ON MANURES, &C. 39 



above described. In ten days the onions in these 

 rows were nearly double the size of the others. All 

 but six rows of the remainder were then watered 

 The growth of these soon outstripped the unwatered 

 remainder. 



Mr. Henry Gould, who manages my farm on 

 shares, and who conducted all the foregoing experi- 

 ments, without thinking of the importance of leaving 

 at least one row unwatered that we might better as- 

 certain the true effect of this management, seeing 

 the benefit to the parts thus watered, in about a 

 week after treated the remainder in the same man- 

 ner. The ends of some of the rows, however, which 

 did not receive the watering, produced only very 

 small onions, such as are usually thrown away as 

 worthless by cultivators of this crop. This fact leads 

 me to believe that if the onions had not been water- 

 ed with the solution of geine, not a single bushel of 

 a good size would have been produced on the whole 

 piece. At any rate it was peat or geine rendered 

 soluble by alkali that produced this large crop. 



The crop proved greater than our most sanguine 

 expectations. The onions were measured in the 

 presence of the chairman of your committee, and 

 making ample allowance for the tops which had not 

 been stripped off, were adjudged equal to four bush- 

 els to the square rod, or at the rate of 640 bushels to 

 the acre. In these experiments 7 lbs. of potash which 

 cost 7 cts. a pound bought at the retail price, were 

 used. Potash although dearer than wood ashes at 

 12g cents per bushel, is, I think, cheaper than the 

 whiteash mentioned by Dr. Dana, and sufficiently 



