6 ONION-RAISING. 



summer long, for such soil will usually require two more 

 weedings than that on which weeds have not been allowed 

 to ripen their seed. To have to keep down witch-grass 

 with your fingers in an onion-bed, is a miserable business, 

 tearing up the onions and your patience at the same time : 

 better delay a year, and meanwhile clear the land thoroughly 

 by a diligent use of the cultivator and hoe, finishing in the 

 fall by throwing the land into ridges, that the freezings and 

 thawings of winter may act destructively on the roots of the 

 witch-grass. Should any scattered shoot of this grass show 

 itself in the spring, let the roots be carefully removed with 

 a fork or spade before the land is ploughed. 



It is not always necessary that the land should be turned 

 over ; take a five or six tined fork, drive it slanting into the 

 ground, and give a bit of a pry to loosen the hold of the 

 twitch. Keep rapidly repeating this all over the spot infested 

 with twitch-grass ; then, dropping the fork, you will find that 

 all, or nearly all, the long roots will come up easily by gently 

 pulling with the hand. If any break oif, be sure and dig 

 them out. 



When onions are planted on land full of the seed of 

 weeds, it is well, if the season is an early one, to give suffi- 

 cient time for the first crop of weed-seed to start before 

 planting the onions. 



In the Eastern States it is found, as a general rule, that 

 success with the first crop of onions is affected by the crop 

 which grew in the land the previous year, and that onions 

 will follow carrots better than any other crop ; next to car- 

 rots, corn and potatoes are ranked as good preparers of the 

 ground ; while to succeed well with onions where cabbage 

 or beets were raised the previous year, is comparatively 

 rare. Cabbage, mangolds, and beets draw heavily on the 



