Febiuftry, 1911 



per acre woulil he nearly 39 tons. At 

 £4 per ton, tliis would represent £13o 

 per acre for tiie matured crop, with 

 out counting the thinninps — all sale- 

 able for salads. If the plants are 

 thinned out to 6 in. instead of 3 in. 

 apart, there would be 87,120 bulbs lo 

 an acre. These would yield 19 tons 

 on the 8-oz. basis, and £76 per acre 

 at £4 per ton." 



From experiments carried out on 

 the "Times" Experimental Farm in 

 1910, the following results were ol)- 

 tained from a square chain of land 

 (,1-10 of an acre) from seed sown in 

 boxes in February, and transplanted 

 12 in. by 3 in. in April (174,240 bulbs 

 to the acre); — The varieties of onion 

 were: "Ironhead," 2,640 lb. { — 11.7 

 tons per acre) ; "Cream Globe," 2,878 

 lb. ( — 12.8 tons per acre); Wroxton," 

 3,960 lb. ( — 17.6 tons per acre); "Ailsa 

 Craig," 4.950 lb. ( — 22.1 tons per acre). 



— Keeping Onions. — 

 Onion growers usually find that if, 

 owing to a slow market, onions have 

 to be held over for any length af time, 

 the chief difficulty is their liability to 

 sprout. This must, if possible, be 

 avoided, because, whenever growth is 

 set up in any bulb or seed, that seed 

 deteriorates in proportion to the ex- 

 tent of growth. Anyone who has 

 tried to eat an old seed potato, which 

 has been inadvertently gathered up 

 with a new crop, will be aware of this 

 fact. Onions, when pulled, should not 

 be stored away at once, but should be 

 left on the ground for a few hours to 

 dry. Then they should be put away 

 dry, in the coolest shed or barn avail- 

 able. They require constant looking 

 over to sort out any bad ones, for, 

 as in the case of fruit, such as 

 oranges, apples, pears, &c., a single 

 rotting onion will infect all those in 

 its immediate neighbourhood. It 

 used to be the custom, and probably 

 is to this day the custom in the good, 

 old-fashioned farmhouses in the old 

 country, to hang the onions in strings 

 to the kitchen rafters in company 

 with hams, flitches of bacon, &c. This 

 hanging in strings is a good plan 

 where it is only a question of keeping 

 a few for home consumption, but. in 

 the case of many tons, the labour en- 

 tailed would not be recompensed by 

 the profit. 



In an article on this subject in a 

 French journal, mention is made of an 

 observation of great importance 

 which deserves the attention of 

 farmers and market gardeners. After 

 some experiments made on ten plots 



THE GARDEN AND PIE 



manured with chemical fertilizers, the 

 resulting crops of onions were put 

 away in bags and carefully numbered 

 with a view to planting them out in 

 the following spring to obtain seed 

 from them. When the time for plant- 

 ing had arrived, it was found, to the 

 astonishment of all concerned, that, 

 under identical conditions of tempera- 

 ture and light, certain lots had 

 ■■iprouted, and were exhausted by 

 young, premature shoots, whilst the 

 other lots still remained hard and 

 solid, without a trace of a shoot. The 

 collections having been carefully 

 ticketed, it was easy to prove that the 

 produce from plots deprived of sul- 

 phate of potash were exhausted by a 

 too-hurried vegetation, whilst that 

 which had received the potash manure 

 was perfectly preserved. Such experi- 

 ments are well worth repeating, and it 

 would be to the advantage of the agri- 

 cultural world if those few advanced 

 farfners who make such trials of fer- 

 tilizers would publish the results of 

 their experience. — "Queensland Jour- 

 nal." 



♦ 



The Dust Problem as Solved 

 in England. 



The advent of motor cars has effect- 

 ed a revolution in provincial rural 

 England which can scarcely yet be es- 

 timated fully. The dust nuisance, 

 though seemingly a small matter, was 

 rapidly creating a deep-rooted hos- 

 llitiy that was seriously menacing de- 

 velopment, and even calling for re- 

 actionary legislation. 



The prol^lem has been solved in two 

 ways. Firstly, where the traffic is ex- 

 tremely heavy, the roads have been re- 

 laid with tarred macadam, but this 

 method is too expensive for general 

 extension both in first cost and up- 

 keep. The other method is watering 

 or spraying. Watering is prohibitive 

 in cost because of the rapid evapora- 

 tion. Spraying with tar is effective, 

 hut very objectionable in hot wea- 

 ther. 



But a method is in use to a rapidly- 

 growing extent which combines the 

 advantages of watering with that of 

 tar-spraying at a reasonable cost, and 

 eliminates the disadvantages of tar. It 

 has long been known that calcium 

 chloride attracts the moisture which is 

 present in the driest atmosphere and 

 retains that moisture tenaciously. A 

 few years ago it was discovered that 

 if a road was watered with a solution 



iD. 121 



of calciliiTirchloride the dust became 

 impregnated with the calcium chloride 

 and the whole, instead of drying up, 

 remained damp for from two to three 

 weeks. A modification of the process 

 is to sprinkle the road with calcium 

 chloride as a powder, the result being 

 the same as the most perfect water- 

 ing, without the expense of watering, 

 except once in three or four weeks. 

 Calcium cidoride is a well-known 

 article of conmierce used largely in 

 cold stores, and sells for about £5 

 per ton. The mixture for watering is 

 about 1 to 5 of water, while the 

 powder entails no expense exfept the 

 cost of sprinkling every few weeks. 

 Calcium chloride is odourless, and 

 harmless to both man and beast. — 

 "Pastoralists' Review." 



CURLEW BRANDY. 



For years the Only Braauy uaou 

 in the Adelaide Hoapital. 



Sole Ag«nt« — 



OOWNER A 00. 



Wine and Spirit Merchanti and 

 Aerated Water Manufacturer3. 



43 WA\TMOITTH ST., CITY. 



