able soil than it is to " spit aguiust ili.; wind," and if von attempt it you will 

 only " get your labor for your paina." The soil must be clean, rich, and 

 light, not a gravelly kind, or one so dry as to suffer from drouth — sandy 

 loam is the best. Next, the ground should be heavily salted, and this well 

 worked in before sowing. The sowing should be done in April, and as early 

 in the month as possible; " delay is dangerous." With a heavy roller, or 

 the feet, or in some way, the ground in which the seeds lie should be pressed 

 down quite hard. "Weeding should be attended to as soon as you can safely 

 ■lo so, and as often as the grass (which is the only weed that wUl be likeJy 

 J appear if the ground has been heavily salted) appears and is large 

 nough to pull (the smaller the better), being careful not to throw earth 

 upon the onions in any way or at any time during their growth. Follow 

 these rules, and if weather favors, success is certain, and the weather mut^t 

 be qtiite unusual to cause failure. The tops should be left on the bed or 

 field to rot, or to spade or plow in; and onions improve by being grown on 

 the same ground year after year. While I believe it to be better to work the 

 soil up fine for the reception of the seed, and after sowing to press the 

 <TOund down hard upon the seed, yet I have known very good crops growo 

 V making a groove or furrow with a sharp instrument in unplowed ground, 

 overing the seed vrith the earth thrown out by the process, pressing it down, 

 a heavy coat of manure having been applied as a top dressing the fall be- 

 fore, and raked or burnt off before sowing. Top dressing is a good practice 

 for onions, whether the land is plowed or not. Plow shallow if you plow 

 at all. 



A Xevr Metbod of Raising Onions. — A new method of onion-growing 

 is strongly recommended by a French horticulturist. Some of the seedUngs 

 in the original bed should be left standing at intervals of about a couple of 

 inches, and the spaces between them caused by the removal of the rest, 

 tilled in with good garden mold mixed ^N-ith pigeon's dung, or ordinarj' 

 eees. The beds must be kept well watered, and it la said the resulting 

 crop will astonish the grower. 



Keeping Winter Sqaashes. — Many farmers are at a loss to know how 

 some are successful in keeping their squashes in good condition, until May 

 r June, while they lose most of theirs before the end of February; they 

 usually attribute their want of success to causes beyond their control, when 

 a careful investigation would show that mismanagement was the principal 

 cause. Squashes to keep well must, first, be well ripened; second, they 

 should be gathered before heavy frosts come; third, should be well dried; 

 fourth, the shell should be well glazed over, and while it need not be thick 

 it should be hard; fifth, they should be kept where the temperature is very 

 even, never very cold, or very hot; sixth, in handling, great care should be 

 taken not to bruise them; this is of the highest imj)ortance. Many farmers 

 leave their squashes out until the frost kills the vines; the squashes are 

 thus left exposed to the cold winds, and they are frequently left until it is 

 cold enough to freeze water, and change the color of the tops of the 

 squashes; this is fatal to their good keeping. Others, when they find that 

 cold weather has come, hurry them in just as night sets in, and in their 

 haste to get them under cover, they load them into the wagon as though 

 they were stones; thus bruising nine out of every ten to a degree that causes 

 them to rot by Thanksgiving time. 



Squashes are often stored in the bam, in one heap, until they get chilled, 

 when they are carried into a warm, damp cellar, where they soon rot, and 



