182 TKUCK-FARMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



Potassium oxide 33.51 Ibs. 



Sodium oxide 1.90 



Magnesium oxide 3.60 



Calcium oxide 8.20 



Sesqui-oxide of iron 0.58 



Silicic acid 3.33 



Phosphoric acid 15.80 



Sulphuric acid 29.81 



Nitrogen 48.63 



The peculiar characteristic odor is due to a volatile or- 

 ganic compound containing sulphur. 



Onions are used medicinally as stimulants, diuretics, 

 and anthelmintics (worm medicines). Boiled or roasted, 

 they form emollient poultices. The fresh root irritates 

 or reddens the skin, and the expressed juice is sometimes 

 used in ear-ache and in rheumatism. 



It has generally been held, but erroneously, that the 

 onion could not be successfully grown from the seed, at 

 the South, and that, below about the fortieth degree, the 

 dry heat of our summers would dwarf the bulbs. Egypt 

 and the Barbary States produce, perhaps, the finest 

 onions in the world, several of the largest varieties having 

 originated in Tripoli. Large quantities are annually 

 exported from Portugal and Spain. The opinion pre- 

 vails in Germany that the seed, at least of some varieties, 

 will deteriorate, unless of southern growth; and those 

 of the Madeira onion, used in Bermuda for the crop so 

 popular in our Northern markets, are grown in the 

 south of France. I have grown most varieties of the 

 onion successfully for the past twenty-two years, having 

 produced, one season, the "Giant Rocca" at the rate of 

 ten hundred and fifty bushels per acre. The usual yield 

 is from three hundred to eight hundred bushels. At no 

 time of the year are the Northern markets entirely bare 

 of this indispensable vegetable, some variety in its green 

 or matured state being procurable. 



The aim of the Southern grower should be to slip his 

 crop into the market at a time when the supply from 

 other sections is most deficient. The first matured bulbs 



