92 



thrifty young fanners of our north end of the county who is 

 doing very successful and meritorious work in seed grow* 

 ing. He showed us some low and very wet ground which 

 he has but recently brought into a productive state by run- 

 ning through its centre a main and open drain and covered 

 drains at right angles with this and emptying into it. 

 Upon this and adjoining higher land he raises his onions 

 and seed. Mr. Mann's onions would ordinarily have come 

 up to standard of premium. They looked like an onion of 

 fine quality and enough in number for the space of ground 

 upon which they were grown. But the average onion 

 looked to us (they were raked out when we saw them) 

 rather under size, caused by what Mr. Mann called a 

 " blight stopping the growth when little more than half 

 grown." This seems to be no fault of Mr. Mann's methods 

 or any lack of his efforts to secure the best of results. 



His cabbage lot upon the top of one of the highest hills 

 of Methuen was well worth our going to see, though we 

 had a hard climb to get to it. This land was once only 

 used for pasturage, and was covered with stones, which, with 

 great perseverance and labor, have been dug out and removed 

 by Mr. Mann, and with a moderate amount of fertilizer this 

 land has produced cabbages which received First Premium 

 at the fair in Peabody, and to which crop we also recom- 

 mend an award. 



We next visited Mr. John H. George, a near neighbor of 

 Mr. Mann. Here we were invited to dine. We should be 

 obliged to award to Mrs. George, as to Mrs. Page, in Salem, 

 first premium for a sumptuous and well-served dinner. The 

 ladies of Essex county know how to prepare and spread the 

 table with the fruits of the soil. 



Mr. George's onions were ripened and fit to rake out a 

 full week before they were seen by us, about Sept. 1. They 

 were upon a piece of land reclaimed from meadow with 

 peat bottom. A ditch simply being cut round his entire 

 lot with no under drain whatever. The soil is very deep. 

 We saw a rake handle thrust down to the head and the 



