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while in the little town of Revere, only three miles from 

 Boston, there were 40,000 bushels grown in 1886. The 

 gardeners in Revere have somewhat the advantage of us in 

 having a large supply of manure very handy and at a very 

 low price ; they will not pay anything for cow manure, and 

 some will not take it away, as they say they can get very 

 much better crops from horse manure, which starts the 

 crops quicker, drives them faster and matures them earlier, 

 while it is much easier to handle and team: they use very 

 little commercial fertilizers as they can see no money in it; 

 it does not seem to affect the crop at all, and why should 

 it? If we country farmers could plow in 15 or 20 cords of 

 manure twice a year, we wouldn't pay much for fertilizers 1 

 think, and we would be just as good farmers as anybody. 

 It is the amount of manure used, and not the number of 

 acres cultivated that makes the prosperous farmer. The 

 secret of success in farming or gardening is found in the 

 size of the manure pile rather than in the large extent of 

 the farm or garden. 



It is not the strength of the soil that gives the gardens of 

 Arlington their fame, for much of their land is but a sandy 

 plain that we should think only fit to grow white beans, or 

 at best small corn, but it is horse manure and water that 

 gives them their immense crops ; they use 20 to 30 cords 

 to the acre, and perhaps more, and turn on the hose when- 

 ever it is needed, and it is no wonder that things grow, but 

 give us manure as plenty and water as free and we could 

 beat them out and out with our strong soils, and our land 

 would be growing better every year, while theirs would 

 soon run out if left alone. 



But to come back to onions again. 1 sowed three-fourths 

 of an acre in 188G on deep, black, heavy soil, somewhat 

 stony, that had been cultivated for five or six years, but 

 only a small portion of the piece had ever grown onions. 

 I was somewhat doubtful of getting a full crop the first year 

 on the land, as I heard so many say that " it took a number 

 of years to get an onion bed started so as to do well,'* and 

 the longer you sowed the same bed the better the results 



