10 ONION-RAISING. 



Other things being equal, the higher feeding the animal 

 receives, the better the manure. 



Wood-ashes are generally used in connection with other 

 manures at the rate of about two hundred bushels to the 

 acre. Wood-ashes should never be combined with other 

 manures, as it will set the ammonia free, and thus deteriorate 

 their quality. Use ashes either by scattering it on the sur- 

 face at the time of planting, or when the crop is about 

 half grown. 



In the vicinity of large towns, of all manures obtained out- 

 side the barnyard, night-soil is the cheapest. The first farmer 

 who used it in this locahty, comparatively but a few years 

 ago, was universally jeered at by his comrades ; but now 

 nearly all the various crops raised in the vicinity of the large 

 towns and cities of the North are fed largely on this manure. 



The effect of kelp (by this I mean the sea-manure which 

 is thrown up by the storms on very bold shores) , when used 

 as the principal manure, is to give a coarse onion and a late 

 crop, — so late as oftentimes to be in quite a green state at the 

 close of the season, requiring extra labor and care to get it 

 in market condition. In seasons of great drought, however, 

 kelp serves an excellent end, in so retarding the crop that it 

 is not prematurely ripened. In the excessively dry season of 

 1864, crops along the sea-coast manured with kelp, in many 

 instances yielded double those manured with barnyard and 

 other manures. 



The manure is managed most conveniently by dropping it 

 on the land in quite small heaps, at regular intervals, at con- 

 venient distance for spreading, which should be done at 

 •once. On all land that has not a sharp slope, it is the best 

 plan to apply stable-manure or wood-ashes in the fall. When 

 for onions, apply it after ploughing, and work it into the 



