Manure, 
Irrigation. 
Rotation of 
crops. 
Seed crop. 
Method of 
packing the 
eed, &c. 
unt of 
Amoun 
seed shipped, 
prices, &e 
4 
pumice stone, &c.; these are very porous, hence the plantations are 
particularly well drained. 
aa a rule only farm-yard manure is used, but in rare cases Peruvia 
o; and a special kind of manure first prepared for the Cochineal 
plantations and known as Peus guano, is employed with very good 
results in some parts of the islan 
The young plants require Tenani phe oo the seedling before 
transplanting being well soaked eight or ten times. 
The strain of onions is preserved from ine by pisernomng the 
onion crop with Indian corn, or more usually with potatoes, or 
planting the onions in newly cleared ground. Thus the same field 
does not bear onions in two successive years. 
Some of the bulbs from each crop of onions are set aside for the 
production of seed. These bulbs are replanted sometime during 
i nee of i 
part fr 
greater than exists between the onions grown for the bulb, which are 
planted too near one another to produce good “heads.” Before planting 
the bulbs for seed, the top of each bulb is sliced off: by this means the 
number of heads arising from each bulb is increased ; sometimes as 
many as 10 heads will grow from one bulb. The young heads begin 
u 
matures it is picked ; pa onion grower goes over the field every day 
and picks out the ripe ones. The heads are then spread on sheets and 
dried in the sun, and the seed is separated by rubbing with the hand. 
Ahout 1 lb. of seed is produced from every 20 onions, but the red 
summer of the same year, and that last year’s seed will not 
germinate. ]* 
The seed for export to the Bermudas is packed in air-tight tins 
which are soldered down. These are shipped towards the end of July, 
vid Liverpool and New York. Great pains are taken to ensure that the 
seed is new, though as no difference can be detected between new and 
old seed, the eal are pict dependent on the honesty of the 
cultivators not to m 
here has been no hte ei in the amount of onion seed exported 
from thè islands in the last few years. The amount shipped during the 
las t three years is roughly as follows :— 
- - 1,600 Ibs. white seed. 3,300 Ibs. red seed. 
Tay SED x 4,200 
[ae rea “3 4,000 , 
It will be noticed that the amount of red seed shipped i is almost 
double ie amount of white. 
The prices are about 3s. per lb. for the white, and 1s. 6d. per Ib. for 
the red seed. 
By far the largest amount of seed exported is sent to the Bermudas, 
though a small but steadily increasing amount is supplied tə the United 
States; and it is worthy of remark that the merchant who ships ba 
Mr. Mackay, United States Consul at Santa Cruz, has cet ho Si 
3 

* 1 Fiais Andrieux’s standard work, “ The Vegetable erpi it is stated 
that onion seed does not lose its germinating power for two yea 
