82 GARDEKISTG FOR -XOTOG AKD OLD. 



not, plow it, and then roll, and harrow, and roll again, 

 until every lump is broken that the harrow and roller 

 can reach; then plow again, and if you should turn under 

 twenty or thirty loads of well-rotted manure, so much the 

 better. A hundred loads to the acre will do no harm, 

 provided it is thoroughly mixed with the soil. In fact, 

 it is probably this intimate admixture of the manure with 

 the soil, that makes old onion land so much better than 

 new. Work in, therefore, all the manure you can; you 

 can not put on too much, and you can not, at all events 

 you certainly will not, work it in too thoroughly. 



If the land is properly prepared in the autumn, it is 

 not necessary or desirable to plow it again in the spring; 

 it might be gone over with a gang-plow or cultivator, or 

 if the soil is light, a good harrow will be sufficient. It is 

 very essential to get in the seed as soon as the frost is out 

 of the ground. In fact, the onions may be sown to ad- 

 vantage as soon as the first two or three inches are thawed 

 out and moderately dry, even though the sub-soil is still 

 a mass of frozen earth. Onions are quite hardy, and will 

 stand an ordinary frost without injury. 



In sowing onions with a drill, it is very desirable to 

 have the tube, or coulter, which makes the drill row in 

 which the seed is deposited, as narrow as possible. It 

 was thought at one time better to scatter the seed in a 

 wide drill mark, but there is nothing to be gained by it, 

 and the wider it is, the greater space is there which we 

 can not reach with the hoe, and which we must weed 

 with the fingers. Our drill makers do not seem to 

 understand this, or instead of the rough cast-iron shank, 

 which many of them have hitherto furnished, they would 

 make a bright, sharp, narrow steel coulter, which would 

 not clog or make too wide a drill mark. 



As soon as the rows can be traced, go through with a 

 hoe. It will do the onions good, even if there are no weeds. 

 Some people recommend going over the land with a steel 



