136 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



For 1876, the second piece was manured with Cumberland 

 superphosphate alone, at about fifteen hundred pounds per 

 acre, applied just before sowing the seed, and raked in. 

 The yield on this piece was 136 bushels. 



The soil of both these pieces is a dark, strong loam, with a 

 rocky subsoil. The land was ploughed once in the fall of 

 1875, and twice this spring, at the last time ploughing six 

 furrows at a time, and then raking level with a common hay- 

 rake. The seed was sown on the eighth day of May, w r ith Mat- 

 thews' seed-drill, in rows fourteen inches apart, using four 

 and a half pounds of the yellow Danvers seed per acre. The 

 crop where the superphosphate was used ripened the earliest. 

 Where the manure was used, the onions had been just pulled 

 when viewed by your committee, and then looked rather 

 green, but they all dried off, so that they were housed before 

 the close of September. The onions were harvested by pull- 

 ing them by hand, and throwing three rows together, and 

 letting them lie a few days ; then turned by raking six 

 rows together, and, when thoroughly dry, carted to the 

 barn, where they were topped, and every basket of onions 

 weighed, allowing fifty-two pounds per bushel. The yield 

 of the crop was somewhat affected by the ravages of the 

 maggot. 



The onions, however, were very sound and hard, and of 

 good size, there being but few small ones, and scarcely any 

 scullions. 



The cost of raising crop on the half-acre was as follows, 

 viz. : — 



Cost of Crop. 



To ploughing and preparing land, $9 00 



sowing seed, 1 00 



cost of seed, 3 50 



superphosphate, 8 50 



value of manure on the land, . .... 16 00 



weeding five times, 25 00 



harvesting, 20 00 



Total, $33 00 



Amount of crop, 294 bushels, at 75 cents, 220 50 



Net profit, '. $137 50 



