a flat, oily fi<h which 

 j they catch for that purpose ; and this comport, 

 ; I have understood, never fails to give a line croj) 

 ' of onions. As to the precise quantity of manure, 

 it is difficult to specify. If you wish to prepare 

 new ground for a crop of onions, after repeated 

 ' ploughings and harrowings, and making the 

 ground as fine as a garden, and picking out all 

 the stones large and small, your care must be 

 to cover it over with a thick coat of strong ma- 

 nure, and I would recommend not to plough it in, 

 but to chop it in with the hoe, or rake it in with 

 an iron rake. Some crops may be cheated, lint 

 it is not so with onions; if you are sparing of ma- 

 nure, expect a crop of scullions. 



With the best wishes for the prosperity of 

 your useful publication, I am 



Your friend, J. M. 



From WiUiMs Domestic Enci/clopedta. 



CANDLES. 



There are two species of tallow candlc.=, the 

 one dipped and the other moulded ; the first are 

 those in common use ; the invention of the sec- 

 ond is attributed to Le Bregc, of Paris. Good 

 tallow candles ought to be made with equal parts 

 of sheep and ox tallow ; care being taken to a- 

 void any mixture of hog's lard, which occasions 

 a thick black smoke, attended with a disagree- 

 able smell, and also causes the candles to run. 



When the tallow has been weighed and mix- 



ed in due proportions, it is cut very small, that 

 it may be more speedily dissolved; for otherwise 

 it would be liable to burn, or become black, if 

 left too long over the fire. As soon as it is com- 

 pletely melted and skimmed, a certain quantity 

 i)f water, proportionate to that of the tallow, is 

 poured in for precipitating the impure particles 

 to the bottom of the vessel. This however, 

 should not be done till after the three first dips; 

 a>i the water, by penetrating the wicks, would 

 make the candles crackle in burning, and there- 

 by render them useless. To purify the tallow 

 still more, it is strained through a coarse horse 

 hair sieve into a tub ; where, after having re- 

 mained three hours it becomes fit for use. 



When the tallow is very dirty or rancid, an 

 ounce of pearl ash to about 10 lbs of tallow, put 

 into the water wherein the tallow is melted, is 

 of service. 



Wax Candles are of various kinds and forms : 

 they are made of cotton or flaxen wicks, slioht- 

 ly twisted, and covered with white or coloured 

 j wax. This operation is performed either by the 

 I hand or with a ladle. In order to soficn the 

 wax, it is first worked repeatedly in a deep nar- 

 row cauldron of hot water ; then laken out in 

 . Mnall pieces, and gradually disposed round the 

 I wick, which is fixed on a hook in the wall, be- 

 jgining with the larger end, and diminishing in 

 I proportion as the neck approaches ; to prevent 

 Ihe wax from adhering to the hands, they are 

 riibb d with "i| of olives, lird, or other unctuous 

 j substance. When it is intended to make wax 

 candles with a ladle, the wicks being prepared 

 as above mentioned, a dozen of them are fixed 

 lit equal distances round an iron circle, which 

 is suspended over a tinned copper vessel con- 

 taining melted wax ; a large ladlef'ul of which 

 is poured gently and repeatedly on the tops of 

 the wick, till the candles have acquired a prop- 

 er size, when they are taken down, kept warm, 

 and smoothed upon a walnut-tree table with a 

 long square instrument of box, which is contin- 

 I iially nioislpned with hot water, to prevent the 

 , adhesion of the wax. In other respects this 

 mode of' making wax candles corresponds with 

 that of manul'acturing them with the hand. 



From the increasng demand and price of wax, 

 various experiments have been tried in order 

 to discover proper substitutes, uliich might pos- 

 sess similar solidity. We are informed by a for- 

 eign journal, that this desirable object has been 

 satisfactorily attained, by melting down an equal 

 quantity of tallow and resin. In order to ascer- 

 tain the truth of this assertion we were induced J 

 to repeat the experiment, but without success;! 

 for, though the two substances incorporated, 

 they had not a sufiicient degiee of cohesion ; 

 and, when moulded into a proper form, the tal- 

 low burned, but the resin dissolved, and sepa- 

 rated from it. 



Although candles are preferable to lamps, as 

 their light is less injurious both to the eyes and 

 lungs, and as they ilo not produce so great a vol- 

 ume of smoke, yet a clean chamber lamp, which 

 emits as little smoke and smell as possible, is 

 far swperioreven to wax candles ; for, 1. As all 

 candles burn downwards, Ihe eye necessarily 

 becomes more faligued and strained during the 

 latter hours of candle-light ; 2. Because they 

 yield an irregular light, which occasions the ad- 

 ditional trouble of snuffing them ; and lastly, be- 

 cause, if the air be agitated ever so little, or if 

 the candles are made of bad materials, they in 



