115 



and one of 39 rods. On the first piece, the crop of 1874 was 

 onions. Barn cellar mannre, at the rate of about twenty-five 

 loads, and Cumberland Superphosphate, at the rate of half a 

 ton per acre, were used. On the second piece the crop and 

 manure for 1874 were the same as on the first. In 1875 the 

 crop on both pieces was onions ; the first piece was manured 

 with Cumberland Superphosphate alone, at about twelve hun- 

 dred pounds per acre. The second piece was manured with 

 barn cellar manure alone, at about thirty loads per acre. For 

 the crop of 1876, the first piece was manured with about 

 twenty-five loads of thirty bushels each per acre, being a 

 compost of meadow muck, and cattle, horse and hog manure, 

 ploughed in, in the fall of 1875. The yield on this piece was 

 158 bushels and a fraction over. 



For 1876, the second piece was manured with Cumberland 

 Superphosphate alone, at about 1500 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 8th day of May with Mat- 

 thew's Seed Drill, in rows fourteen inches apart, using four 

 and a half pounds of the yellow Dan vers 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 olf, 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 let- 

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

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

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

 weighed, allowing 52 pounds per bushel. The yield of the 

 crop was somewhat affected by the ravages of the maggot. 



