104 FARMS. 



drained field exhibited in the Transactions of the Society for 1854. 

 A portion of this lot, (viz, that part which before under-draining, 

 was covered -with stagnant water much of the year,) say from one- 

 fourth to one-half an acre, has now upon it the greatest yield of 

 onions, beyond all controversy, ever raised in the county of Essex. 

 Mr. B.'s estimate I beheve was 1000 bushels to the acre for this 

 spot. I cannot estimate it at less than that, and indeed find I had 

 marked on my memorandum as high as 1200 to the acre for the 

 spot referred to ; and in my present estimate of 1000 bushels I am 

 fully sustained by several gentlemen. Trustees of the Society, who 

 visited and examined this field just before the onions were pulled. 

 They were then lying upon the ground and perhaps seen to better 

 advantage. This amazing yield, it is true, is confined to a compar- 

 atively small spot ; but if the whole eight acres shall be found to 

 have less than 5000 bushels of marketable onions, I shall be dis- 

 appointed. The average would be 625 bushels, and as that amount 

 has not unfrequently been reached in the county, I cannot believe 

 it too high. The manure was chiefly the decomposed kelp 

 before mentioned, ploughed in, with a small quantity of compost 

 manure. Mr. B.'s usual quantity of the kelp is 8 to 10 cords to 

 the acre, but in ISoit he put on 12 cords per acre, and undoubtedly 

 thai extra amount is felt in this year's crop although some fields 

 have suffered by the drought. 

 A lesson is to be learned from the fact, that upon one side of the un- 

 der-drained field, for perhaps thirty rods, the last year's crop was 

 turniiJS — and there the onion top is yet somewhat green ; but 

 where the onion follows a carrot croj), it is nearly as ripe as when 

 following onions themselves. The onion rows in this and all the 

 other lots, are fourteen inches apart. 



Other fields in onions presented crops every way equal to the 

 one above described, with the exception of the quarter or half 

 acre particularly described. One of these fields, now parljy in 

 grass, was taken out of the pasture in 1836. 



Guano, it may be said in passing, has proved useless upon Mr. 

 B.'s annual crops of all kinds, though 200 pounds per acre, he 

 thinks, has given an extra ton of hay. 



Mr. Brown has five acres in squashes. One measured acre haa 



