194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



good onions; whereas, if you do not pursue this course or 

 some other, they will be of no use whatever. 



In harvesting onions, we pull them, putting six rows in 

 one, but not too thickly. If the ground is a little foul with 

 weeds at that time, we take an old scarifier frame, with the 

 teeth out, and go to the blacksmith's and have a steel cutter 

 made, as long as the scarifier frame is broad, and attach it to 

 the frame. Then, when we have cleaned the space of six 

 rows, we hitch a horse to that cutter, which works like the 

 truckle hoe, and go over the surface of the land, cutting about 

 two inches deep, and then rake up the weeds, and proceed as 

 before with six more rows. After the onions have remained 

 there a few days, or a week, if it is dry weather, they should 

 be turned over with a rake with wooden teeth, care being 

 taken not to let the rake-teeth pierce the onions, as they fre- 

 quently do, for every onion that is pierced is injured or 

 spoiled. When they are dried as thoroughly as possible, 

 they may be carted to the barn or shed. If 3^011 choose to 

 top them in the field, very well, but Ave generally gather them 

 into the barn. They will bear placing in piles three or four 

 feet deep if sufficiently dry, but they must be put in a dry 

 place, where the air will draw through them and continue to 

 dry them. Thorough drying is very important, and a neces- 

 sary preparation for keeping. 



Question. Can anything be done for the blight? 



Mr. Wake. There is one disease which appears to be a 

 blight, but which is not. The severe drought of last summer 

 brought what appeared to be a blight upon the onion crop, 

 .but by careful examination it was found to be caused by a 

 little insect, much like the aphis. I presume it is not the 

 aphis, although it resembles it very much. They always 

 appear in. a dry time, and multiply so fast that they will 

 spread over a whole field in a few days. I have seen an 

 onion field that appeared in a perfect condition of growth 

 entirely destroyed in ten days by the ravages of this insect in 

 a very dry time. If the gentleman alludes to smut, which 

 sometimes attacks the onion crop, I will say this : The smut 

 is a disease of the land, and after a piece of land has become 

 impregnated with the spores of the fungi that we call "smut," 

 it is no use to attempt to raise onions there. It will not do 



