&l)c .farmer's ittonthlri btsitor. 



23 



very rock, \v;is rile \\ itli flourishing voting pencil 

 trees, and with the remnants of cantelopes, mel- 

 ons and squashes from which, each market day 

 had already carried away cart-loads. Tlie apple 

 orchard producing its hundreds ami even its 

 thousand barrels in a year, had expanded almost 

 to a forest covering, hut yet not so shutting out 

 sun and heat ns to prevent the annual crops of 

 grass, grain or vegetables. Both the ledgy or 

 pebbled bill on the one band, ami the peat mo- 

 rass on the other, bad been made to turn out 

 each its wonderful production. The muck was 

 taken from the low meadow in opening ditches, 

 and its place was filled with the thousands of 

 loads of stones, which were covered below the 

 reach of the plough. In ibis way, the one bad 

 been converted into deep soil by a lower reach 

 of the plough at every new attempt, and the 

 other was better prepared for another crop by 

 the lightening surface produced from every new 

 drainage. With the rank crops upon the one, 

 and the. deep vegetable mould upon the other, a 

 new visitor would scarcely dream what this land 

 had been. This farm of Col. Pbinney not only 

 furnishes its almost daily tons for the market, 

 but its hay, grain and roots raised for consump- 

 tion at home are immense. Where the land 

 does not already produce, steps are taken even 

 in an extended perspective, to make the earth 

 yield all it is capable. lie has made extensive 

 under-drains in those parts of bis mowing 

 grounds where the standing water had injured 

 or destroyed the crop ; and his increased crops 

 of bay have already refunded the out-lay. 



The old mansion where he and his fathers re- 

 sided for many years, one day near haying time, 

 last summer, (the fire catching from the wind in 

 the back part, where bis men bad been won I to 

 cook food for swine,) had been burnt to the 

 ground: with great difficulty was the fire kept 

 under so as to prevent the conflagration of his 

 main barn and extensive out-houses. The family 

 was thus deprived of their usual place of shelter 

 and rest; and we found them occupying the 

 one-half of the nearest common farm house, 

 whose owner bad generously divided with him 

 the only convenient place, enabling him to carry 

 forward the business of the farm in the most 

 busy season. Col. P. had staked out the ground 

 for the erection of n new house ; and this upon 

 an eminence looking sixty and eighty miles into 

 the country, to the mountains of our own Granite 

 State, the Monadnock and the Kearsarge. 



Col. Pbinney has had under charge the Ayr- 

 shire breeders, imported a few years since by 

 the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society, for the benefit of the people of the old 

 commonwealth. The progeny did credit to both 

 the male and female parents of the family. The 

 Ayrshires are of the most handsome and splen- 

 did cattle, not so much for their size as for their 

 remarkably beautiful coler and proportions. The 

 calves of the present season wer .■ valued and 

 selling at the price of one hundred dollars each. 



From the benevolent wish of seeing improve- 

 ment go on does this gentleman pursue with 

 zeal the calling which must put him to great 

 personal labor and inconvenience. A distin- 

 guished cotemporary of Col. P. (Cen. H. A. S. 

 Dearborn, of Roxbury, himself an amateur,) said 

 of him in a letter which we have seen — "There 

 is no man in the commonwealth whom I hold in 

 higher estimation from the great services he hn s 

 rendered to all the departments of rural indus- 

 try." 



Col. Pbinney was the first practical man of 



our acquaintance to try the benefit of sub-soiling. 

 The hardness of his grounds prevented the use 

 of the first constructed cast iron sub-soil plough : 

 he constructed one with three iron pins or bolts, 

 running into the ground like the tooth of a har- 

 row. This stirred the hard pan, bringing up 

 rocks and pebbles. He was satisfied at once 

 with the principle ; and we are glad to see him, 

 up to this lime, ready to reiterate his first con- 

 victions of the great utility of the sub-soil 

 plough. 



In this country, it may he affirmed, that sub- 

 soil ploughing has yet been only superficially 

 tried. The expenditures in England for this 

 method of improving land are often much great- 

 er than the original value of the land itself: no 

 capital was or can be better invested than in 

 these great out-lays. Under-draining is consid- 

 ered an indispensable prerequisite to the general 

 use of the sub-soil plough. Tenacious and hard 

 and heavy soils, by deep under-drains, are 

 brought into permanent lively action by the use 

 of the sub-soil plough. The drains are covered 

 and so constructed as to convey away the super- 

 abundant water which drowns out the ground 

 where it is only stirred upon a superficial sur- 

 face. Not only are drains made at suitable dis- 

 tances, but the sub-soil as well as surface is 

 cleared of rocks to a considerable depth: wet 

 lands are made dry by this process. The work 

 of a hundred years is done by the perfect con- 

 struction of the drains. Manures upon land 

 thus prepared have all their effect. Col. Pbin- 

 ney, in pursuing a similar principle in his low 

 peat meadows, has made land which be values 

 at the rate of five hundred dollars to the acre. 

