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On Onions. By JFilliam Phillips. 

 Read February- 14th, 1809. 



Philadelphia January loth, 1809. 

 Sir, 



Some years past upon a journey through Connecti- 

 cut, I was surprised at the ver}* great difference between 

 their mode of cuhivating onions, and that usually pur- 

 sued in Pennsylvania; and was forcibly struck with the 

 superior advantages of theirs, which enabled them to 

 raise prodigious quantities ; for it was not uncommon 

 to see fields of ten acres occupied by them. — Since that 

 time I have frequently proposed to the gardeners around 

 this city, to try an experiment upon their mode of cul- 

 ture, \\ hich is, to sow the seed so thin that they may 

 stand at the distances at which they plant their young 

 onions (called seed onions) which mode I was impress- 

 ed \dth a belief, would bring them to perfection in one 

 year, as it does in Connecticut, our summers being as 

 long, and I believe the climate as congenial to them as 

 that of the state just mentioned ; they however univer. 

 sally objected, asserting that they would not obtain 

 their full growth in one year, though I could not find 

 that any one had really ascertained it. I was there- 

 fore induced myself to try the experiment. — Four years 

 past I had a piece of ground prepared in the usual 

 mode and season, and sowed the seed about three in- 

 ches apart, (which I found could not be done with re- 

 gularity in any other mode than putting the seeds in a 

 bottle, which was afterwards corked and a quill fixed 



VOL. II. C 



