PREPARING THE SOIL. 5 



will mature late, if it matures at all, giving a large proportion 

 of that dread of the onion-grower, scaHions, or "scullions," 

 as farmers term them, meaning those whose growth runs 

 mostly to the neck, forming little or no bulb, or bottom. 

 With plenty of manure, onions will thrive well on soil that 

 is very gravelly. I have seen very large crops grown on 

 Marblehead Neck, on land so stony, that, after a rain, on an 

 area of many square yards, not a particle of soil could be 

 seen, nothing but small angular fragments of porphyry, with 

 thrifty onions springing, as it were, out of the very rocks. 

 Let it be understood, however, that this soil was not of a 

 leachy nature, but rested on a hard-pan bottom. The area 

 of land selected should be free of all large stones, as such 

 interfere seriously with the straightness of the rows, the 

 planting, hoeing, and general cultivation of so small-sized 

 a product. Ultimately, good cultivators clear their onion- 

 grounds of large, loose rocks by blasting or sinking them : 

 obviously, the sooner this is done the larger are the returns 

 received from such judicious investments. The land should 

 be laid out in as nearly a square as practicable, as this facil- 

 itates estimates of manure, seed, and crops, gives greater 

 regularity to the work, and economizes in the cultivation 

 of a crop which requires a great deal of passing over. To 

 protect the crop from the washing of heavy showers, the 

 land should be level, or very nearly so, otherwise a rush of 

 water will bare the roots of some, and heap the earth around 

 the necks of others, to the injury of each. 



PREPARING THE SOIL. 



DON'T PLANT a weedy soil to onions, or land which 

 abounds in witch or couch grass, or chickweed ; if 

 you do, you will repent it on your hands and knees all 