 Instead of the tile draining in a hard sub-soil, 

 his drainage of the meadow has been the dispo- 

 sition under the surf ice of thousands of loads of 

 rocks gathered from the adjacent highlands as 

 they are brought up by the deeper ploughing. 



This mode of under-draining swamp lands is 

 becoming more frequent in many of the interior 

 towns of New England : the improvement 

 should always commence by cutting off the cold 

 springs where the low meadows connect with 

 the upland. We cannot doubt that the time is 

 not distant when farmers will make it their busi- 

 ness to improve their heavy clay and bard pan 

 lands by conducting away the water under 

 ground, and afterwards' cultivating with the 

 plough, at least double the depth of the former 

 practiee. 



Our land under the plough is all of the kind 

 that needs no under-draining: ivc are using the 

 subsoil plough, and stirring our plough-lands to 

 the depth of full sixteen inches where the bottom is 

 gravel or sand. The effect of sub-soil ploughing, 

 thus far, on our lightest grounds, has been gene- 

 rally to increase their strength and capacity. 

 Corn and potatoes stand well against drought 

 after such deep stirring. 



CULTIVATION OF THE OtflOiV. 



The Essex Transactions this year contain in- 

 teresting matter in relation to the. cultivation of the 

 Onion in the town of Danvers. That vegetable, 

 the most healthy of the common kinds for table 

 use, may he made an article of export from the 

 New England States to almost an unlimited ex- 

 tent. The demand for it will be increased by 

 the increase of production. At the price of one 

 dollar per barrel, of two and a half bushels, it is 

 confidently slated by practical men, that one 

 acre of onions may be made to produce a clear 

 profit of one hundred dollars. Mr. John Peaslee 



avers that his new machine will hoe an acre a 

 day with a single hand. The ground carefully 

 prepared, the weeds may he kept under, and 

 onions in quantities may be raised cheaper than 

 so ninny bushels of potatoes. The produce per 

 acre of well prepared land, is four and five hun- 

 dred bushels: J\lr. Daniel Oshorn, of Danvers, 

 raised from one acre and thirty-two rods of land, 

 eight hundred and twenty bushels ! 



We do not doubt that further in the country 

 and to the noi th of Danvers, the same kind of 

 land with the same stimulated manures, will 

 produce great crops of onions. Farmers and 

 gardeners lose much of their labor for the want 

 of the necessary stimulants in their due propor- 

 tion. Stable manure, the best of stimulants, is 

 good for every kind of land ; hut there are other 

 stimulants acting in union that will give stable 

 manure much greater and more durable effect. 

 The mineral manures brought into action by 

 deeper ploughing and continued stirring and 

 mixing of the lower and upper surface, contri- 

 bute grently to the life of the crop : they prevent 

 blight and mildews. Perhaps this process is more 

 necessary for other than onion crops. They re- 

 ceive their aliment near the surface ; but deep 

 ploughing for a first preparation cannot injure 

 even the onion crop. 



As a practical observer in the growing of the 

 onion crop, Mr. Proctor is well qualified to give 

 instruction ; and we copy with great gratifica- 

 tion from the Essex Transactions, the entire es- 

 say, for which he received the Society's premium 

 of ten dollars: 



An Essay on the Cultivation of the Onion, by John 

 W. Proctor— October, 1847. 



The culture of onions has increased so much, 

 within a few years, in this vicinity, that it has 

 become one of the staple products of the county. 

 In the town of Danvers, more money is realized 

 from the sale of the onion, than any other pro- 

 duct of the soil. Products of so much value, 

 and commanding so much attention, are fit sub- 

 jects of inquiry ; and if there he any facts relat- 

 ing to their cultivation not generally known, it 

 may be useful to have them brought forward. 



In making these inquiries, our attention has 

 been directed almost entirely to practical culti- 

 vators, without reference to scientific treatises. 

 Our intention being to tell their story, as near as 

 possible, in their own way. 



We shall treat of the subject in the following 

 order. 



1. The preparation of the land. 



2. The manure best adapted to promote the 

 growth. 



3. The raising and planting of the seed. 



4. The care necessary to he applied while 

 growing. 



5. The blights and injuries to which the crop 

 may he liable. 



(i. The time and manner of harvesting. 



1. As to the preparation of the land. 



Differing from most other crops, the onion 

 grows well, on the same land for an indefinite 

 number of years. Instances of continued ap- 

 propriation of the same pieces of land to the 

 growing of onions, for ten, fifteen, twenty, and 

 even thirty years have come to our knowledge. 

 It is the opinion of many that the crop is better, 

 after the land has been thus used a few years, 

 than at first. Whether this arises from any in- 

 fluence of the crop upon the soil, or is the effect 

 of continued dressing of manures, we have no 

 menus of determining. This is certain — that the 

 qualities of the soil necessary for the production 

 of good crops are not exhausted by continued 

 cultivation. 



Rarely, if ever, have we known the onion 

 sowed upon the turf when first turned over. It 

 is usual to subdue and pulverize the soil, l>_\ the 

 cultivation of corn, or some other crop. Not 

 unbequently the first year with corn, the second 

 with carrots, and afterwards with onions. It is 

 important, before the seed is sown, that the sur- 



